UNH Researchers Receive National Science Foundation Funding to Study Shoals Seabirds

With funding of just under $1 million from the National Science Foundation, UNH researchers will dive deep into the diets of four types of seabirds at the Isles of Shoals — common terns, roseate terns, great black-backed gulls, and black guillemots — to better manage and protect these threatened and endangered species. 

“We want to know how these different seabirds that behave and find food in different ways and feed on different critters respond to changes in available food,” says Nathan Furey, associate professor of biological sciences and the principal investigator on the grant. “We will then assess how behavior, and flexibility in behavior, ultimately affects if a seabird is successful in getting their chicks to survive and fledge.”

Furey and his collaborators — Elizabeth Craig, UNH director of seabird research and academic coordinator of the Shoals Marine Lab, and Natasha Gownaris of Gettysburg College — will use powerful technologies like GPS to track the birds’ movements, feeding, and reproductive success.