Seabird Populations Under Global Change
A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818). This special issue belongs to the section "Biodiversity Loss & Dynamics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 July 2026
Special Issue Editors
Interests: animal ecology; fisheries-seabirds interactions; Procellariiformes; colonial seabirds; breeding ecology; remote sensing; marine top predators; biomonitoring; at-sea distribution of seabirds; bird population trends
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: wildlife ecology; community ecology; bird population dynamics; human dimensions of wildlife; biodiversity assessment; urban bird communities; waterbird behavior; conservation conflicts
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to invite you to contribute to a Special Issue of MDPI’s Diversity, an open access peer-reviewed journal that has significantly advanced the field since 2009. This Special Issue, “Seabird Populations Under Global Change,” aims to highlight key aspects of environmental change and the cumulative impacts of human activities on seabirds and their habitats.
Seabirds are recognized as important bioindicators of marine ecosystems, serving as valuable tools in assessing environmental disturbance and the impacts of climate change on marine life. They are consequently used as key species in conservation and management planning at both global and regional levels. Currently, seabird populations are increasingly threatened by severe weather conditions induced by climate change. The persistence of this threat has become evident over the past two decades. Additionally, seabirds face various other threats that may have cumulative effects. For example, the impacts of climate change on seabirds are often linked to other issues, especially the loss of food sources due to overfishing. It is also expected to affect the spread of vector-borne pathogens and ectoparasites. Therefore, fully understanding the complex interactions among seabird ecology, oceanographic conditions, prey availability, fishing practices, disease dynamics, and human societies remains a challenge.
We seek submissions of original research or review articles that examine the response of seabird populations to climate and related environmental changes, as well as a broad spectrum of human-induced impacts on seabird species.
Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Climate change-induced severe weather conditions as a critical threat to seabirds;
- Intensified human impacts (e.g., fishery activities, invasive species, pollution, habitat degradation, tourism industry) on seabirds;
- The availability of prey resources and their influence on the at-sea distribution of seabirds, including foraging and migratory movements;
- Patterns of spread for vector-borne pathogens and ectoparasites on seabirds;
- Seabird ecology from the coast to the open seas;
- Human dimensions of seabird conservation.
Dr. Georgios Karris
Prof. Dr. Vasilios Liordos
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diversity is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- seabird conservation
- seabird ecology
- marine ecosystem
- climate effects
- human-induced impacts
- fisheries–seabird interactions
- food sources
- vector-borne pathogens
- ectoparasites
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