The status of the world’s seabirds has deteriorated at an alarming rate over the past decades, with currently nearly half of the species experiencing significant declines. Nevertheless, for many species there remains a fundamental lack of knowledge on spatial population structure or even taxonomy, which is greatly hampering conservation management.
In his PhD project Oliver Kersten is developing a genome-wide perspective of modern population structure in the iconic Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica). This work will provide the basis for the identification of relevant conservation units and help resolve the species’ long debated taxonomy. Once the population genomics of current populations is established we will start looking back in time, reconstructing past puffin populations during the past 100s to 1000s of years.
In this project we collaborate closely with Tycho Anker-Nillsen, Hallvard Strøm and many others from the SEAPOP, SEATRACK and other programs.