Seabird Density Surfaces for UK Waters During Breeding Season

Joint Nature Conservation Committee provides kriged density surfaces for all modelled seabird species in UK waters. The data is derived from ESAS (European Seabirds at Sea) survey data and focuses on the breeding season. It was last updated on 2026-04-14.

Use Cases

• Modeling seabird population hotspots based on kriged density surfaces.
• Assessing marine spatial planning impacts on seabirds based on breeding season distribution.
• Conducting species distribution modeling for conservation based on ESAS survey data.
• Analyzing spatial overlap between seabird density and human activities in UK waters.

Strengths

• Data is sourced from the authoritative ESAS (European Seabirds at Sea) survey program.
• Provides a processed, kriged surface integrating multiple modelled species.
• Has a specific temporal focus on the biologically critical breeding season.
• Explicitly covers the spatial domain of UK waters.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic and temporal bias inherent to the ESAS survey methodology and UK coverage.

Provenance

Source

Joint Nature Conservation Committee

Collection Method

Kriging of density surfaces from ESAS (European Seabirds at Sea) survey data.

Time Range

Breeding season (specific years not provided).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-14 09:45:19.443290; freshness should be verified.

Geography

UK waters.