Kittiwake At-Sea Density Surfaces for UK Waters in the Breeding Season

Krigged density surfaces for the kittiwake seabird during its breeding season. The data covers UK waters and is derived from ESAS survey data. The dataset was last updated on 2026-04-14 by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

Use Cases

• Modeling seabird habitat suitability based on at-sea density surfaces.
• Assessing potential impacts of marine activities on kittiwake populations based on spatial density data.
• Integrating bird distribution data with oceanographic models for ecosystem studies.
• Supporting marine spatial planning and conservation efforts in UK waters.

Strengths

• Data is processed using kriging, a geostatistical interpolation method.
• Spatial coverage is explicitly defined as UK waters.
• Temporal scope is specified as the breeding season.

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 source and UK focus.

Provenance

Source

Joint Nature Conservation Committee

Collection Method

Kriged surfaces derived from ESAS (European Seabirds at Sea) survey data.

Time Range

Breeding season (specific years not provided).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-14 09:45:15.852146; freshness should be verified.

Geography

UK waters.