Publications

Bates, A., Primack, R., Biggar, B., Bird, T., Clinton, M., Command, R., Richards, C., et.al. 2021. Global COVID-19 lockdown highlights humans as both threats and custodians of the environment. Biological Conservation. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2021.109175

The global lockdown to mitigate COVID-19 pandemic health risks has altered human interactions with nature. Here, we report immediate impacts of changes in human activities on wildlife and environmental threats during the early lockdown months of 2020, based on 877 qualitative reports and 332 quantitative assessments from 89 different studies. Hundreds of reports of unusual species observations from around the world suggest th...

Hentati-Sundberg, J., Berglund, P.A., Hejdström, A. and Olsson, O. 2021. COVID-19 lockdown reveals tourists as seabird guardians. Biological Conservation, p.108950. Vancouver. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2021.108950

The widespread lockdowns put in place to limit the spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) offers a rare opportunity in understanding how human presence influence ecosystems. Using data from long-term seabird monitoring, we reveal a previously concealed guarding effect by tourist groups on an iconic seabird colony in the Baltic Sea. The absence of tourists in 2020 lead to a sevenfold increase in presence of white-tai...

Hentati‐Sundberg, J., Olin, A.B., Evans, T.J., Isaksson, N., Berglund, P.A. and Olsson, O., 2020. A mechanistic framework to inform the spatial management of conflicting fisheries and top predators. Journal of Applied Ecology.

Conflicts of interest between resource extraction and conservation are widespread, and negotiating such conflicts, or trade‐offs, is a key issue for ecosystem managers. One such trade‐off is resource competition between fisheries and marine top predators. Managing this trade‐off has so far been difficult due to a lack of knowledge regarding the amount and distribution of prey required by top predators. Here, we develop a fram...

Evans, T.J., Young, R.C., Watson, H, Olsson, O., Åkesson, S. 2020. Effects of back‐mounted biologgers on condition, diving and flight performance in a breeding seabird. Journal of Avian Biology, Volume 51, Issue 11, November 2020, https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.02509

Biologging devices are providing detailed insights into the behaviour and movement of animals in their natural environments. It is usually assumed that this method of gathering data does not impact on the behaviour observed. However, potential negative effects on birds have rarely been investigated before field‐based studies are initiated. Seabirds which both fly and use pursuit diving may be particularly sensitive to increase...

Isaksson N, Evans TJ, Olsson O, Åkesson S. 2019. Foraging behavior of Razorbills Alca torda during chick-rearing at the largest colony in the Baltic Sea. - Bird Study 10.1080/00063657.2018.1563044

Foraging behaviour in the Razorbill Alca torda during breeding was similar to that found elsewhere, aside from dive shape. The aim of this study is to investigate the foraging behaviour of Razorbills during the breeding season at the largest colony in the central Baltic Sea. We used a combination of global positioning system (GPS) and time-depth recorder (TDR) devices were used on Razorbills breeding on the island of Stora K...

Keogan K, Daunt F,… Olsson. O,… et al. 2018. Global phenological insensitivity to shifting ocean temperatures among seabirds. - Nature Climate Change 8:313-318. 10.1038/s41558-018-0115-z

Reproductive timing in many taxa plays a key role in determining breeding productivity, and is often sensitive to climatic conditions. Current climate change may alter the timing of breeding at different rates across trophic levels, potentially resulting in temporal mismatch between the resource requirements of predators and their prey. This is of particular concern for higher-trophic-level organisms, whose longer generation t...

Hentati-Sundberg, J., Evans, T., Osterblom, H., Hjelm, J., Larson, N., Bakken, V., Svenson, A. and Olsson, O., 2018. Fish and seabird spatial distribution and abundance at the largest seabird colony in the Baltic Sea. Marine Ornithology, 46, pp.61-68.

They studied the at-sea distribution of two auks (Common Murre Uria aalge, Razorbill Alca torda), two gulls (Lesser Black-backed Gull Larus fuscus, Herring Gull Larus argentatus), and Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo during the peak breeding season of 2014 around Stora Karlsö, the main Baltic Sea seabird colony. Simultaneously, they quantified forage fish abundance and distribution using hydro-acoustics and pelagic trawli...

Olsson, O., J. Hentati-Sundberg. 2017. Population trends and status of four seabird species (Uria aalge, Alca torda, Larus fuscus, Larus argentatus) at Stora Karlsö in the Baltic Sea. Ornis Svecica 27: 64-93.

The island of Stora Karlsö hosts the largest colonies of fish-eating seabirds in the Baltic Sea. However, recent and reliable estimates of the number of breeding pairs of the main species have been missing. Based on a complete census in 2014, we estimated the number of Common Guillemots Uria aalge to 15 700 pairs, more than half (up to 70%) of the Baltic Sea population. The number has almost tripled since the early 1970s and t...

Österblom H., Olsson O. 20017. CCAMLR: An ecosystem approach to the Southern Ocean in the Anthropocene. In: Dodds K., Hemmings A. D., Roberts P., editors. Handbook on the Politics on the Antarctic; p. 408-421.

A newly published book, Handbook on the Politics of Antarctica , focuses on a wide range of topics on the governance, geopolitics, international law, cultural studies, and history of Antarctica. It includes chapters from experts from all over the globe, and converges top social sciences and humanities research on the Antarctic and Southern Ocean. Centre researchers Henrik Österblom and Olof Olsson, also the centre’s deputy ...

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This report was produced by the independent, tripartite, Working Group on Resilience Management and the Circular Economy working under the aegis of the High Level Group on Innovation Policy Management . Its members – senior civil servants drawn from the European and national administrations, experts and managers from leading innovative companies and prominent scholars from academia – have participated in its work in their pe...