Development of a novel physiology tag to measure oxygen consumption in free-ranging seabirds: research
This project took initial steps to develop a new type of tag that can measure energy expenditure of seabirds. To do this, the project adapted a Near-infrared spectroscopy system for humans, that can measure muscle oxygen saturation, and deployed the new tags on European shags.
Acknowledgements
The work was funded by the Scottish Government, with additional resources from the Natural Environment Research Council (grant number: SMRU1001). We thank NatureScot, the Joint Nature Conservancy Council, and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds for their participation on the project steering group, and Janelle Braithwaite at Marine Scotland Planning and Policy and Tom Evans at Marine Scotland Science for support and project guidance. We also wish to thank Alice Carravieri and Jonathan Green of the University of Liverpool for the loan, programming and data downloading of the accelerometer loggers, NatureScot for permission to undertake the fieldwork on the Isle of May, and Sean McHugh and Steve Balfour at SMRU Instrumentation Group for their assistance in the design and build of the NIRS tags.
Contact
Email: ScotMER@gov.scot
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