@article{discovery10204880,
          volume = {34},
            note = {{\copyright} 2025 The Author(s). Global Ecology and Biogeography published by John Wiley \& Sons Ltd.


This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.},
           month = {February},
          number = {2},
       publisher = {Wiley},
            year = {2025},
           title = {Global Marine Flyways Identified for Long-Distance Migrating Seabirds From Tracking Data},
         journal = {Global Ecology and Biogeography},
             url = {https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.70004},
            issn = {1466-822X},
          author = {Morten, Joanne M and Carneiro, Ana PB and Beal, Martin and Bonnet-Lebrun, Anne-Sophie and Dias, Maria P and Rouyer, Marie-Morgane and Harrison, Autumn-Lynn and Gonz{\'a}lez-Sol{\'i}s, Jacob and Jones, Victoria R and Garcia Alonso, Virginia A and Antolos, Michelle and Arata, Javier A and Barbraud, Christophe and Bell, Elizabeth A and Bell, Mike and Bose, Samhita and Broni, Sharyn and de L Brooke, Michael and Butchart, Stuart HM and Carlile, Nicholas and Catry, Paulo and Catry, Teresa and Charteris, Matt and Cherel, Yves and Clark, Bethany L and Clay, Thomas A and Cole, Nik C and Conners, Melinda G and Debski, Igor and Delord, Karine and Egevang, Carsten and Elliot, Graeme and Esefeld, Jan and Facer, Colin and Fayet, Annette L and Fijn, Ruben C and Fischer, Johannes H and Franklin, Kirsty A and Gilg, Olivier and Gill, Jennifer A and Granadeiro, Jos{\'e} P and Guilford, Tim and Handley, Jonathan M and Hanssen, Sveinn A and Hawkes, Lucy A and Hedd, April and Jaeger, Audrey and Jones, Carl G and Jones, Christopher W and Kopp, Matthias and Krietsch, Johannes and Landers, Todd J and Lang, Johannes and Le Corre, Matthieu and Mallory, Mark L and Masello, Juan F and Maxwell, Sara M and Medrano, Fernando and Milit{\~a}o, Teresa and Millar, Craig D and Moe, B{\o}rge and Montevecchi, William A and Navarro-Herrero, Leia and Neves, Ver{\'o}nica C and Nicholls, David G and Nicoll, Malcolm AC and Norris, Ken and O'Dwyer, Terence W and Parker, Graham C and Peter, Hans-Ulrich and Phillips, Richard A and Quillfeldt, Petra and Ramos, Jaime A and Ramos, Ra{\"u}l and Rayner, Matt J and Rexer-Huber, Kalinka and Ronconi, Robert A and Ruhomaun, Kevin and Ryan, Peter G and Sagar, Paul M and Saldanha, Sarah and Schmidt, Niels M and Schultz, Hendrik and Shaffer, Scott A and Stenhouse, Iain J and Takahashi, Akinori and Tatayah, Vikash and Taylor, Graeme A and Thompson, David R and Thompson, Theo and van Bemmelen, Rob and Vicente-Sastre, Diego and Vigf{\'u}sdottir, Freyd{\'i}s and Walker, Kath J and Watts, Jim and Weimerskirch, Henri and Yamamoto, Takashi and Davies, Tammy E},
        abstract = {Aim:
To identify the broad-scale oceanic migration routes ('marine flyways') used by multiple pelagic, long-distance migratory seabirds based on a global compilation of tracking data. //

Location:
Global. //

Time Period:
1989-2023. //

Major Taxa Studied:
Seabirds (Families: Phaethontidae, Hydrobatidae, Diomedeidae, Procellariidae, Laridae and Stercorariidae).//

Methods:
We collated a comprehensive global tracking dataset that included the migratory routes of 48 pelagic and long-distance migrating seabird species across the Atlantic, Indian, Pacific and Southern Oceans. We grouped individuals that followed similar routes, independent of species or timings of migration, using a dynamic time warping clustering approach. We visualised the routes of each cluster using a line density analysis and used knowledge of seabird spatial ecology to combine the clusters to identify the broad-scale flyways followed by most pelagic migratory seabirds tracked to-date at an ocean-basin scale.//

Results:
Six marine flyways were identified across the world's oceans: the Atlantic Ocean Flyway, North Indian Ocean Flyway, East Indian Ocean Flyway, West Pacific Ocean Flyway, Pacific Ocean Flyway and Southern Ocean Flyway. Generally, the flyways were used bidirectionally, and individuals either followed sections of a flyway, a complete flyway, or their movements linked two or more flyways. Transhemispheric figure-of-eight routes in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and a circumnavigation flyway in the Southern Ocean correspond with major wind-driven ocean currents.//

Main Conclusions:
The marine flyways identified demonstrate that pelagic seabirds have similar and repeatable migration routes across ocean-basin scales. Our study highlights the need to account for connectivity in seabird conservation and provides a framework for international cooperation.//},
        keywords = {biologging, conservation, ecological connectivity, flyways, migration, seabirds}
}