JNCC seabird distribution and abundance data (all trips) from ESAS database

Joint Nature Conservation Committee (United Kingdom)
Nederlands Instituut voor Onderzoek der Zee (the Netherlands)
Ornis Consult (Denmark)
National Institute for Coastal and Marine Management/RIKZ (the Netherlands)
Nederlands Zeevogelgroep (the Netherlands)
Instituut voor Bos- en Natuuronderzoek (the Netherlands)
Instituut voor Natuur Behoud (Belgium)
National Environmental Research Institute (Denmark)
Norsk Institutt for Naturforskning (Norway)
Vogelwarte Helgoland (Germany)

The European Seabirds at Sea (ESAS) database was established in 1991 as a collaboration between individuals and institutes who had collected data on the distribution of seabirds and marine mammals in north-west European offshore areas. The most recent version of this database contains over two million records which were collected over 25 years.

The founding aim of this project was to merge data from different collaborators and use these to publish an atlas depicting vulnerable concentrations of seabirds to oil pollution. Subsequently, these data have been used for a wide variety of research purposes. The collaboration has also developed and defined common standards in data capture, processing and storage.

[2020-10-01] The following invalid species names were corrected according to the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).
Larus ridibundus (176835) => Chroicocephalus ridibundus (824041)
Corvus monedula (179746) => Coloeus monedula (916629)
Little Gull: Larus minutus (176840) => Hydrocoloeus minutus (824065)
Little Tern: Sterna albifrons (176899) => Sternula albifrons (824126)
Mediterranean Gull: Larus melanocephalus (176858) => Ichthyaetus melanocephalus (824070)
Red Phalarope: Phalaropus fulicaria (554376) => Phalaropus fulicarius (176734)
Sandwich Tern: Sterna sandvicensis (176927) => Thalasseus sandvicensis (176932)
Turtles: Testudines (173749) => Testudines (948936)
Phylloscopus sibilatrix (179847) => Phylloscopus sibillatrix (916708)
Sula bassanus (174711) => Morus bassanus (174712)
Larus sabini (176865) => Xema sabini (176866)
Saxicola torquata (554448) => Saxicola torquatus (726114)

[2015-03-24] A few records had a wrong animal count of zero. The value is replaced with a blank representing species presence only.

This dataset represents a subset of version 4.1 of the ESAS database, which is composed of three related tables. As some attributes from the original dataset are dropped in the public view, certain records may appear as duplicate observations. This, however, is not the case, as these records will have varying attribute values in the original database (e.g., age/plumage/behavior, etc.) and should therefore be treated as separate entities.



Species notes:

Species EURING code 462 (noted [sp_obs] field in the dataset) is Puffinus puffinus mauretanicus. As ITIS doesn't register this species, it is represented as Puffinus puffinus (TSN 174555), instead.

Species EURING code 460 (noted the [sp_obs] field in the dataset) is Puffinus puffinus whose counterpart in ITIS is also Puffinus puffinus (TSN 174555).



This dataset includes multiple trips whose survey methods vary. Please consult the data provider for the proper use of the dataset.

Overview

This dataset includes multiple survey trips from the ESAS version 4 database. Data were collected using a variety of methods and from different platforms.

Attributes described below represent those in the original dataset provided by the provider.
Only minimum required attributes are visible and downloadable online. Other attributes may be obtained upon provider's permission.

Attributes in dataset

Attribute (table column)	Description
trip_code	definition not provided
tripkey	A unique number to identify each record in the trip tables.
date	The date of the observation.
time	The time of the observation.
posmark	A character to represent the status of the base record along the line transect.
latitude	Latitude in decimal degrees.
longitude	Longitude in decimal degrees.
seastate	Sea state
visibility	Visibility
floating	The presence of fishing vessels during part of the recording period.
trans_ind	Transect indicator. 1: Out of transect. 2: In transect.
sp_obs	EURING species code.
tsn	ITIS taxonomic serial number.
scientific	Scientific name.
rank	Rank of the species.
number	The number of birds, cetaceans or turtles counted or estimated for each record.
behaviour	What the species was doing when observed.
age	Age
plumage	Plumage/moult
distance	This is the distance at which birds were observed.
dir_ass	The code represents the direction in which the bird or cetacean is travelling.
associatn	Associations between related individuals
prey	Species that the observed animal was feeding on, if any.
geom	definition not provided
oid	Unique ID number (generated by SEAMAP)