The use of eggs and diet of Great skuas as biomonitors in the Faroe Islands

Abstract

Aims: The initial aim of the thesis is to establish baseline information about diet and pollutant load of great skuas in the Faroe Islands. With reference to historical accounts, it is possible that the diet of great skuas in the Faroes differs greatly in relation to the diet of great skuas in Shetland. If this is found to be so, it opens up an additional avenue of investigation of diet’s influence on breeding performance and pollutant pathways, An extensive temporal and spatial analysis of great skua egg sizes will be investigated with these ecological differences in mind. Also if a significant ecological dissimilarity between great skuas breeding in Shetland and Faroes can be established, this will allow for a disentanglement of different pollutant pathways, and in this regard the great skua as a biomonitor is discussed.

Date of Award	2017
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Glasgow
Sponsors	Research Council Faroe Islands
Supervisor	Ruedi G. Nager (Supervisor), Robert W. Furness (Supervisor) & Maria Dam (Supervisor)