Sign in

Rob van Bemmelen

@robvanbemmelen.bsky.social
451 followers 246 following 20 posts

Dad, birder, sound recorder, ecologist mainly studying (North Sea) seabirds, tracking terns, skuas and phalaropes.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Marie-Morgane Rouyer @mariemrouyer.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
🚨 New paper in @consletters.bsky.social, one of the main outputs of my #PhD ! 🥳 You can read it here 👉 doi.org/10.1111/con4... Summary below
Paper presentation - Highly mobile seabirds reveal areas of conservation importance across the Atlantic Ocean
26228
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Michelle Wille @duckswabber.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Revisiting the Sandwich Tern outbreaks - mortality biased towards older individuals (40% mortality) vs young individuals (5-10%). = removed most experienced individuals from the population. No sex bias observed. 👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
22012
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Christopher Pollock @tonyauk.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
New paper! We simulated foraging trips of Northern gannets at Bass Rock to decipher what information individuals use to keep returning to the same foraging patches. Memory was the strongest driver, but it wasn't the whole story. 🧵👇 doi.org/10.1186/s404... 1/5
Figure showing Northern gannet foraging tracks, movement states, and prey distribution. (A) Map of GPS-tracked foraging trips from Bass Rock (black triangle) overlaid in grey, with representative tracks from three individuals highlighted (orange, green, and purple). Semi-transparent polygons indicate each individual's core foraging utilisation distributions, illustrating differences in individual foraging site fidelity and overlap (overlap values shown in the legend). (B) Example foraging trip classified into behavioural states: outbound travel (yellow), foraging (red), inbound travel (blue), and resting (light blue), with arrows indicating travel direction. (C) Enlarged view of a foraging segment showing tortuous movement characteristic of area-restricted search. (D) Spatial map of simulated prey density, with darker purple indicating higher prey availability.
14727
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Michelle Wille @duckswabber.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Finally published, is the outcome of surveys and HPAI detections in skua species in 2024/25. Detections as far south as Marguarite Bay. 👉 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
0117
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Patrick Jansen 🐾 @patrickjansen.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Ik heb getekend tegen afzwakking van de Europese natuurbescherming. handsoffnature.eu#take-action
handsoffnature.eu
Hands Off Nature – Defend Europe’s Forests, Rivers & Wildlife
Stop the dismantling of European environmental protections. Stand up for forests, wildlife, clean air, and safe water - our nature depends on it.
28235
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Rosemarie Kentie @rooskentie.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Lesser black-backed gulls avoid offshore wind farms - but not because they are attracted by the fishing boats outside of those windfarms New article on #seabirds #ornithology besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @robvanbemmelen.bsky.social, @judyshamounb.bsky.social
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Offshore wind farm avoidance by a discard‐feeding seabird is independent of local fishing activity
Fishing is not allowed within wind farms; therefore, discard-feeding seabirds may appear to avoid wind farm areas. We found that most Lesser Black-backed Gulls avoided the wind farm area, but not eac....
22518
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Chris van Swaay @chrisvanswaay.eurosky.social · 09/03/2026
Smoothed trend 1992-2025 of most Dutch butterflies from Dutch Butterfly Monitoring transects. The color indicates the linear trend over the whole period. Each line starts at a value of 100. The black dot gives the 2025 index value.
23412
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Global Flyway Network @globalflyway.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
De EU bereidt een cadeautje voor pesticidenreuzen voor. Dit is een en al een nachtmerrie voor de rest van ons. Ja, voor goedkeuring—voor altijd. Ja, zonder veiligheidstests. En, ja, dit is echt. Teken nu om het te stoppen. action.wemove.eu/sign/2025-12...
action.wemove.eu
Bescherm ons voedsel tegen giftige pesticiden
De EU bereidt een cadeautje voor pesticidenreuzen voor. Dit is een en al een nachtmerrie voor de rest van ons. Een nieuw voorstel kan ervoor zorgen dat giftige pesticiden, waaronder glyfosaat, voor al...
011
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Bird Conservation International @bci-journal.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
🧮 How many Arctic Jaegers are there around the world? 📝 An updated global estimate of breeding population size for this migratory seabird: doi.org/10.1017/S095... #BirdConservation #Ornithology #Research #Arctic #Skua #Jaeger #migration #population
Arctic Jaeger or Arctic Skua sitting on ice against soft blue background. Updated population estimate published in new BCI paper. © Ondrej Prosicky/Shutterstock
01711
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
BTO | British Trust for Ornithology @btobirds.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
1/ Arctic Skuas are on the UK Birds of Conservation Concern Red List. But new BTO-led research reveals just how much we don’t know about their numbers globally. Discover more. ⬇️ #Ornithology #Seabirds 📖 www.bto.org/Arctic-Skua-...
Image of an Arctic Skua with wording at the bottom that reads: New Study. Global population status of the migratory Holarctic species Arctic Skua. www.bto.org/Arctic-Skua-Populations. BTO logo top right.
14325
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Paolo Crosetto @paolocrosetto.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
What is the most profitable industry in the world, this side of the law? Not oil, not IT, not pharma. It's *scientific publishing*. We call this the Drain of Scientific Publishing. Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 Background: doi.org/10.1162/qss_... Thread @markhanson.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy 👇
8334238
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Swiss Ornithological Institute @vogelwarte.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
Our team analysed the correlation of N deposition with numbers of territories of 112 Swiss breeding birds species. Insectivous and herbivorous species were more negatively associated with N deposistion, as well as ground-nesting species. Read more here: doi.org/10.1111/cobi...
0104
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 25/10/2025
Hey seabird folks - have you ever thought "*ANOTHER* talk about <species X>?!" So did we. So we reviewed 3000 conference abstracts to see which species get the spotlight. Huge work from @ingridpollet.bsky.social with me and @seabirdsentinel.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Perspective
Who gets the spotlight? Disparities in seabird research attention at scientific conferences
Ingrid L. Pollet a b
Alexander L. Bond b c
Jennifer L. Lavers b c d
Highlights
• Decade-long review of >2,950 seabird conference abstracts.
• Over 30% of seabird species are rarely or never featured at scientific conferences
• Several seabirds listed as Critically Endangered have received little or no attention.
• 16 seabird species are over-represented in conferences.
• Southern Hemisphere seabirds require greater research attention.
210135
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Edana Lord @edanalord.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
I'm super excited to share our new paper on Norwegian lemming genomics just published in @pnas.org!! Read the paper here: www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10.... Summary ⬇️
34119
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Michelle Wille @duckswabber.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
Mass mortality of Black-legged Kittiwakes, Norway, 2023: more than 15,000 birds dead, population reduction of 50%. genotype EA-2022-BB 👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
03121
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Raoul Beunen @raoulbeunen.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
Zoals verwacht komt de Ministeriële commissie Economie en Natuurherstel niet met een oplossing voor de stikstofproblematiek. Het kabinet kiest ervoor om de natuur verder te laten verslechteren en ondernemers nog eens 10 jaar in onzekerheid te laten zitten. nos.nl/artikel/2564...
nos.nl
Kabinet wil uitstoot stikstof in 2035 halveren
Vrijdag komt het kabinet met de contouren van het nieuwe stikstofbeleid. Leidend daarbij wordt de uitstoot van stikstof bij de bron, dus bij boeren en bedrijven zelf.
1013685
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Jeroen Reneerkens @jeroen-reneerkens.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
🚨Publication in @globalchangebio.bsky.social by Lameris et al. → Early snowmelt = earlier egg-laying, but only 2 waterfowl arrived earlier. → Over time, most arrived earlier—regardless of snowmelt or laying. → Why? Faster migration: shorter stopovers = earlier arrival. 🔗 doi.org/10.1111/gcb....
doi.org
Migratory Birds Advance Spring Arrival and Egg‐Laying in the Arctic, Mostly by Travelling Faster
A warming climate is affecting the phenology of life on earth, including when birds migrate and start breeding. We show that earlier arrival is a general pattern also for birds travelling to the Arct...
02415
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Steffen Oppel @steffopp.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
NEW PAPER in #ornithology shows that the survival of migratory #seabirds (Arctic skuas) has decreased in the last decades, but is not related to large-scale ocean indices: www.int-res.com/abstracts/me...
01810
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Working on avian vagrancy? @pauldufour80.bsky.social and myself are organising a symposium at the EOU Conference 2025 at Bangor University, Wales (UK) from 18-22 August 2025 #Ornithology please submit abstracts to: auth.oxfordabstracts.com?redirect=/st... 🪶🌍
13116
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Nick Haddad @nickhaddad.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Our paper is out, and it is distressing. Rapid butterfly declines across the United States during the 21st century | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Rapid butterfly declines across the United States during the 21st century
Numerous declines have been documented across insect groups, and the potential consequences of insect losses are dire. Butterflies are the most surveyed insect taxa, yet analyses have been limited in ...
22502248
Rob van Bemmelen @robvanbemmelen.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
New #OA paper in the #seabird journal (@theseabirdgroup.bsky.social)! We GPS-tracked Black-legged #Kittiwakes breeding on an offshore platform in the Dutch sector of the North Sea. In short, we show that they have a short foraging range compared to coastal... 1/6 www.seabirdgroup.org.uk/seabird-37
12820
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
BirdLife Marine @birdlifemarine.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
🚨NEW OPEN ACCESS PAPER🚨details how we delineated six #MarineFlyways using #seabird #tracking data & novel analytical methods ➡️ doi.org/10.1111/geb.70004 🧪 #ornithology #migration #BLScience @birdlifeglobal.bsky.social We are grateful to GOBI @iki-germany.bsky.social for funding the project 🧵1/5
Infographic map showing the six marine flyways (Atlantic Ocean Flyway, North Indian Ocean Flyway, East Indian Ocean Flyway, West Pacific Ocean Flyway, Pacific Ocean Flyway, Southern Ocean Flyway) in a spilhaus projection, and the general direction of travel by migratory seabirds
411758
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Elina Mäntylä @elinamantyla.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
Bustnes et al. The pollution fast-track to the Arctic: how southern wintering areas contribute to organochlorine loads in a migrant seabird breeding in the Arctic academic.oup.com/etc/advance-... #ornithology #teamskua
academic.oup.com
The pollution fast-track to the Arctic: how southern wintering areas contribute to organochlorine loads in a migrant seabird breeding in the Arctic
Abstract. This study examines how southern wintering areas may contribute to organochlorine (OCs) loads in arctic seabirds during breeding. Light-sensitive
1146
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Dr Tammy Davies @tammyedavies.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
🚨NEW OPEN ACCESS PAPER🚨details how we delineated six #MarineFlyways applying a novel approach onto #seabird #tracking data: doi.org/10.1111/geb.70004 🧪 See the short animation via: www.seabirdtracking.org/case-studies... explaining how the marine flyways can be a framework to support #conservation
04121
Rob van Bemmelen @robvanbemmelen.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
The second paper, led by Kat Snell and Ines dos Santos (at @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social), is about Arctic Skuas breeding at the Faroe Islands. Here, analysis of 24 years of ringing data suggests strong declines in the survival rates of both adults and juveniles. 1/3 doi.org/10.3354/meps...
doi.org
Wintering, rather than breeding, oceanic conditions may modulate declining survival in a long-distance migratory seabird
KEY WORDS: Mortality · Carry-over effects · CMR modelling · Stercorarius parasiticus
110
Rob van Bemmelen @robvanbemmelen.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Happy to share two new papers on Arctic Skuas where I contributed. First: a paper led by Jan Ove Bustnes (@ninanatureresearch.bsky.social) on pollutants found in the blood of Arctic Skuas breeding on Svalbard and at Slettnes. Arctic Skuas show large variation... academic.oup.com/etc/advance-... 1/2
academic.oup.com
The pollution fast-track to the Arctic: how southern wintering areas contribute to organochlorine loads in a migrant seabird breeding in the Arctic
Abstract. This study examines how southern wintering areas may contribute to organochlorine (OCs) loads in arctic seabirds during breeding. Light-sensitive
122
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Dave Goulson @davegoulson.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Our new paper, based on data from 1,705 studies, shows that pesticides are toxic to organisms they are not intended to harm, including fungi, microbes, plants, insects, & vertebrates such as ourselves. Questions the wisdom of applying over 3 million tonnes of them every year...
7485253
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Annie Leymarie @annieleymarie.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Peatlands occupy just 3% of all land but contain more carbon than all of the world’s forests. Often overlooked: typically flat, wet, often inaccessible, not always picturesque & all the carbon they hold is hiding below the surface. 80% of the UK bogs are degraded by draining, overgrazing, burning.
14634
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Rebecca Heisman @rheisman.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Sobering. When I talk to people about long-term bird population declines in N America, I mention that the main cause is habitat loss, not climate change - yet. But new research shows that climate change is causing bird declines even in otherwise pristine places. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
In the most untouched, pristine parts of the Amazon, birds are dying. Scientists may finally know why
Populations have been falling for decades, even in tracts of forest undamaged by humans. Experts have spent two decades trying to understand what is going on
15227
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
A thread on quite how incredible the Texel Spectacled Eider record is, given that almost the entire world population (~250K) winters together around 62°00'N, 173°00'W in polynyas - gaps in the sea ice in the Bering Sea, like the ones below👇 🧵#Ornithology 1/
Spectacled Eider flocks in the Bering Sea: Source https://frontierscientists.com/2012/01/satellite-tracking-helps-russian-tanker-navigate-critical-sea-duck-habitat/Spectacled Eider flocks in the Bering Sea: Source https://frontierscientists.com/2012/01/satellite-tracking-helps-russian-tanker-navigate-critical-sea-duck-habitat/
610921
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
The Seabird Group @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
Seabird 36 is now live! Head to this link to take a read -> seabirdgroup.org.uk/seabird-36
seabirdgroup.org.uk
Seabird 36 - Seabird Group
The Seabird Group was founded to promote and co-ordinate the study and conservation of seabirds. We organise conferences and publish the journal SEABIRD.
0135
Rob van Bemmelen @robvanbemmelen.bsky.social · 01/01/2025
Very happy to have this paper on Arctic Skuas finally out in 2024. Still two more PhD-chapters to go!
063
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Chris van Swaay @chrisvanswaay.eurosky.social · 29/12/2024
At the end of the year we can look back at the butterfly year 2024 in NL. What went up, what went down, and what species things did we notice? A threat in English. /1
16023
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Paul Dufour @pauldufour80.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
For my first post here, I’m happy to share our new paper just published in @ibisjournal.bsky.social Thanks to a great team effort, we made a small step forward in the study of Siberian vagrants in Europe and clarified the status of two (pseudo) vagrants: the YBW & the Sib Chiffchaff. Some results 🧵
314849