Assessment of land‐based threats to Atlantic pelagic seabirds

Seabirds are exposed to numerous threats throughout their life‐cycles, including land‐based threats during their breeding season such as invasive species, diseases, or light pollution. Here we assess the timing, scope, and severity of land‐based threats to populations of highly mobile petrels, albatrosses, storm‐petrels, and alcids in the Atlantic Ocean, to guide priorities for their conservation across their mostly island‐breeding areas. By combining our own field expertise of these species with a literature review, we built a dataset characterizing 18 threats for 49 species across 38 Large Marine Ecosystems. We analyze this dataset by highlighting the most impactful threats and the most impacted regions. Addressing invasive alien species on Tristan da Cunha & Gough and on the islands of the Canary Current are the interventions with the greatest potential to stimulate seabird population recovery across the Atlantic Ocean. Our results highlight priorities for targeted management actions that can support seabird conservation.