Food sources for Common Scoter (Melanitta nigra) in Carmarthen Bay

• Availability: Not released
• Published by: Marine Environmental Data & Information Network
• Last updated: 31 October 2004
• Topic: Not added
• Licence: Other Licence ; View licence information

Summary

In the UK the Common Scoter (Melanitta nigra) is recognised as a nationally threatened species due to its small and declining breeding population. Carmarthen Bay is an internationally important wintering ground for the Common Scoter duck (Melanitta nigra) and is widely regarded as the most important such site in the UK causing the site to be proposed as a Special Protection Area (pSPA) under the EC Birds Directive. Carmarthen Bay is considered to support peak numbers of 17000 - 24000 birds. The Common Scoter is strongly migratory and often travels considerable distances over land making brief stop-overs on inland waters. Its diet consists predominantly of molluscs, especially during the winter, although it occasionally takes other aquatic invertebrates such as crustaceans (e.g. barna cles and shrimps), worms, echinoderms, isopods, amphipods and insects (e.g. midges and caddis flies) as well as small fish and fish eggs.

An extensive macrofauna sampling survey was undertaken to coincide with an aerial scoter survey. Conservation concerns for the scoter population focus on threats of hunting pressure, breeding habitat disturbance and loss, food chain contaminants, oil spills and the threat to non-breeding habitats represented by offshore developments. The aim of this project was to investigate the biological and physical factors affecting the winter distribution of common scoter in Carmarthen Bay and to identify what component of the benthos they feed upon. The identification of such components is crucial to the future management and monitoring of the Carmarthen Bay Special Protection Area and, to some extent, the Special Area of Conservation.

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• Common Scoter (Melanitta nigra) Summary Statistics and Distribution Analysis for Carmarthen Bay 1998 - 2010
• Ground Monitoring of Common Scoter Melinitta nigra in Carmarthen Bay 2009 - 2010
• All Wales Common Scoter ( Melanitta nigra ) Survey (1994 - 2002)
• Common Scoter (Melanitta nigra) Infaunal Data Collected During Academic Research Projects

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• Added to data.gov.uk: 2018-07-03
• Access contraints: There are no access restrictions to this data. CCW may release, publish or disseminate it freely.
• Harvest GUID: 4f4c4942-4343-5764-6473-303837313839
• Extent: Latitude: 51.75118019° to 51.54092085°
• Extent: Longitude: -4.68592506° to -4.28228079°
• Spatial reference system: urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::BNG
• Dataset reference date: 2004-10-31 (publication)
• Dataset reference date: 2004-10-31 (revision)
• Frequency of update: notPlanned
• Responsible party: Natural Resources Wales (NRW) (custodian); Swansea University, Dept of Biological Sciences (originator)
• ISO 19139 resource type: dataset
• Metadata language: eng
• Source Metadata: XML
• Source Metadata: HTML

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© CCGC/CCW 2004. There are no use restrictions on this data. Recipients may re-use, reproduce, disseminate this data free of charge in any format or medium, provided they do so accurately, acknowledging both the source and CCW's copyright, and do not use it in a misleading context. It is the recipient's responsibility to ensure the data is fit for the intended purpose, that dissemination or publishing does not result in duplication, and that it is fairly interpreted. Advice on interpretation should be sought where required. To avoid re-using old data, users should periodically obtain the latest version from the original source.