United States

Welcome Seabirders!  

Welcome to Virtual World Seabird Conference 3 - vWSC3! Whether you are in your office or lab, at home, in a coffee shop or bar poaching some wifi, or at a remote field site or research vessel – we are very excited to welcome you to the third ever World Seabird Conference. 

We would like to thank ALL of you for being so patient as WSC3 was scheduled, postponed, rescheduled, revised to virtual, and scheduled again. Throughout all those iterations there was one message that remained perfectly clear – seabirders were eager to meet and share their science. If we could not meet in person then virtual it would have to be, but a 3rd WSC was something everyone wanted. That support and commitment helped the WSU Board of Directors and Member Societies sort through all of the challenges they faced to plan and hold this conference. 

The list of those that need to be thanked is long and, while we plan on recognizing many during the live closing plenary, it is important to do so here in writing as well. 

The Australasian Seabird Group was our Local Host for our plan to meet in Hobart, Tasmania. They invested substantial time and effort to find venues and plan events that we unfortunately were not able to visit. Nonetheless we appreciate their work on behalf of WSC3 and encourage all of you to thank them when you see their members in Gathertown or elsewhere during our virtual meeting. Their willingness to host created the initial excitement for WSC3 and without that our vWSC would not have been possible.

We also wish to thank the Science Program Committee, the Virtual Committee, and the Early Career Scientist Committee for their hard work planning the logistics, events, and schedule for vWSC3. These committees also had to deal with changing parameters and short timelines that made what is always a challenging task even more challenging. The Travel Awards Committee also invested time and effort in developing procedures for awarding travel funds that ultimately would not be implemented. 

Our ability to shift from an in-person to a virtual meeting, and to do so in a way that would be financially feasible, was due to the effective efforts of The International Fundraising Committee and to our financial sponsors. The IFC raised funds to support WSC3 and then, through the good relationships they built with sponsors, ensured we could re-envision how those funds could be used to support a virtual conference that would be affordable and high-quality.

We all owe the WSU Board of Directors and the Representatives of the Member Societies a great deal of thanks. They are the ones who manage the WSU and, for the past 18 months, have had to have a series of challenging meetings and conversations, have had to make a series of difficult choices, have had to do all of that while considering the short- and long-term health of WSU and the World Seabird Conferences, and did this while also managing their own challenges at their day jobs. We are grateful for their diligence, patience, foresight, and throughout all of the meetings, their collegiality. Also – a 6-year term is quite a commitment!

There would not be a WSC3 without a successful WSC1 and WSC2. Thanks go to the Pacific Seabird Group for their support of WSC1 in Victoria, Canada, and to the African Seabird Group for their support of WSC2 in Cape Town, South Africa. In each of these endeavors and for our current conference we were fortunate to work with a dependable and trustworthy partner in Podium Conferences. Michelle Smith and Marischal de Armond have become valued members of our team and have not only helped us plan conferences but have assisted and advised the WSU Chairs and Board on issues above and beyond conference planning. 

As we embark on our vWSC3 week we extend to all of you our thanks for showing up, for being patient, and most importantly for the work you do with seabirds. We are all part of a unique, global community that shares an interest, a fascination, and a passion for birds that make a living in our world’s oceans. We have advanced the science, conservation, and management of seabirds as well the ecosystems they inhabit. We are consistently impressed and motivated by the work you do. 

The WSU formed in 2010 because we saw the need for a global organization to address challenges at a global level. Over the past 11 years WSU has grown, adapted, and evolved to become the community that this week is making vWSC3 a reality. Enjoy the week, appreciate and support the friends and colleagues you have made in the community, and if you see us in a virtual hallway please stop and say hello! 

Thank you for the opportunity to serve all of you and the WSU over the past few years,

Nicholas Carlile, Interim Chair, WSU<br>
Patrick Jodice, 2nd Chair of the WSU<br><br>

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3rd World Seabird Conference

Join us for four days of science, networking and virtual engagement with delegates from around the world!

Discover the art of creating extraordinary science at SEB’s Annual Conference at Le Corum Conference Center     in Montpellier, France from 5 to  8 July 2022.

SEB’s Annual Conference is celebrated for creating the perfect composition of research, new discoveries and collaborative connections. Be creative and innovative by exchanging ideas and knowledge with masters of biology from all over the world.

2022 will find over 1500 experimental biologists from across the globe converging on the third-largest French city near the Mediterranean coast and the fastest-growing city in the country over the past 25 years.
	<br><br><br>


Please register for the conference by clicking on this link:

https://www.sebiology.org/events/seb-annual-conference-2022/registration.html

The site will be open for registered participants closer to the event.

SEB Annual Conference 2022

2022 will find over 1500 experimental biologists from across the globe converging on the third-largest French city near the Mediterranean coast and the fastest-growing city in the country over the past 25 years - Montpellier, France

**Abstract:**

Despite its isolation and extreme climate, Antarctica is home to a diversity of fauna and associated microorganisms, including viruses, parasites, and even antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. It has previously been proposed that perhaps the most iconic Antarctic animal, the penguin, experiences low pathogen pressure, accounting for their susceptibility to disease when exposed to foreign environments. Climate-driven and anthropogenically assisted virus emergence in Antarctica is therefore of considerable concern. At present, however, there is little understanding of the diversity and abundance of viruses currently found in Antarctica, the ecological factors that shape this diversity, nor how it relates to that seen in other geographic regions. As a means to test the hypothesis of low pathogen pressure, we determined the viromes of three species of penguins and their ticks sampled on the Antarctic peninsula: Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae), Chinstrap penguins (Pygoscelis antarctica) and Gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua) and the seabird tick (Ixodes uriae). Using total RNA-Sequencing (meta-transcriptomics) we identified 107 viral species, comprising penguin viruses (n=18), penguin diet and microbiome associated viruses (n=82), tick viruses (n=4) and tick transmitted arboviruses (n=2), with Adélie and Chinstrap penguins harbouring more virome diversity than Gentoo penguins. Strikingly, the level of virome diversity revealed in penguins is comparable to that see in Australian shorebirds and ducks, including the detection of many of the same viral families, and rejects the notion that penguins are subject to lower pathogen pressure. Furthermore, through the detection of previously detected viruses in penguins (Influenza A virus and Avian Avulavirus 17) we suggest that Antarctic penguins are not only spill-over hosts, but key reservoir hosts for viruses, including a number of arthropod-borne viruses (Gavier and Fennes virus). We suggest that additional sampling and continued improvement of sampling strategies will reveal an increasing diversity of viruses in Antarctic wildlife.

**Authors:**

Michelle Wille¹, Michelle Wille², Mang Shi², Daniel Gonzalez-Acuna³, Edward Holmes², Aeron Hurt¹

¹WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza, ²Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases, University of Sydney, ³Universidad de Concepcion, Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias

Substantial viral diversity in Antarctic penguins and their ticks: no evidence for low pathogen pressure

symposium

Status of colonies and factors determining the development of Common (Uria aalge) and Brünnuch's (U. lomvia) guillemot's populations on Murman coast southwestern part of the Barents Sea

Current and future foraging habitat niche of a High Arctic zooplanktivorous seabird, the little auk Alle alle

Threats to seabirds in Europe: a regional review

Rock shag inshore island colonies at risk in an invaded scenario

Oh, the places you?ll go! Juvenile movements in the yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis) in relation to the natal colony and its epidemiological importance

Substantial viral diversity in Antarctic penguins and their ticks: no evidence for low pathogen pressure

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Status of colonies and factors determining the development of Common (Uria aalge) and Brünnuch's (U. lomvia) guillemot's populations on Murman coast southwestern part of the Barents Sea

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