Eurasian oystercatcher research population Schiermonnikoog

The facility 

The long-term study population of Eurasian oystercatchers on Schiermonnikoog is used to study (1) the causes of population change in this indicator species of the Wadden Sea ecosystem, (2) to understand how individuals and populations respond to rapid environmental change.   

Species groups studied

NIOO-KNAW studies Eurasian oystercatchers, there are many other species groups studied by other institutes at the same facility (spoonbills, geese, hares, cats, vegetation, macorbenthos, fish)  

Running period (guaranteed funding) 

1983 – Ongoing 

Equipment / facilities 

Defined study population on the saltmarsh on the eastern part of the island that consists of of ~400 colour-banded birds that have been monitored since 1983, meaning that for most individuals we have a complete life-history. 

Data management  

The study is a collaboration between NIOO-KNAW, Sovon and RuG, and data are co-owned by these partners and stored into a relational database. The data include information for all individuals whether they were seen in a given breeding season, where and with which mate they bred, and how many offspring they produced. Additional data include numbers of nonbreeders, macrobenthos food stocks, nesting location and elevation as well as phenotpyic data (body mass, bill morphometrics, DNA samples).  

Available datasets

All datasets are stored in a relational database. 

Conditions for access 

The study is a collaboration between NIOO-KNAW, Sovon and RuG, and data are co-owned by these partners. Policy by the consortium is to make data available as much as possible for the purpose of scientific research, as long as it does not overlap with ongoing research by the involved researchers. Access can be requested by contacting Martijn van de Pol.

Connection to strategic developments 

Part of LTER-NL : https://deims.org/fcbf044b-20e2-4e87-894d-10bfe6e3a7ac 

Part of STW-CHIRP: https://www.chirpscholekster.nl/index.php