Status of the black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) breeding population in Greenland, 2008por_169 391..403 Aili Lage Labansen,1 Flemming Merkel,2 David Boertmann2 & Jens Nyeland3 1 Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, PO Box 570, DK-3900 Nuuk, Greenland 2 National Environmental Research Institute, Department of Arctic Environment, Aarhus University, Frederiksborgvej 399, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark 3 Naturama, Dronningmaen 30, DK-5700 Svendborg, Denmark Keywords Abstract Black-legged kittiwake; Greenland; population status; Rissa tridactyla. Based on the intensified survey efforts (since 2003) of Greenlandic breeding colonies of black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla), the total Greenland breed- Correspondence ing population was estimated at roughly 110 000 breeding pairs, constituting Aili Lage Labansen, Greenland Institute of about 4% of the total North Atlantic breeding population. This population Natural Resources, PO Box 570, DK-3900 estimate of black-legged kittiwake is the most reliable and updated estimate Nuuk, Greenland. E-mail:
[email protected] hitherto reported for Greenland. The results confirm considerable population doi:10.1111/j.1751-8369.2010.00169.x declines in many areas of West Greenland. The breeding population of black- legged kittiwakes in the Qaanaaq area appears healthy, whereas the rest of the west coast has experienced declines, especially the north-western region (in the area from Upernavik to Kangaatsiaq). Exactly when these reductions have occurred is uncertain because of the limited survey effort in the past, but some colonies declined as far back as the mid-1900s, whereas declines of other colonies have occurred since the 1970–80s. East Greenland data from the past are few, but recent aerial surveys confirm that the abundance of breeding kittiwakes on this inaccessible coast is low.