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  • Review Article
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The circular seabird economy is critical for oceans, islands and people

Nature Reviews Biodiversity volume 1, pages 689–702 (2025)Cite this article

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A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 16 January 2026

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Abstract

Nearly a third of seabird species are at risk of extinction, rendering them among the most threatened bird taxa globally. The decline in seabird populations has major ramifications for their associated ecosystems. An expansive literature covers seabird impacts on their breeding islands, and growing research expands understanding of the circular seabird economy — cross-ecosystem connections of seabirds from oceans to islands, and back to nearshore marine ecosystems, mainly driven by nutrient transfer. Amid the twin biodiversity and climate crises, maintaining and restoring the circular seabird economy is one way to achieve large-scale, cross-ecosystem impacts with simple and time-tested conservation methods. This Review summarizes researchers’ understanding of the circular seabird economy and outlines goals for future research. Historically, research has focused on terrestrial impacts, with emerging research explicitly studying the cross-ecosystem impacts of seabirds. We identify substantial knowledge gaps, with research needed to understand how the circular seabird economy changes with space, time, across biomes and with island size. Emerging analytic and monitoring tools will help to propel this research forward. Many coastal communities, especially Indigenous people, rely on seabirds for their livelihoods and cultural connections, and so taking a people-centred approach incorporating Indigenous knowledge and perspectives is critical moving forward.

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Fig. 1: The seabird circular economy.
Fig. 2: Seabird mass and foraging range.
Fig. 3: Seabird impacts on adjacent marine ecosystems.
Fig. 4: Seabird restoration methods.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the David and Lucile Packard Foundation (D.J.W.), the Bertarelli Foundation as part of the Bertarelli Programme in Marine Science (C.E.B., N.A.J.G. and Y.M.), the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (S.S.), the Leverhulme Trust (Y.M.) and the NERC ENVISION doctoral training programme (L.-L.J.) for funding.

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  1. Lyndsay L. Rankin

    Present address: United States Geological Survey, Davis, CA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, USA

    Holly P. Jones & Leilani A. Fowlke

  2. Institute for the Study of the Environment, Sustainability and Energy, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, USA

    Holly P. Jones

  3. Blue Economy Research Institute, University of Seychelles, Mahé, Seychelles

    Jennifer Appoo

  4. Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    Cassandra E. Benkwitt, Ruth E. Dunn, Laura-Li Jeannot & Nicholas AJ Graham

  5. BirdLife International, Pacific Secretariat, Suva, Fiji

    Stephanie B. Borrelle

  6. Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, Montpellier, France

    Ruth E. Dunn

  7. School of Life Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester, UK

    Hannah E. Epstein

  8. California Chapter, The Nature Conservancy, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

    Nick D. Holmes

  9. Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Yadvinder Malhi

  10. Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Yadvinder Malhi

  11. Independent researcher, Davis, CA, USA

    Lyndsay L. Rankin

  12. Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Sebastian Steibl

  13. School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Sebastian Steibl

  14. Department of Natural Resource Management, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, USA

    Christy N. Wails

  15. Island Conservation, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

    David J. Will

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H.P.J. and N.A.J.G. amassed the co-authors of the article. H.P.J. led initial discussions of the article structure and content. The authors contributed equally to all other aspects of the article.

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Jones, H.P., Appoo, J., Benkwitt, C.E. et al. The circular seabird economy is critical for oceans, islands and people. Nat. Rev. Biodivers. 1, 689–702 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44358-025-00099-w

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