Martin Beal

I am a Swedish-American nature enthusiast with an educational background in Animal Ecology. I grew up in the United States, where I spent much of my time playing sports, learning the birds and exploring the vast diversity of North America’s natural places. I also spent time in Brazil in the Atlantic Rainforest region as both an exchange student and a conservation volunteer. In keeping with my roots, I have also lived in Sweden, where I completed a masters in Animal Ecology in 2018, completing a thesis on the breeding season foraging movements of Caspian Terns in the Baltic Sea.

PhD project [completed]: Identifying marine key biodiversity areas using tracking data

The human footprint on the ocean environment is substantial and growing, causing widespread concern for the future of numerous marine species. Different measures are needed to reduce negative impacts, from establishing protected areas to regulating human activities at sea. For such efforts to be effective however, a sound understanding of the underlying ecology of marine biodiversity is needed. The tracking of animals using electronic devices has revolutionized our understanding of the behavior and ecology of marine animals and thereby improved our ability to effectively conserve them and their habitats.

The central focus of this thesis was the application of animal tracking to marine ecology and conservation. Herein, we presented a literature review, a software tool, and data analyses to illustrate ways in which tracking data have and can be used to inform the study and conservation of marine wildlife. To demonstrate how animal tracking has helped advance our knowledge of the behavior and ecology of marine species, we presented examples from the literature regarding the study of migration, foraging and habitat use, and navigation in marine megafauna, from seabirds to cetaceans.

We developed an accessible software tool, “track2KBA”, in the programming language R, which facilitates analyzing tracking data to identify important sites for conservation. We illustrated the package workflow, and provide examples of how the tool can be useful for analyzing tracking data from a wide variety of species and contexts, both in the marine and terrestrial realm. We analyzed GPS tracking data from 23 species of seabirds to assess the relevance of tracking populations across years when identifying sites of importance. We found that, when enough individuals are tracked, tracking datasets collected in a single year often provide robust pictures of population distributions.

By analyzing the tracks of 40 female Green Turtles (Chelonia mydas) from a globally important nesting population in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa, we quantified how well a regional marine protected area network covers the turtles across seasons and countries. We found that turtles are spatially well-protected during the interesting period, less so during migration, and that protected area coverage at post-nesting foraging sites depended on the country turtles migrated to.

We analyzed tracking data from 39 species of albatrosses and large petrels to quantify, for the first time, the political areas and links between jurisdictions that these highly threatened seabirds depend on. We found that these birds spend 39% of their time in areas beyond national jurisdiction, and connect the jurisdictions of numerous countries around the world, necessitating international cooperation for their effective conservation.

The analyses of tracking data presented in this thesis represent novel applications at local, regional and global scales, concerning single species and groups of species. This work contributes directly to the identification of important sites for biodiversity, such as marine Key Biodiversity Areas, and to the development of international collaborations to conserve marine biodiversity in national waters and beyond.

Publications

Beal, M., Dias, M.P., Phillips, R.A., Oppel, S., Hazin, C., Pearmain, E.J., Adams, J., Anderson, D.J., Antolos, M., Arata, J.A., Arcos, J.M., Arnould, J.P.Y., Awkerman, J., Bell, E., Bell, M., Carey, M., Carle, R., Clay, T.A., Cleeland, J., Colodro, V., Conners, M., Cruz-Flores, M., Cuthbert, R., Delord, K., Deppe, L., Dilley, B.J., Dinis, H., Elliott, G., De Felipe, F., Felis, J., Forero, M..G., Freeman, A., Fukuda, A., González-Solís, J., Granadeiro, J.P., Hedd, A., Hodum, P., Igual, J.M., Jaeger, A., Landers, T.J., Le Corre, M., Makhado, A., Metzger, B., Militão, T., Montevecchi, W.A.,  Morera-Pujol, V., Navarro-Herrero, L., Nel, D., Nicholls, D., Oro, D., Ouni, R., Ozaki, K., Quintana, F., Ramos, R., Reid, T., Reyes-González, J.M., Robertson, C., Robertson, G., Romdhane, M.S., Ryan, P.G., Sagar, P., Sato, F., Schoombie, S., Scofield, R.P., Shaffer, S.A., Shah, N.J., Stevens, K.L., Surman, C., Suryan, R.M., Takahashi, A., Tatayah, V., Taylor, G., Thompson, D.R., Torres, L., Walker, K., Wanless, R., Waugh, S.M., Weimerskirch, H., Yamamoto, T., Zajkova, Z., Zango, L., Catry, P. (2021) Global political responsibility for the conservation of albatrosses and large petrels. Science Advances 7, eabd7225. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abd7225 → Open Access Repository

Beal, M., Oppel, S., Handley, J., Pearmain, E.J., Morera‐Pujol, V., Carneiro, A.P.B., Davies, T.E., Phillips, R.A., Taylor, P.R., Miller, M.G.R., Franco, A.M.A., Catry, I., Patrício, A.R., Regalla, A., Staniland, I., Boyd, C., Catry, P., Dias, M.P. (2021) track2KBA: An R package for identifying important sites for biodiversity from tracking data. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13713 → Open Access repository

Patrício, A. R., Beal, M., Barbosa, C., Diouck, D., Godley, B. J., Madeira, F. M., Regalla, A., Traoré, M. S., Senhoury, C., Sidina, E., & Catry, P. (2022). Green Turtles Highlight Connectivity Across a Regional Marine Protected Area Network in West Africa. Frontiers in Marine Science, 9. https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmars.2022.812144 → Open Access Repository.

Beal. M.S. (2021) Identifying Marine Key Biodiversity Areas Using Tracking Data. PhD Thesis. ISPA – Instituto Universitário, Lisboa, Portugal. → Open Access Repository

Datasets

Beal, M., Dias, M.P., Phillips, R.A., Oppel, S., Hazin, C., Pearmain, E.J., Adams, J., Anderson, D.J., Antolos, M., Arata, J.A., Arcos, J.M., Arnould, J.P.Y., Awkerman, J., Bell, E., Bell, M., Carey, M., Carle, R., Clay, T.A., Cleeland, J., Colodro, V., Conners, M., Cruz-Flores, M., Cuthbert, R., Delord, K., Deppe, L., Dilley, B.J., Dinis, H., Elliott, G., De Felipe, F., Felis, J., Forero, M..G., Freeman, A., Fukuda, A., González-Solís, J., Granadeiro, J.P., Hedd, A., Hodum, P., Igual, J.M., Jaeger, A., Landers, T.J., Le Corre, M., Makhado, A., Metzger, B., Militão, T., Montevecchi, W.A.,  Morera-Pujol, V., Navarro-Herrero, L., Nel, D., Nicholls, D., Oro, D., Ouni, R., Ozaki, K., Quintana, F., Ramos, R., Reid, T., Reyes-González, J.M., Robertson, C., Robertson, G., Romdhane, M.S., Ryan, P.G., Sagar, P., Sato, F., Schoombie, S., Scofield, R.P., Shaffer, S.A., Shah, N.J., Stevens, K.L., Surman, C., Suryan, R.M., Takahashi, A., Tatayah, V., Taylor, G., Thompson, D.R., Torres, L., Walker, K., Wanless, R., Waugh, S.M., Weimerskirch, H., Yamamoto, T., Zajkova, Z., Zango, L., Catry, P. (2021) Data for “Global political responsibility for the conservation of albatrosses and large petrels” (published in Science Advances) https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4495387 → Open Access Repository

Beal, M., Dias, M.P., Phillips, R.A., Oppel, S., Hazin, C., Pearmain, E.J., Adams, J., Anderson, D.J., Antolos, M., Arata, J.A., Arcos, J.M., Arnould, J.P.Y., Awkerman, J., Bell, E., Bell, M., Carey, M., Carle, R., Clay, T.A., Cleeland, J., Colodro, V., Conners, M., Cruz-Flores, M., Cuthbert, R., Delord, K., Deppe, L., Dilley, B.J., Dinis, H., Elliott, G., De Felipe, F., Felis, J., Forero, M..G., Freeman, A., Fukuda, A., González-Solís, J., Granadeiro, J.P., Hedd, A., Hodum, P., Igual, J.M., Jaeger, A., Landers, T.J., Le Corre, M., Makhado, A., Metzger, B., Militão, T., Montevecchi, W.A.,  Morera-Pujol, V., Navarro-Herrero, L., Nel, D., Nicholls, D., Oro, D., Ouni, R., Ozaki, K., Quintana, F., Ramos, R., Reid, T., Reyes-González, J.M., Robertson, C., Robertson, G., Romdhane, M.S., Ryan, P.G., Sagar, P., Sato, F., Schoombie, S., Scofield, R.P., Shaffer, S.A., Shah, N.J., Stevens, K.L., Surman, C., Suryan, R.M., Takahashi, A., Tatayah, V., Taylor, G., Thompson, D.R., Torres, L., Walker, K., Wanless, R., Waugh, S.M., Weimerskirch, H., Yamamoto, T., Zajkova, Z., Zango, L., Catry, P. (2021) Code for “Global political responsibility for the conservation of albatrosses and large petrels” (published in Science Advances) https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4584671  → Open Access Repository

Beal, M., Oppel, S., Handley, J., Pearmain, E.J., Morera‐Pujol, V., Carneiro, A.P.B., Davies, T.E., Phillips, R.A., Taylor, P.R., Miller, M.G.R., Franco, A.M.A., Catry, I., Patrício, A.R., Regalla, A., Staniland, I., Boyd, C., Catry, P., Dias, M.P. (2021) Data for “track2KBA: An R package for identifying important sites for biodiversity from tracking data” (published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution) https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5356334 → Open Access Repository

Patrício, A. R., Beal, M., Barbosa, C., Diouck, D., Godley, B. J., Madeira, F. M., Regalla, A., Traoré, M. S., Senhoury, C., Sidina, E., & Catry, P. (2022). Data and scripts for “Green turtles highlight connectivity across a regional marine protected area network in West Africa” (published in Frontiers in Marine Science) https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6346609 → Open Access Repository