3. To learn enough about the differences in behavior and productivity among colonies to establish which colonies produce surplus young and which have low productivity. At first, maximum efforts for conservation should be concentrated at those sites which produce surplus young.
4. To learn about colonial behavior. Two needs are apparent:
a. To know enough about the lives of individually marked birds of known age so as to be able to infer the behavior of population elements at all stages of their life cycle.
b. To know enough about the lives of subadult birds to understand what proportion of subadults visit and become established at breeding sites, why the subadults visit the breeding sites and what effect their presence has on the territories and breeding success of their neighbors and biological relatives.
5. To know enough about places where seabirds, waterfowl, and shorebirds gather on migration and during the winter to identify those areas which need special protection from effects of economic development.
a. It is important to determine the areas where marine birds gather at sea when they are away from their breeding grounds. What factors of habitat and food supply make certain places preferable to others? What is the relation between gathering grounds and underwater topography (banks and edges of the continental shelf)? What are the seasonal and annual differences in preferred gathering grounds? What special hazards exist, such as unusual extent of sea ice or exceptional storms?
b. It is important to plot coastal areas where waterfowl and shorebirds gather on migration, for molting, and during the winter. Which open leads in the ice and patches of open water at the mouths of rivers are of especial importance in spring? What shorelines and beaches act as "leading lines" during migration? Which capes and points result in concentrated overflights of migrating waterfowl, and hence are locations of unusually high kills by hunters? What wetlands, bogs, coastal ponds, lakes, and lagoons are used as gathering grounds and to what extent do waterfowl and shorebirds exchange between gathering grounds? How much redundancy of wetlands is needed to make the wetlands system maximally productive for waterfowl and shorebirds?
Answers to these questions will identify which geographic areas deserve special protection during development. The answers will also identify the kinds of influences which might lower the contribution of each critical area to the survival of seabirds, waterfowl, and shorebirds. Areas identified as important under these categories must be included in policy decisions related to land-use planning and management.
6. To learn more about the effects of varying quantities of food on breeding behavior and performance: