If it is established that the reproductive success of certain species varies similarly in response to changes in their marine habitat (such as black-legged kittiwakes and horned puffins), one could use key species (black-legged kittiwake) to assess the performance of those species in a colony whose breeding success is difficult to measure (horned puffin).
b. To develop efficient and practical ways of censusing and measuring productivity of crevice-, scree-, and hole-nesting species such as puffins and auklets.
c. To establish annual differences in reproductive success and mortality rates by age classes of the key species, and from these to identify rates of population turnover so as to be able to predict the effects of mass mortalities.
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?