i Table of contents iv List of figures and tables vi Acknowledgements xv Author’s declaration xvi Chapter 1: General introduction 1.1 Marine ecosystem change 1 1.2 Theoretical considerations: seabirds as indicators of marine ecosystem change 4 1.3 Seabirds-Climate change effects 5 1.4 Seabirds-Fishery interactions 8 1.5 Conclusions 11 1.6 Aims of the thesis 11 Chapter 2: Influence of climate ch...

Environmental epigenetics investigates the cause-effect relationships between specific environmental factors and the subsequent epigenetic modifications triggering adaptive responses in the cell. Given the dynamic and potentially reversible nature of the different types of epigenetic marks, environmental epigenetics constitutes a promising venue for developing fast and sensible biomonitoring pr...

Annelids are among the first coelomates and are therefore of special phylogenetic interest. They constitute an important part of the biomass of the seashore, estuaries, fresh water and terrestrial soils. Moreover, they occupy a central position in the trophic networks, as a major food source for fishes, birds and terrestrial fauna. Among Annelids, the large majority of polychaetes is restricted...

1School of Computer Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150001, China 2Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA 3Department of Computer Science, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA 4Life Sciences, CentrumWiskunde & Infor...

Plankton are typically divided into phytoplankton and zooplankton in marine ecosystem models. Yet, most protists in the photic zone engage in some degree of phagotrophy, and it has been suggested that trophic strategy is really a continuum between pure phototrophs (phytoplankton) and pure phagotrophs (unicellular zooplankton). Such a continuum of trophic strategies is well represented by trait-...

Marine birds have been found to ingest plastic debris in many of the world's oceans. Plastic accumulation data from necropsies findings and regurgitation studies are presented on 13 species of marine birds in the North Atlantic, from Georgia, USA to Nunavut, Canada and east to southwest Greenland and the Norwegian Sea. Of the species examined, the two surface plungers (great shearwaters Puffinu...

Knowledge of mammalian diversity is still surprisingly disparate, both regionally and taxonomically. Here, we present a comprehensive assessment of the conservation status and distribution of the world's mammals. Data, compiled by 1700+ experts, cover all 5487 species, including marine mammals. Global macroecological patterns are very different for land and marine species but suggest common mec...

Marine protected areas are considered important tools for protecting marine biodiversity, and animal tracking is a key way to determine if boundaries are effectively placed for protection of key marine species, including seabirds. We tracked chick-rearing brown noddies (Anous stolidus) from the Dry Tortugas National Park in Florida USA in 2016 using 1.8 g Nanofix GPS tags (n = 10), making this ...

Competition between marine mammals and fisheries for marine resources-whether real or perceived-has become a major issue for several countries and in international fora. We examined trophic interactions between marine mammals and fisheries based on a resource overlap index, using seven Ecopath models including marine mammal groups. On a global scale, most food consumed by marine mammals consist...

Anthropogenic debris in the world's oceans and coastal environments is a pervasive global issue that has both direct and indirect impacts on avifauna. The number of bird species affected, the feeding ecologies associated with an increased risk of debris ingestion, and selectivity of ingested debris have yet to be investigated in most of Australia's coastal and marine birds. With this study we a...