Detection of invasive fish species with passive acoustics: Discriminating between native and non-indigenous sciaenids
Invasive alien species have been rising exponentially in the last decades impacting biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. The soniferous weakfish, Cynoscion regalis, is a recent invasive sciaenid species in the Iberian Peninsula and was first reported in the Tagus estuary in 2015. There is concern about its possible impacts on native species, namely the confamiliar meagre, […]
Offshore decommissioning horizon scan: Research priorities to support decision-making activities for oil and gas infrastructure
Thousands of oil and gas structures have been installed in the world’s oceans over the past 70 years to meet the population’s reliance on hydrocarbons. Over the last decade, there has been increased concern over how to handle decommissioning of this infrastructure when it reaches the end of its operational life. Complete or partial removal […]
Editorial: Seafloor heterogeneity: Artificial structures and marine ecosystem dynamics – recent advances
During the past several centuries, marine coastal ecosystems have been altered at alarming rates as a result of ever increasing anthropogenic influences (McCauley et al., 2015; Halpern et al., 2019; Duarte et al., 2020). While impacts of anthropogenic climate change have already been manifested in the form of, for example, decreased ocean productivity, altered food […]
Divergent post-breeding spatial habitat use of Laysan and black-footed albatross
Jordan, F.D., Shaffer, S.A., Conners, M.G., Stepanuk, J., Gilmour, M., Clatterbuck, C., Hazen, E.L., Palacious, D.M., Tremblay, Y., Kappes, M.A., Foley, D.G., Bograd, S.J., Costa, D.P., and Thorne, L.H. Divergent post-breeding spatial habitat use of Laysan and black-footed albatross. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2022.1028317 Understanding the at-sea movements of wide-ranging seabird species throughout their annual cycle is […]
A framework for net environmental benefit analysis-based comparative assessment of decommissioning options for anthropogenic subsea structures: a North Sea case study
Nicolette, J.J., Nelson, N.A., Rockel, M.K., Rockel, M.L., Testoff, A.N., Johnson, L.J., Williamson, L.D., and Todd, V.L.G. A framework for net environmental benefit analysis-based comparative assessment of decommissioning options for anthropogenic subsea structures: a North Sea case study. Frontiers in Marine Science. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.1020334 Taxpayers and operators worldwide have significant current liabilities associated with decommissioning of offshore Oil & Gas (O&G) […]
Effect of a new offshore gas platform on harbor porpoise in the Dogger Bank
Offshore Oil and Gas (O&G) exploration and production has been cycling from cradle to grave for over 100 years, spanning many generations of marine fauna. Despite global occurrence of offshore infrastructure, implications of their presence for apex predators, including cetaceans, is under-studied. We analyzed data from autonomous underwater passive-echolocation-click detectors (C-PODs) deployed at an offshore […]
Effects of pile driving sound playbacks and cadmium co-exposure on the early life stage development of the Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus
Marine Pollution Bulletin, 179, 113667 (2022)DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.113667 There is an urgent need to understand how organisms respond to multiple, potentially interacting drivers in today’s world. The effects of the pollutants anthropogenic sound (pile driving sound playbacks) and waterborne cadmium were investigated across multiple levels of biology in larval and juvenile Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus under controlled […]
Comparing distribution of harbour porpoise using generalized additive models and hierarchical Bayesian models with integrated nested Laplace approximation
Ecological Modelling, 470, 110011, (2022)DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2022.110011 Species Distribution Models (SDMs) are used regularly to develop management strategies, but many modelling methods ignore the spatial nature of data. To address this, we compared fine-scale spatial distribution predictions of harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) using empirical aerial-video-survey data collected along the east coast of Scotland in August and September […]
Influence of offshore oil and gas structures on seascape ecological connectivity
Offshore platforms, subsea pipelines, wells and related fixed structures supporting the oil and gas (O&G) industry are prevalent in oceans across the globe, with many approaching the end of their operational life and requiring decommissioning. Although structures can possess high ecological diversity and productivity, information on how they interact with broader ecological processes remains unclear. […]
Cetacean distribution in relation to oceanographic features at the Kerguelen Plateau
The Kerguelen Plateau in the south-eastern Indian Ocean is one of the most isolated and understudied regions on earth. As part of the Kerguelen Plateau Drifts project, Marine Mammal Observer (MMO) data were collected during a seismic survey in the austral summer (January–February 2020). Relationships between observation effort, cetacean sightings, seismic operations, and oceanographic variables […]
