Spatial distribution of selenium-mercury in Arctic seabirds.

Mercury (Hg) is a metallic trace element toxic for humans and wildlife that can originate from natural and anthropic sources. Hg spatial gradients have been found in seabirds from the Arctic and other oceans, suggesting contrasting toxicity risks across regions. Selenium (Se) plays a protective role against Hg toxicity, but its spatial distribution has been much less investigated than that of Hg.

A keystone avian predator faces elevated energy expenditure in a warming Arctic.

Climate change is transforming bioenergetic landscapes, challenging behavioral and physiological coping mechanisms. A critical question involves whether animals can adjust behavioral patterns and energy expenditure to stabilize fitness given reconfiguration of resource bases, or whether limits to plasticity ultimately compromise energy balance. In the Arctic, rapidly warming temperatures are transforming food webs, making Arctic organisms strong models for understanding biological implications of climate change-related environmental variability.

Mercury Contamination Challenges the Behavioral Response of a Keystone Species to Arctic Climate Change.

Combined effects of multiple, climate change-associated stressors are of mounting concern, especially in Arctic ecosystems. Elevated mercury (Hg) exposure in Arctic animals could affect behavioral responses to changes in foraging landscapes caused by climate change, generating interactive effects on behavior and population resilience. We investigated this hypothesis in little auks (), a keystone Arctic seabird.

Will climate change affect the survival of tropical and subtropical species? Predictions based on Bulwer's petrel populations in the NE Atlantic Ocean.

Climate change has repeatedly been shown to impact the demography and survival of marine top predators. However, most evidence comes from single populations of widely distributed species, limited mainly to polar and subpolar environments. Here, we aimed to evaluate the influence of environmental conditions on the survival of a tropical and migratory seabird over the course of its annual cycle.

Sex-specific costs of reproduction on survival in a long-lived seabird.

Costs of reproduction on survival have captured the attention of researchers since life history theory was formulated. Adults of long-lived species may increase survival by reducing their breeding effort or even skipping reproduction. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the costs of current reproduction on survival and whether skipping reproduction increases adult survival in a long-lived seabird.