Marine Ecology Progress Series

An aerial view of an oceanic island shoreline. Green, tree-covered hills slope down to narrow sandy beaches. A shallow, clear-water bay reveals coral reef shadows just below the surface. The open ocean stretches to the right, with a small boat and a nearby islet visible offshore. A thin band of cloudy sky appears at the top of the image. 

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Observing sharks & rays interacting in natural circumstances is nearly impossible. We used indirect network analysis & modeling techniques to uncover the factors that drive shark & ray assemblage interactions across space & time at Cocos Is. (pictured).
bit.ly/meps15053

Antarctic petrel on a rock with wings spread, ready to take off (bottom left), and a snow petrel in flight (top right).

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GPS tracking shows spatial and habitat segregation between Antarctic and snow petrels breeding in sympatry in Antarctica, highlighting different dependencies on sea ice and potential vulnerability to climate change.
bit.ly/meps15067

A group of eleven little penguins emerging from the sea on the beach after a foraging trip and heading towards the colony.

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How do penguins track their prey? GPS monitoring over 13 years showed they forage in a restricted area to reduce search times but keep changing exact locations (at 2km scale) to adapt to the dynamic environmental conditions.
bit.ly/meps15047

The figure consists of two panels. The left panel shows a map of the North Atlantic with ten sampling stations marked by colored diamond symbols representing different sampling types. Stations span from twenty to fifty-five degrees north and are grouped into distinct oceanographic regions. The right panel displays a close-up photograph of a gloved hand holding a red micronektonic crustacean with a segmented body and long antennae, resting on a blue nitrile glove. The composition conveys both the geographic scope of the sampling effort and the type of organism investigated in the study.

🦤🌐🧪Micronekton communities shift across the North Atlantic, with clear day–night changes in abundance, biomass, and composition. Our study highlights key ecological patterns shaping mid-trophic ecosystems.
bit.ly/meps15063

A person in a yellow waterproof jacket holds a vertical rope densely covered with mussels, suspended over a misty body of water. Multiple mussel-covered ropes hang nearby, indicating a mussel farming operation. The foggy background reveals a distant shoreline, suggesting a coastal aquaculture setting.

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Irish blue mussels have declined over 30 years with changing sea surface temperatures and cold periods affecting health. Reduced tissue weight and higher moisture dominate, while higher local chlorophyll helps mussels thrive.
bit.ly/meps15054
@germac.bsky.social
@samantha-hallam.bsky.social

A graphic titled “The Research–Production Gap in Taiwan Fisheries” depicts a balance scale comparing academic research with fishery production. The image features various types of fish catches alongside a research vessel. The caption highlights that the level of research attention does not correspond to the patterns of fishery production proportionately.

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Taiwan’s fisheries face labor shortages and tech gaps. Our new MEPS study highlights emerging tech & research needs for sustainability.
#Fisheries #Taiwan #MarineScience #AI #IoT
bit.ly/meps15044

Collage showing an aerial view of a 1-hectare reef experiment with a 9‑metre boat for scale; divers constructing standardised artificial reefs; mature kelp forest communities on the structures; and a close-up of a kelp holdfast with associated marine biodiversity.

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#Biodiversity declines as #kelp forests thin and fragment. Our large‑scale field experiment shows that denser kelp forests support more taxa, and kelp spatial arrangement strongly shapes community composition. #FeatureArticle
bit.ly/meps15090

Two cod in a steep habitat with a substrate of stones.

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High resolution tracking reveals strong habitat selection in cod!
bit.ly/meps15039
@karlgjelland.bsky.social
@ninanatureresearch.bsky.social

Small coastal boats and those of the small pelagic fish fishery in the back, in a coastal area off central Chile.

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Trophic seasonal dynamics, oceanographic conditions, & interactions among cohabiting small pelagic fish species were examined at the central & south Humboldt Current, using stable isotopes (δ13C, δ15N) in different levels of the food web.
bit.ly/meps15032

A 4×3 panel grid showing early succession in subtidal fouling communities. The first square contains the paper title. The remaining 11 panels show a settlement panel from Week 0 to Week 10. Panels with higher initial species richness consistently exhibit less colonization by new species over time.

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Species diversity slows colonization in early succession subtidal fouling communities. Higher initial species richness inhibits new settlers consistently across two locations, showing the effect of diversity on early community assembly.
bit.ly/meps15043

A worm on the sand.

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Microplastics accumulate on the seafloor and inevitability interact with bioturbating species. To what extent microplastics change the biogeochemical cycling depends on the functional traits of bioturbating species and their responses to microplastics.
bit.ly/meps15031

The image shows the view from one of the cameras attached to the remotely operated vehicle which we used to collect push-cores. In the front left we see the sampling equipment, see-through plastic liners with handlers to grab for the manipulator of the remotely operated vehicle. In the center and background of the image we see a cerianthid field, with the cerianthids tentacles and tubes as a prominent feature of the community. In between, brittle stars, whelks, tubeworms and fish show an immense abundance and density of life.

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Cerianthid fields, common but understudied deep-water ecosystems, host distinct macrofaunal communities and biogeochemistry. As functionally important habitats, cerianthid fields are worthy of greater scientific attention and protection.
bit.ly/meps15033

A rocky shore at low tide. Six people involved in a citizen science programme are inventorying the shore.

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Citizen science reveals Brittany’s rocky shore biodiversity 🌊🐚 Spatial & environmental factors drive communities more than observer bias, confirming CS value for biogeography.
bit.ly/meps15021
@aurelien-boye.bsky.social
@univbrest.bsky.social
@ifremer.bsky.social
@cnrs-inist.bsky.social

A dense stand of bladderwrack in the Baltic Sea at three meters depth.

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Eutrophication has decreased the depth distribution of Baltic Sea bladderwrack stands. This study reveals the depth-diversity link and its ecological importance for biodiversity and ecosystem function in bladderwrack habitats.
bit.ly/meps15029

A live Red Rock Crab standing on a wet sand beach. The back of the crab has both larger mature barnacles as well as smaller, more recently settled barnacles.

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When and where should you settle on a crab? We found a barnacle matches its reproduction with the molting of their crab hosts. Using a new and reproduceable method, we also found that they only occur in grooves on the host crab carapace.
bit.ly/meps15027

Graphical abstract: A flow chart showing the processing procedures of every euphausiid sample: gut content analysis by eighteen S V nine metabarcoding and trophic level assessment by stable isotope analysis.

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A new study combining 18S V9 metabarcoding and stable isotope analysis reveals distinct food preferences and varying feeding plasticity of three tropical euphausiid species, which also correspond to their typical distribution patterns.
doi.org/10.3354/meps...

Photograph taken at sea level showing a juvenile hawksbill turtle surfacing for air, with Reunion Island visible in the background.

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New research on juvenile hawksbills: stable home ranges, morning surfacing, and unexpected migrations revealed by GPS tracking around Reunion Island. Protecting both local habitats and regional corridors is vital. #Turtles #MarineConservation
bit.ly/meps14997

Painting of a school of lesser sandeels, by Björn Johansson.

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Why are North Sea sandeels getting smaller? New study finds prey community shifts, not warming, likely drive size declines. A growth model shows how prey, temperature, turbidity, and early-life timing interact under climate change.
bit.ly/meps15010
@neilbanas.bsky.social
@sbohvm.gla.ac.uk

A juvenile bull shark swims just below the surface of calm, dark water over the side of a boat.

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Human modification affected juvenile bull sharks' overall residency. They shifted habitats to remain in low-salinity areas, making seasonal movements up a man-made canal. 
bit.ly/meps15018

A tidal channel meanders through mudflats and vegetated marsh at a restored site in the San Francisco Estuary.

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In this study, researchers assessed vegetation status in tidal marshes restored on the US west coast 2-6 decades ago. Overall, while restored sites recovered native species, many had lower diversity and differing plant composition.
bit.ly/meps15014

Golden kelp, Ecklonia radiata.

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Rising ocean temperatures threaten kelp forests. Nutrient uptake by golden kelp across two populations under warming varied by nitrogen source and concentration, informing potential change to kelp functioning and nutrient cycling under climate stress.
bit.ly/meps15008

A panel of underwater photographs shows different macroalgal compositions along an urban-rural gradient in the Salish Sea. Urbanization intensity decreases from left to right and top to bottom. The images include filamentous algae forming fine, hair-like mats; low-lying turf algae creating dense, carpet-like cover; mid-complexity forms with branching or tufted structures; and large canopy-forming kelps with broad blades extending upward into the water column. Together, the photos illustrate how macroalgae vary in vertical structure along an urban gradient.

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Urban stress affects kelp too. 🌆🌿 We built a global, open-source R tool to measure marine urbanization intensity and found strong kelp declines near cities in the Salish Sea.
bit.ly/meps14998

Crabeater seal over sea ice.

🧪🦤🌐 We overcome the challenge of estimating crabeater seal distribution in the Southern Ocean by combining seal presence data from multiple sources with environmental data from an ecologically-validated high-resolution ocean model
bit.ly/meps_772_193
@corneystuart.bsky.social
@pxh.bsky.social

Figure showing the depth distribution of Arctic cod from zero meters to five hundred meters. At zero meters, a juvenile is shown with dense gill rakers and a small copepod prey. At five hundred meters, a larger adult is shown with sparse gill rakers and a bigger amphipod prey.

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Arctic cod benthic-pelagic energy coupling may be linked to ontogenetic shift in gill raker density.
bit.ly/meps_775_171

A mangrove crab Parasesarma persicum emerging from its burrow in the muddy intertidal zone of a Persian Gulf mangrove forest – the extreme environment driving genetic and morphological divergence in our new MEPS study.

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How do species survive harsh conditions? New study on mangrove crab Parasesarma persicum shows divergence between the Persian Gulf & Gulf of Oman due to low connectivity & extreme stress 🦀🌊 #MarineBiology #Crab #Evolution #PersianGulf
bit.ly/meps_775_99

A group of images showing, in the central photo, a tidal marsh landscape next to inland grassland. Above and below the tidal marsh photo, there are close-up photos of arthropods, including spiders, beetles, butterflies, and cicadas from these environments. One of the images is a diagram illustrating, with arthropod silhouettes, the typical species of each environment and their assembly overlap.

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How are terrestrial arthropod assemblages in tidal marshes shaped? Environmental filters and species traits drive metacommunity patterns in SW-Atlantic marshes. Connectivity matters—preserving habitat links is key for coastal biodiversity.
bit.ly/meps_775_53

The setup for a biochemical analysis. It features a rack holding a series of test tubes, each containing a liquid sample that exhibits a colorimetric gradient ranging from light yellow to dark brown. These colors represent distinct biochemical values (obtained through analysis) from different tissues of the pen shell Pinna rugosa.  In the foreground, the triangular, deep dark brown shell of a Pinna rugosa specimen is displayed. The shell is visibly covered with marine debris and small encrusting organisms (epibionts), confirming its recent collection from the natural habitat.

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Pinna rugosa has high ecological and economic value so careful management is critical. Despite its importance, research on this species remains scarce. To enhance understanding, we analyzed its biochemical composition across various tissues.
bit.ly/meps_772_151

The little habour seal haul-out group seen here at Prins Heinrich’s Island is deep in a glacial fjord (Kongsfjorden) – that has traditionally been home only to Arctic endemic seal species.

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Arctic seals face many climate challenges, including northward expansion of "boreal" species. The temperate habour seal now overlaps with endemic seals in Svalbard; spatial segregation between species appears to limit competition, thus far.
bit.ly/meps_772_192

Thick-billed murres stand watch on the periphery above the Cape Parry breeding colony.

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We now know that thick-billed murres from Cape Parry, the only western Canadian colony, migrate to the Bering Sea foraging mainly on fish. Males and females molt in different areas and might be exposed to different threats more so during the fall than winter.
bit.ly/meps_773_163

Salmon remains including otoliths and vertebrae from the Feather River excavation.

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Otolith data reveal a marked erosion of Chinook salmon age structure over four millennia, shifting from older, diverse returners to younger, less diverse cohorts. This long-term loss of life-history diversity threatens resilience and ecosystem stability.
bit.ly/meps_773_149