Leopard seals ( Hydrurga leptonyx ) are top-order predators that prey on a wide variety of species including crustaceans, cephalopods, fishes, birds, and pinnipeds. While multiple diet studies have been conducted worldwide, there are no previous accounts of leopard seals predating on chondrichthyans. As part of a wider study on the diet of leopard seals in New Zealand (NZ) waters, researchers and citizen scientists recorded 39...

Simulation models represent soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics in global carbon (C) cycle scenarios to support climate‐change studies. It is imperative to increase confidence in long‐term predictions of SOC dynamics by reducing the uncertainty in model estimates. We evaluated SOC simulated from an ensemble of 26 process‐based C models by comparing simulations to experimental data from seven long‐term bare‐fallow (vegetation‐fr...

Major changes are occurring across the North Atlantic climate system, including in the atmosphere, ocean and cryosphere, and many observed changes are unprecedented in instrumental records. As the changes in the North Atlantic directly affect the climate and air quality of the surrounding continents, it is important to fully understand how and why the changes are taking place, not least to predict how the region will change in...

Evidence is accumulating that species' responses to climate changes are best predicted by modelling the interaction of physiological limits, biotic processes and the effects of dispersal‐limitation. Using commercially harvested blacklip ( H aliotis rubra ) and greenlip abalone ( H aliotis laevigata ) as case studies, we determine the relative importance of accounting for interactions among physiology, metapopulation dynamics a...

Current methods and theory used in the study of the spatial dynamics of marine fish are problematic. Positive relationships between population abundance and occupied area are typically interpreted as evidence of density‐dependent habitat selection. However, both abundance and area may co‐vary with an un‐parameterized variable, such as a density‐independent effect. In addition, if density‐dependent habitat selection is present,...