Martin Thiel

• Managing Director at Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

The massive geographic expansion of terrestrial plant crops, livestock, and marine aquacultured species during the 19th and 20th centuries provided local economic benefits, stabilized food demands, and altered local ecosystems. The invasion history of these translocations remains uncertain for most species, limiting our understanding of their futur...

Bonamia (Haplosporida) are oyster parasites capable of devastating oyster populations. The near-circumglobal distribution of the host generalist B. exitiosa has previously been associated with the natural and anthropogenic dispersal of broadly distributed non-commercial oysters in the Ostrea stentina species complex. Here, we took a global snapshot...

Artificial structures are ubiquitous features of urbanized coastal landscapes, but research and management solutions have focused on lower shore communities, neglecting the terrestrial-marine transitional zone. The ecological role of supralittoral habitats on artificial structures generates unique opportunities for the conservation of native specie...

Litter pollution is a global issue that threatens biodiversity and ecosystem services, especially on vulnerable islands. This study assesses and compares the abundance and composition of macrolitter, including plastic bottles, and identifies its sources across beach, dune, and mangrove ecosystems in Jamaica. The highest macrolitter abundance occurr...

Este estudio, desarrollado con la participación de voluntarios(as) en la recolección y análisis de datos, entrega una visión integral sobre los patrones de contaminación por botellas y tapas plásticas a gran escala. Asimismo, aporta recomendaciones para el desarrollo de estrategias de gestión de residuos y políticas públicas, con énfasis en solucio...

Sustaining biodiversity on coastal built structures is a priority to maintain ecosystem functioning in the face of increasing urban sprawl. This goal has been generally pursued by adding physical features to built structures to generate multiple microhabitats, without considering key species interactions, such as grazing. Here, combining descriptiv...

Macroplastic pollution is a pervasive global environmental challenge, adversely affecting marine ecosystems, wildlife and human health. Understanding temporal variations is crucial for identifying pollution sources and developing effective mitigation policies. However, in-situ data from beach surveys are often irregular, both spatially and temporal...

Microplastics in aquatic ecosystems harbor numerous microorganisms, including pathogenic species. The ingestion of these microplastics by commercial fish poses a threat to the ecosystem and human livelihood. Coastal lagoons are highly vulnerable to microplastic and microbiological pollution, yet limited understanding of the risks complicates manage...

Free access for 50 days: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1jjCNB8cd0UKJ Seabirds have become biovectors of plastic pollutants between marine and terrestrial ecosystems, and transport of plastics to their nesting sites becomes relevant due to increasing levels of pollution. To determine the pathways by which plastic reaches their colonies, we analyse...

In this contribution we have compiled the papers published by Christoph D. Schubart, the species named by him and his coauthors, and the species named in his honour. At the date of compiling these lists, Christoph has published 205 papers, many with his students as first authors. More than 50 taxa, all decapod crustaceans, have been named by Christ...

Anthropogenic beach litter presents a significant environmental challenge, particularly in the north-east Atlantic. Understanding temporal variations is crucial for identifying pollution sources and developing effective policies. However, in-situ data from beach surveys are irregular, both spatially and temporally, and subject to high variability,...

Brand names can be used to hold plastic companies accountable for their items found polluting the environment. We used data from a 5-year (2018–2022) worldwide (84 countries) program to identify brands found on plastic items in the environment through 1576 audit events. We found that 50% of items were unbranded, calling for mandated producer report...

The Eastern Tropical and South-Eastern Pacific region is of global biodiversity importance. At COP26, the governments of Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Ecuador committed to the expansion of existing MPAs to create a new Mega MPA, safeguarding the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor. It offers a profound step forward in conservation efforts...

Non-indigenous species (NIS) establish and thrive on floating artificial substrata along mid-latitude shores, which might serve as propagule reservoirs and stepping stones for their dispersal. However, often, the NIS are not able to colonize the adjacent seafloor, where high predation pressure by benthic predators might inhibit them. To test this h...

In coastal waters, higher concentrations of microplastics (MPs) are generally related to densely populated and industrialized areas, but intense upwelling and offshore transport in the Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems (EBUS) may influence this pattern. The Humboldt Current System (HCS) along the coast of northern-central Chile represents a perfec...

Communication is an essential element of science, and while it is important in all scientific endeavors, it gains substantial strategic relevance in citizen science projects. For a school citizen science program to be successful, an adequate communication strategy needs to achieve a balance between learning objectives and the generation of scientif...

local communities. Volunteers sampled AML on 130 beaches along the central and southern East Pacific coasts, with AML densities ranging from 0.46 to 2.26 items m􀀀 2 in the different countries. AML composition was dominated by plastics and cigarette butts, the latter especially in Mexico and Chile. The accumulation of AML in the upper zones of the b...

Engaging the general public in research processes through citizen science allows for innovative scientific studies and makes science accessible to the general public. Effective communication strategies are crucial for the success of such initiatives. The citizen science program Plastic Pirates investigated the plastic pollution of rivers and implem...

Background Long-distance rafting on anthropogenic marine debris (AMD) is thought to have a significant impact on global marine biogeography and the dispersal of non-indigenous species. Therefore, early identification of arrival sites of AMD and its epibionts is crucial for the prioritization of preventive measures. As accumulation patterns along gl...

To address environmental pollution by plastic litter, the European Union adopted EU Directive 2019/904, the so called "Single-Use Plastics Directive" (SUPD), which bans several single-use plastic products and addresses additional items with measures such as extended producer responsibility and obligatory requirements for product redesign. This stud...

As global awareness, science, and policy interventions for plastic escalate, institutions around the world are seeking preventative strategies. Central to this is the need for precise global time series of plastic pollution with which we can assess whether implemented policies are effective, but at present we lack these data. To address this need,...

As human behaviors play a crucial role in addressing the global threat of plastic pollution, it is vital to understand perceptions about marine plastic litter (MPL) and to develop interventions encouraging pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs). This study evaluates story writing as a window to explore perceptions and as an engagement activity to boost...

Data resulting from citizen science investigations are often questioned as most participants do not (yet) have a thorough scientific education. This is especially true for projects taking place in schools, and conducting citizen science in this context is further complicated by different motivations of participants and a busy school curriculum. Her...

Non-indigenous species (NIS) can invade marine ecosystems worldwide not only because of higher growth rates and reproductive potential but also due to their ability to escape from native consumers either by defensive traits or by the colonization of spatial refuges. Spatial consumption refuges can be present in tidepools, especially in those from t...

Coastal lagoons are transitional environments between continental and marine aquatic systems. Globally, coastal lagoons are of great ecological and socioeconomic importance as providers of valuable ecosystem services. However, these fragile environments are subject to several human pressures, including pollution by microplastics (MPs). The aim of t...

Citizen science is an increasingly acknowledged approach applied in many scientific domains, and particularly within the environmental and ecological sciences, in which non-professional participants contribute to data collection to advance scientific research. We present contributory citizen science as a valuable method to scientists and practition...

Monitoring beach plastic contamination across space and time is necessary for understanding its sources and ecological effects, and for guiding mitigation. This is logistically and financially challenging, especially for microplastics. Citizen science represents an option for sampling accessible sites to support long term monitoring, but challenges...

Invasive species such as seaweeds often have a broad tolerance, allowing them to colonize novel habitats. During invasion, also new epibacteria can be formed on seaweeds, which have important chemo-ecological effects. Since UV-radiation (UVR) is one of the main factors affecting seaweeds and their epibacteria, we tested its effect on intertidal and...

Plastic marine debris (PMD) polluting marine habitats is a pressing anthropogenic global environmental problem and its reduction requires the commitment of government and industry, and the collaboration of the public. Environmental citizen science projects (CSPs) have flourished and are widely regarded as having positive effects on participants’ kn...

Laboratory exposure studies allow to investigate the impact of microplastics on marine biota, but commonly lack a procedural control, i.e. assessing the effects of natural microparticles. In two experiments with the mussel Semimytilus algosus, we compared the effects of clay vs. polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and celite vs. polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA),...

Anthropogenic litter is found in all environments, but perceptions of people about this problem depend on the context. We examined the cognition and perception of litter in the environment by schoolchildren from the Pacific Coast of Latin America. Two studies were conducted, (1) in a daily urban context, and (2) on a natural beach; schoolchildren p...

Microplastics are ubiquitous in the marine environment and studies on their effects on benthic filter feeders at least partly revealed a negative influence. However, it is still unclear whether the effects of microplastics differ from those of natural suspended microparticles, which constitute a common stressor in many coastal environments. We pres...

Many seaweed species are particularly important for passive marine dispersal, yet relatively little is known about their floating and stranding dynamics. Here, we studied these dynamics for two kelp species over four consecutive years at mid‐latitudes (30°S). Floating kelps were found during all seasons, but Macrocystis pyrifera was always more abu...

The abundance and distribution of plastic debris at the sea surface shows considerable variability over different spatial scales. Some of the oceanographic processes at small (<1 km) and submeso (1–10 km) scales manifest themselves as slicks at the sea surface, which might have the potential to concentrate organisms and particles (such as positivel...

Marine litter, including plastics and microplastics, is accumulating in the world’s oceans at an unprecedented rate. The volume of plastics currently in the oceans has been estimated at between 75 million and 199 million tons1. Found in sea floor sediments and on beaches, among many other locations globally, plastics are are becoming part of the Ea...

Rivers polluted by anthropogenic litter are major transport routes of litter from inland to the coastal zone and the ocean. However, litter studies have primarily focused on marine environments, and the litter dynamics in rivers are still poorly understood. Herein, we explored the abundances, composition and sources of litter at the riversides and...

Large amounts of floating litter accumulate in the subtropical gyres, and the shorelines of oceanic islands in the vicinity of these accumulation zones receive large amounts of litter. The dynamics of marine litter arrival were evaluated on a small pocket beach on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) between November 2016 and June 2017 over a total time period...

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) has been extensively used, and discarded PPE has been observed in many different environments, including on tourist beaches. Here we examined the distribution and densities of face masks on some of the main tourist beaches in Chile, and we monitored their daily accumu...

Rivers are an important transport route of anthropogenic litter from inland sources toward the sea. A collaborative (i.e. citizen science) approach was used to evaluate the litter pollution of rivers in Germany: schoolchildren within the project “Plastic Pirates” investigated rivers across the entire country during the years 2016 and 2017 by survey...

The emergence of citizen science has opened new possibilities for research to inform management and conservation policies. This requires a deep understanding and inclusion of diverse stakeholders. In marine environments, divers are among the largest groups of citizen science volunteers, compared to other marine users. However, little is known about...

This study aimed to assess how oceanographic variables (depth, water temperature, and phytoplankton biomass) and the proximity to islands and seamounts affect the structure of neustonic polychaete assemblages across the SE Pacific Ocean. We used data from 2 oceanographic cruises and online databases to analyze how different environmental variables...

En este libro descubrirás la impresionante vida marina de las Islas Oceánicas Chilenas, grandes tesoros del Océano Pacífico Sur. Conocerás su climatología y procesos oceanográficos, su gran biodiversidad, así como también sus amenazas y las acciones para su conservación. Acompaña en este viaje a un equipo de científicos nacionales e internacionales...

• Characterizing the composition of divers visiting different diving areas could help to design marine citizen science (MCS) projects that support biodiversity monitoring and marine conservation. • Recreational scuba divers mostly prefer warm and clear waters with coral reefs, and based on the Duffus and Dearden’s wildlife tourism framework we hypo...

The hyper-oligotrophic waters of the South Pacific Subtropical Gyre (SPSG) and the productive coastal Humboldt Current System (HCS) constitute an extreme nutrient gradient in the eastern South Pacific Ocean.Rich and dense fouling communities are known from floating objects in the HCS, but they have not been studied in the SPSG and it is not known w...

Das Titelbild zeigt, wie das Einbinden von Schülerinnen und Schülern in Citizen‐Science‐Projekte eine Vielzahl an Kompetenzen fördert. Abbildung aus Kruse et al. 2020 (Dem Plastikmüll auf der Spur – Ein internationales Citizen‐Science‐Projekt zur Förderung der naturwissenschaftlichen Grundbildung von Schülerinnen und Schülern, Chemkon, DOI: 10.1002...

The global distribution of primary production and consumption by humans (fisheries) is well-documented, but we have no map linking the central ecological process of consumption within food webs to temperature and other ecological drivers. Using standardized assays that span 105° of latitude on four continents, we show that rates of bait consumption...

This is the seventh volume of a ten-volume series on The Natural History of the Crustacea. Our volume examines Developmental Biology and Larval Ecology, and it follows Volume 1: Functional Morphology and Diversity, Volume 2: Life Styles and Feeding Biology, Volume 3: Nervous Systems and Control of Behavior, Volume 4: Physiology, Volume 5: Life Hist...

1. While floating near the sea surface plastic debris interacts with a number of external factors, including many different organisms. Seabirds have the most extensive documented history of interactions with plastics, through ingestion, entanglement, and nest construction. 2. In the present study, eight seabird species from the South Pacific Ocean...

-Marine plastic pollution is worse than expected, and we are starting to realize its full extent and severity. Solving the plastic pollution problem is not easy, as it requires the action and commitment of all sectors of our society. With a coastline extending over 4,000 km (from 18°S to 56°S), Chile is a maritime country, and since plastics are po...

Abstract Aim: Topographic complexity is widely accepted as a key driver of biodiversity, but at the patch-scale, complexity–biodiversity relationships may vary spatially and temporally according to the environmental stressors complexity mitigates, and the species richness and identity of potential colonists. Using a manipulative experiment, we asse...

Reproductive rhythms can be found in numerous crustacean species. This chapter reviews the temporal scales of rhythms and how these rhythms are entrained and maintained by external cues and endogenous clocks. The occurrence and synchrony of rhythms vary along latitudinal and depth gradients, which may depend on the availability of zeitgebers (e.g.,...

This is the sixth volume of a ten-volume series on The Natural History of the Crustacea. The volume synthesizes in nineteen chapters our current understanding of diverse topics in crustacean reproductive biology. The first part of the volume address allocation strategies to reproduction, gamete production, brooding behavior and other components of...

Citizen science projects help schoolchildren gain insights into topics of current scientific research and the research process itself. This creates an opportunity to provide students with the skills needed to become critically-thinking engaged citizens. Despite highly positive motivation and feedback during many citizen science projects, research i...

UV radiation can affect the physiology of seaweeds and their associated microorganisms. In this study we exposed different Chilean populations of the agarophyte Gelidium lingulatum to PAR or PAR+UV and monitored their photosynthetic performance using in vivo chlorophyll fluorescence for 5 days to determine changes in abundance and composition of ep...

This volume examines Developmental Biology and Larval Ecology, Chapters in this volume synthesize our current understanding of early crustacean development from the egg through the embryonic and larval phase. The first part of this volume focuses on the fundamental aspects of crustacean embryonic development. The second part of the book provides an...

El Proyecto STRONG High Seas forma parte de la Iniciativa Internacional sobre el Clima (IKI); www. international-climate-initiative.com/en/). El Ministerio Federal de Medio Ambiente, Protección de la Naturaleza y Seguridad Nuclear (BMU) fomenta esta iniciativa en virtud de una resolución del Parlamento de la República Federal de Alemania. El Proyec...

Southeast Pacific (SEP) oceanic islands are characterized by their extreme isolation and high degree of endemism. To date, most research has focussed on species composition and distributions, with little information available on early life stages. In this study, we provide new records of early life stages of cephalopods based on planktonic collecti...

Large herbivores such as sea urchins and fish consume a high proportion of benthic primary production and frequently control the biomass of marine macrophytes. By contrast, small mesograzers, including gastropods and peracarid crustaceans, are abundant on seaweeds but have low per capita feeding rates and their impacts on marine macrophytes are dif...

Geographic variation of phenotypic traits affects the capacity of species to withstand and adapt to environmental stress. Here, we examined how geographic origin influences UV‐stress tolerance of the red seaweeds Chondracanthus chamissoi and Gelidium lingulatum distributed along the South‐East Pacific coast between 20° S and 42° S. Seaweeds from 6...

Many crustacean species are known to provide parental care, with behaviors ranging from ventilating the eggs to providing food for young. This chapter provides an overview of parental care patterns across crustaceans, and then compares crustacean parental care to that of select other taxa (insects, fishes, frogs) that share important traits with cr...

de In dem Citizen‐Science‐Projekt „Dem Plastikmüll auf der Spur“ wurden Schülerinnen und Schüler gemeinsam mit ihren Lehrkräften in eine wissenschaftliche Untersuchung zur Erhebung von Mülldaten an deutschen und chilenischen Stränden eingebunden. Durch das Projekt wurden zum einen wissenschaftliche Daten erhoben, zum anderen wurde bei den Teilnehme...

In northern-central Chile, natural variability in ocean temperature is driven by the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The frequency and intensity of ENSO events and resulting heat waves may increase in future due to anthropogenic climate change. Kelps are important primary producers in coastal temperate ecosystems. They serve as a food source f...

Subtropical gyres are the oceanic regions where plastic litter accumulates over long timescales, exposing surrounding oceanic islands to plastic contamination, with potentially severe consequences on marine life. Islands’ exposure to such contaminants, littered over long distances in marine or terrestrial habitats, is due to the ocean currents that...

Background: There is a biogeographic break located at 30°S in the southeast Pacific, in a coastal area of strong environmental discontinuities. Several marine benthic taxa with restricted dispersal have a coincident phylogeographic break at 30°S, indicating that genetic structure is moulded by life history traits that limit gene flow and thereby p...

Consumer pressure in benthic communities is predicted to be higher at low than at high latitudes, but support for this pattern has been ambiguous, especially for herbivory. To understand large-scale variation in biotic interactions, we quantify consumption (predation and herbivory) along 2500 km of the Chilean coast (19°S–42°S). We deployed tetheri...

Wastewater effluent is a prevalent source of contaminants of emerging concern in aquatic environments, including plastic pollution. A wide range of monitoring and analytical techniques to assess the contribution of wastewater derived microplastic pollution have been employed over the past two decades. The goal of this report is to critically evalua...

We determined the spatial and seasonal distribution of Floating Marine Debris (FMD) by visual ship surveys across the northern Baltic Sea between Finland and Sweden. FMD density was comparatively low, and we found the highest debris density close to major port cities. The seasonal variation in debris density was not pronounced although we observed...

Squat lobsters frequently inhabit low-oxygen waters, facing particular physiological challenges. Pleuroncodes monodon inhabits one of the most extreme oxygen minimum zones in the world’s oceans at low temperatures, but avoids high temperature hypoxic waters. The present study aimed to determine whether the maternally dependent reproductive outcome...

Squat lobsters frequently inhabit low-oxygen waters, facing particular physiological challenges. Pleuroncodes monodon inhabits one of the most extreme oxygen minimum zones in the world’s oceans at low temperatures, but avoids high temperature hypoxic waters. The present study aimed to determine whether the maternally dependent reproductive outcome...

Operational sex ratio (OSR) has long been considered an important predictor of sexual selection strength. In crustaceans, OSR is primarily dependent upon reproductive rhythms. Herein, we model different conditions of reproductive rhythms to investigate the potential link between OSR and the strength of sexual selection, focusing on sexual traits co...

Global concern about floating marine debris and its fundamental role in shaping coastal biodiversity is growing, yet there is very little knowledge about debris-associated rafting communities in many areas of the world's oceans. In the present study, we examined the encrusting assemblage on different types of stranded debris (wood, plastic, glass,...

Kelp forests are declining in many parts of the globe, which can lead to the spreading of barren grounds. Increased abundances of grazers, mainly due to reduction of their predators, are among the causes of this development. Here, we compared the species richness (SR), frequency of occurrence (FO), and maximum abundance (MaxN) of predatory fish and...

Availability of floating seaweeds may depend on the seasonal cycles of benthic populations, but our ability to predict temporal patterns of stranded biomasses is still limited. Season-dependent, local storms favor detachment of seaweeds from the substratum, which can be reflected in the stranded biomasses on adjacent beaches after these events. Hen...

La ciencia ciudadana involucra la sociedad civil en la investigación científica. Este tipo de iniciativas genera mejores resultados al establecer la propiedad conjunta del conocimiento. Además, es de particular utilidad en zonas remotas, donde los científicos enfrenta una serie de problemas logísticos para desarrollar la investigación. En Rapa Nui,...

Divers have widely participated in citizen science (CS) projects and are one of the main groups of marine citizen scientists. However, there is little knowledge about profiles of, and incentives for potential divers to join CS projects. To date, most studies have focused on the SCUBA diving industry; nevertheless, there is a diversity of divers, no...

Many marine gastropods show species-specific behavioral responses to different predators, but less is known about the mechanisms influencing differences or similarities in specific responses. Herein, we examined whether two limpet species, Scurria viridula (Lamarck, 1819) and Fissurella latimarginata (Sowerby, 1835), show species- and size-specific...

This report was the product of a GESAMP Working Group, consisting of 15 independent experts based in North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Europe and Australasia. The report was edited by Kershaw, Turra and Galgani. It with provides recommendations to encourage a more harmonised approach to the monitoring and assessment of plastic litter, inc...