Menja von Schmalensee

West Iceland Nature Research Center (Náttúrustofa Vesturlands)

The invasive American mink has been a component of Iceland's fauna since the 1930s. Hunting statistics indicate that until 2003 the population size was increasing, but thereafter decreased rapidly. The Icelandic marine environment has experienced various changes in recent years, including rising sea temperature and sand-eel collapse followed by sea...

Boom-bust dynamics – the rise of a population to outbreak levels, followed by a dramatic decline – have been associated with biological invasions and offered as a reason not to manage troublesome invaders. However, boom-bust dynamics rarely have been critically defined, analyzed, or interpreted. Here, we define boom-bust dynamics and provide specif...

A report made upon the request of the minister for the Environment and Natural Resources, concerning the protection, welfare and hunting of wild birds and mammals in Iceland. The report covers both legal and administrational issues as well as a number of influencing factors regarding the conservation and hunting of wild birds and mammals. It contai...

Managing the impacts of invasive alien species (IAS) is a great societal challenge. A wide variety of terms have been used to describe the management of invasive alien species and the sequence in which they might be applied. This variety and lack of consistency creates uncertainty in the presentation and description of management in policy, science...

Commonly used in the literature to refer to the “attractiveness”, “appeal”, or “beauty” of a species, charisma can be defined as a set of characteristics – and the perception thereof – that affect people's attitudes and behaviors toward a species. It is a highly relevant concept for invasion science, with implications across all stages of the invas...

Using whole mitochondrial DNA sequences from 89 white-tailed eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla) sampled from Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Denmark and Estonia between 1990-2018, we investigate the mitogenomic variation within and between countries. We show that there is a substantial population differentiation between the countries, reflecting similar maj...

Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are often seen in the waters surrounding the Snæfellsnes peninsula. Behavioural, locational, and photographic data of killer whales has been obtained there since 2011 in an ongoing non-invasive research and monitoring project. Data is collected from an opportunistic platform aboard whale-watching boats, as well as via l...

Interactions between killer whales (Orcinus orca (Linnaeus, 1758)) and long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas (Traill, 1809)) have been documented on numerous occasions, usually involving predation events and pursuits. Here, the first documented account of a long-finned pilot whale calf seen in echelon position with one killer whale in a grou...

Divergence in the face of high dispersal capabilities is a documented but poorly understood phenomenon. The white‐tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) has a large geographic dispersal capability and should theoretically be able to maintain genetic homogeneity across its dispersal range. However, following analysis of the genomic variation of white‐t...

Divergence in the face of high dispersal capabilities is a documented but poorly understood phenomenon. The white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) has a large geographic dispersal capability and should theoretically be able to maintain genetic homogeneity across its dispersal range. However, following analysis of the genomic variation of white-t...

A collective understanding of economic impacts and in particular of monetary costs of biological invasions is lacking for the Nordic region. This paper synthesizes findings from the literature on costs of invasions in the Nordic countries together with expert elicitation. The analysis of cost data has been made possible through the InvaCost databas...

In this study, findings obtained from the analysis of a photo-identification catalogue of killer whales in Iceland published in January 2022 are presented. The catalogue comprises photo-identification images from February 2011 to December 2021. While the catalogue includes additional individuals from other areas around Iceland, the focus is on iden...

In the originally published version of this manuscript, the last name of author David Boertmann was inadvertently misspelled as ‘Boetmann’.

Using whole mitochondrial DNA sequences from 89 White-tailed Eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla) sampled from Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Denmark and Estonia between 1990 and 2018, we investigate the mitogenomic variation within and between countries. We show that there is a substantial population differentiation between the countries, reflecting similar...

Killer whales in Iceland are known to largely feed on herring, but sporadic predation accounts of a variety of prey point to a potentially more complex foraging ecology. Preliminary results from our ongoing year-round research and monitoring project of killer whales in West Iceland, which started in 2014, show that Icelandic killer whales pursue lu...

Background Recurring escapes or deliberate releases and subsequent infiltration or establishment of feral populations by individuals from fur farms have been commonly noted since the beginning of fur industry expansion. Once animals have invaded ecosystems adjacent to source farms escapees can change the demography of the feral populations through...

Ránfuglar eiga sér sumir sérstakan stað í hjörtum okkar Íslendinga. Haförninn er konungur fuglanna, fálkinn er þjóðarfugl Íslendinga, við dáumst að snerpu smyrilsins og hjartað tekur kipp þegar við sjáum uglu. Við höfum vanist því að til ránfugla teljist ákveðnir hópar fugla, en í vistfræðilegum skilningi eru fjölmargar aðrar tegundir fugla sem hér...

Raflínur reynast fuglum um allan heim skeinuhættar, en fuglar geta ýmist fengið raflost eða flogið á línurnar, oftast með banvænum afleiðingum. Umfang vandans er talið það mikið að þetta geti haft talsverð neikvæð stofnáhrif hjá sumum tegundum eða stofnum. Áflug eða raflost fugla hefur nær ekkert verið rannsakað á Íslandi. Hér verður sjónum þó bein...

American mink Neovison vison is one of the most harmful non-indigenous species in Iceland and has been proven to be a useful indirect bioindicator and biomonitor for numerous environmental pollutants. Therefore, the main objective of the study was to determine the total nickel concentration in the spleen of 35 females and 30 males obtained from Bro...

Flestir sem fylgjast með fuglalífi hafa eflaust einhvern tímann velt fyrir sér áhrifum katta á fiðraða vini okkar. Það getur verið sársaukafullt að horfa upp á kött nágrannans tæma þrastarhreiðrið í garðinum, sem veitti okkur ómælda ánægju að fylgjast með, eða sjá ketti hverfisins flykkast þangað sem fuglavinir hafa lagt út fuglafræ og annað góðmet...

Killer whales in Iceland occur in coastal herring grounds in larger aggregations at certain times of the year, whereas they can be observed opportunistically in smaller groups travelling along the Icelandic shoreline year-round. An increase in killer whale sightings along the Snæfellsnes Peninsula since 2010 yielded unique opportunities for a detai...

The conference “Science in the Service of Nature – focus on the conservation genetics and combating invasive alien species” is organized in the frames of the international projects – “Science in the service of nature – gene pools conservation of endangered and threatened mammalian species by knowledge transfer and experience sharing on the best pra...

Invasive alien species are among the major drivers of biodiversity loss, being destructive to native ecosystems, and human economy and well-being. Despite their severe negative impact, tracking the paths of biological invasions and distribution dynamics of invasive species, as well as assessing the scope and character of their interactions with res...

A comparison of two eradication methods for the invasive species Lupinus nootkatensis in Iceland: Nootka lupine, Lupinus nootkatensis, was introduced to Iceland for revegetation and afforestation purposes in 1945. Due to its spread and impact on native vegetation, it has been classified as an invasive species. In 2010, the Stykkishólmur municipali...

Undanfarna vetur hefur óvenju ríkt fuglalíf verið við norðanvert Snaefellsnes. Skýrist það einkum af miklu aeti en frá árinu 2006 hefur eldri hluti sumargotssíldarstofnsins gengið inn á sunnanverðan Breiðafjörð til vetrardvalar. Veturinn 2012–13 varð sá fordaemalausi atburður að ríflega 50 þúsund tonn af síld drápust í Kolgrafafirði í tveimur aðski...

The alien invasive American mink Neovison vison is fully established in the low species richness and competitor-free environment of Iceland. This study documents the diversity as well as seasonal and sexual variation in the diet of mink in Iceland based on stomach contents. Seasonal changes mainly reflected variation in abundance of migratory birds...

Iceland is an isolated island in the North-Atlantic Ocean. Most of the indigenous species originate in Europe but species diversity is generally considered low. However, biological diversity is probably higher than the number of species indicates, due to high variation within species, and several populations and ecosystems have a high conservation...

Biodiversity is fundamental to ecosystem services, the lifeblood of evolution, and provides valuable resources necessary for human well-being. Due to the direct and indirect consequences of human activities, the present rate of species extinction is 100–10.000 times greater than what can be considered natural. One of the main drivers of species ext...

This study was conducted for the Icelandic Road Administration to estimate the impact of a new causeway crossing the fjord Kolgrafafjordur in the Snæfellsnes peninsula, W-Iceland, on the local population density of feral mink (Neovison vison), following the expression of concerns about a possible increase in mink numbers. The population density and...

Gut contents of three small (<6 mm) species of munnopsid asellote isopod crustaceans (Echinozone arctica, Ilyarachna bergendali and I. torleivi) from bathyal depths in the Nordic Seas were examined. The species feed mainly on benthic foraminifers, and their gut contents reflect the functional capability of the mouthparts in partitioning the food. F...