Niall Mcginty- PhD
- Research Associate at Dalhousie University
Niall Mcginty
- PhD
- Research Associate at Dalhousie University
About
23
Publications
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369
Citations
Introduction
Niall McGinty currently works at the Department of Biology, Mount Allison University. Interests: plankton ecology, spatial ecology, climate change.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
March 2012 - January 2013
September 2008 - September 2011
Publications
Publications (23)
Modelling responses to climate change assumes zooplankton populations remain similar over time with little adaptation (niche conservatism). Oceanic barriers, genetic, phenotypic variation and species interactions in cosmopolitan species could drive niche divergence within species. We assess niche divergence among 223 globally distributed species ac...
Niche conservatism is the hypothesis that a species' niche remains stable in space and time. This concept is central to understanding phenomena ranging from the role of climate change impacts on species biogeography to community dynamics. Marine zooplankton have been used as indicators of global change in the ocean, and niche conservatism is usuall...
Copepods are among the most abundant marine metazoans and form a key link between marine primary producers, higher trophic levels, and carbon sequestration pathways. Climate change is projected to change surface ocean temperature by up to 4°C in the North Atlantic with many associated changes including slowing of the overturning circulation, areas...
Phytoplankton dynamics are closely linked to the ocean-climate system with evidence that changing ocean conditions are substantially altering phytoplankton biogeography, abundance and phenology. Using phytoplankton community composition and environmental data spanning 1965 to 2013 from a long-term Pacific Ocean coastal station offshore from Sydney,...
It has been speculated that some deep-sea fishes can display large vertical migrations and likely doing so to explore the full suite of benthopelagic food resources, especially the pelagic organisms of the deep scattering layer (DSL). This would help explain the success of fishes residing at seamounts and the increased biodiversity found in these f...
Understanding the impact of environmental and biological factors on species’ habitat use is crucial for conservation. A regular presence of common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) has recently been observed in the Western Ligurian Sea, but their distribution, habitat preferences, and social dynamics remain poorly understood. This study aims...
Zooplankton play a crucial role in marine ecosystems as the link between the primary producers and higher trophic levels, and as such they are key components of global biogeochemical and ecosystem models. While phytoplankton spatial-temporal dynamics can be tracked using satellite remote sensing, no analogous data product is available to validate z...
Epidermal conditions, traumatic marks, deformities, and unusual body pigmentation were visually assessed on common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) using photo-identification and sightings data collected between 2007 and 2018 in Welsh waters. The goals of this study were to describe and categorize external body conditions, in particular, an...
Fisherman have known and explored the association between tuna and whale sharks for centuries. Just as in the past, present day industrial fishers search for the presence of whale shark as cue to locate tuna schools. These whale shark-tuna associations have been usually assumed to result from the same ecological drivers that govern the attraction o...
References: Bertulli, C.B., Rasmussen, M.H., Rosso, M. (2016b) An assessment of the natural marking patterns used for photo-identification of common minke whales and white-beaked. Mn3 3 • The use of BIOMOD provides us with the ability to identify essential habitats for these species in lesser studied and inaccessible locations around Iceland • Pred...
The need to understand species distribution- and biodiversity patterns in high-latitude marine regions is immediate as these marine environments are undergoing rapid environmental changes, including ocean warming and ocean acidification. By the year 2100, the seas north of the Greenland-Iceland-Faroe (GIF) topographic ridge are predicted to become...
Realised niches describe the environmental and biotic conditions that a species occupies. Among marine zooplankton, species traits, including body size, dietary mode (herbivore, omnivore, or carnivore), and diapause strategy are expected to influence the realised niche of a species. To date, realised niches are known for only a small number of cope...
Some aquatic mammals appear to care for their dead, whereas others abandon their live offspring when conditions are unfavourable. This incredible variety in behaviours suggests the importance of comparing and contrasting mechanisms driving death-related behaviours among these species. We reviewed 106 cases of aquatic mammals (81 cetaceans and 25 no...
Knowledge of abundance and survival of humpback whales, white-beaked dolphins and minke whales are essential to manage and conserve these species in Icelandic coastal shelf waters. Our main goal was to test the feasibility of employing inexpensive research methods (data collected by trained-scientist volunteers onboard opportunistic vessels) to ass...
Near-surface chlorophyll a concentration is a fundamental component of marine ecological processes, and its changes reflect the phytoplankton growth (primary productivity as well as loss due to grazing and sinking) feeding into higher trophic levels. Time series of measurements from several satellite sensors since late 1997 can be used as a proxy o...
Thermohaline fronts are present globally and have been identified as biodiversity hotspots, encouraging enhanced primary productivity
and attracting dense aggregations of higher trophic level organisms. The Celtic Boundary Front (CBF) sits in an important
zone of economic activity yet no contemporary studies describing the meso-zooplankton communit...
Studies have shown that the whale shark (Rhincodon typus), a vulnerable large filter feeder, seasonally aggregates at highly productive coastal sites and that individuals can perform large, trans-boundary migrations to reach these locations. Yet, the whereabouts of the whale shark when absent from these sites and the potential oceanographic and bio...
Population dynamics in open systems are complicated by the interactions of local demography and local environmental forcing with processes occurring at larger scales. A local system such as an estuary or bay may contain a zooplankton population that effectively becomes independent of regional dynamics or the local dynamics may be closely coupled to...
McGinty, N., Power, A. M., and Johnson, M. P. 2012. Trophodynamics and stability of regional scale ecosystems in the Northeast Atlantic. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 69: 764–775.
This study addresses the long-term stability of three trophic groupings in the Northeast Atlantic at regional scales. The most abundant taxa representing phytoplankto...
