Nigel E Hussey

University of Windsor (www.husseylab.com) · Integrative Biology

Bulk stable isotope analysis was used to assess the trophic level and foraging habitats of Caribbean reef sharks (Carcharhinus perezi) compared to three large sympatric predatory teleosts (the Nassau grouper Epinephelus striatus, black grouper Mycteroperca bonaci, and great barracuda Sphyraena barracuda) in an isolated Caribbean coral reef ecosyste...

Sharks are a diverse group of mobile predators that forage across varied spatial scales and have the potential to influence food web dynamics. The ecological consequences of recent declines in shark biomass may extend across broader geographic ranges if shark taxa display common behavioural traits. By tracking the original site of photosynthetic fi...

Globally, small‐scale inshore fisheries are being recognized as highly beneficial for underdeveloped coastal communities since they directly contribute to local economies. Community coastal fisheries, however, may target species that are simultaneously harvested by large commercial vessels in adjacent offshore waters, creating uncertainty over stoc...

Asymmetrical intraguild predation (AIGP), which combines both predation and competition between predator species, is pervasive in nature with relative strengths varying by prey availability. But with species redistributions associated with climate change, the response by endemic predators within an AIGP context to changing biotic–abiotic conditions...

Migratory sharks play a key ecological role through movements within and among marine ecosystems, yet many populations are declining. Addressing the decline is especially challenging for wide-ranging species, as they may undertake movements between countries with disparate conservation priorities. To investigate the transboundary migrations of thre...

Background Migration enables organisms to access resources in separate regions that have predictable but asynchronous spatiotemporal variability in habitat quality. The classical migration syndrome is defined by key traits including directionally persistent long-distance movements during which maintenance activities are suppressed. But recently, se...

Arctic cod (Boreogadus saida) is the most abundant forage fish in the Arctic Ocean. Here we review Arctic cod habitats, distribution, ecology, and physiology to assess how climate change and other anthropogenic stressors are affecting this key species. This review identifies vulnerabilities for different life stages across the entire distribution r...

Environments change across space and time, often requiring organisms to exhibit behavioral responses. In the Arctic, migratory consumers are motivated by spring resources to follow receding ice; however, resident species’ responses to this ephemeral productivity are less well understood. We characterized the movement behaviors of relatively sedenta...

The Arctic experiences dramatic annual cycles in environmental condition, including winters that can last two thirds of the year. During these long winters, coastal waters are covered in ice and show very low levels of productivity which presumably can be stressful for organisms which remain in the same ecosystem year-round. However, the activities...

Within and among species variation in trophic and habitat shifts with body size can indicate the potential adaptive capacity of species to ecosystem change. In Arctic coastal ecosystems, which experience dramatic seasonal shifts and are undergoing rapid change, quantifying the trophic flexibility of coastal fishes with different migratory tactics h...

We report the detection of an alphaherpesvirus infecting an adult female narwhal Monodon monoceros captured live during a tagging project in Tremblay Sound, Nunavut, Canada, in August 2018. The individual had 2 open wounds on the dorsum but appeared in good overall health. A blowhole swab was collected, and subsequent virus isolation was performed...

Background Seasonal long-distance movements are a common feature in many taxa allowing animals to deal with seasonal habitats and life-history demands. Many species use different strategies to prioritize time- or energy-minimization, sometimes employing stop-over behaviours to offset the physiological burden of the directed movement associated with...

A solitary Anelasma squalicola specimen was collected from the cloaca of a Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus), the first time this association has been recorded. The specimen's identity was confirmed through morphological and genetic assessment (mitochondrial markers: COI and control region). Anelasma squalicola is a species typically associ...

Understanding the factors shaping patterns of ecological resilience is critical for mitigating the loss of global biodiversity. Throughout aquatic environments, highly mobile predators are thought to serve as important vectors of energy between ecosystems thereby promoting stability and resilience. However, the role these predators play in connecti...

Sea ice primary production is considered a valuable energy source for Arctic marine food webs, yet the extent remains unclear through existing methods. Here we quantify ice algal carbon signatures using unique lipid biomarkers in over 2300 samples from 155 species including invertebrates, fish, seabirds, and marine mammals collected across the Arct...

Narwhals (Monodon monoceros) are increasingly exposed to anthropogenic disturbances that may increase their stress levels with unknown consequences for the overall population dynamics. The validation and measurement of chronic stress biomarkers could contribute toward improved understanding and conservation efforts for this species. Dehydroepiandro...

Fine-scale tracking technology has advanced our understanding of aquatic animal behaviour by deriving near-continuous movements of animals ranging in size from small invertebrates to large predatory fish. Commercial fine-scale positioning systems, such as the VEMCO Positioning System, can pinpoint an animal’s location within metres of its true posi...

Context Understanding migratory species’ habitat selection is complicated by variation in movement strategies. Stable-isotope analysis provides a powerful tool to investigate such variation. Aims We used acoustic telemetry and stable-isotope analysis to better understand the movement strategies of Port Jackson sharks. Methods We compared the δ13C a...

The first record of the parasite Alebion carchariae in the waters of Ascension Island collected from Galapagos sharks, Carcharhinus galapagensis (Carcharhinidae), is described. No previous record of this parasite exists for Ascension Island, nor have Galapagos sharks previously been listed as a host. Specimens of A. carchariae were identified using...

Greenland halibut Reinhardtius hippoglossoides are bottom-dwelling flatfish that support commercial and community fisheries in Baffin Bay, Canada. Recently, exploratory inshore summer fisheries have raised concerns surrounding the bycatch of Greenland sharks Somniosus microcephalus and Arctic skate Amblyraja hyperborea , which are susceptible to ov...

Inferences made from molecular data support regional stock assessment goals by providing insights into the genetic population dynamics of enigmatic species. Population genomics metrics, such as genetic diversity and population connectivity, serve as useful proxies for species health and stability. Sleeper sharks (genus Somniosus) are ecologically i...

Animals migrate in response to seasonal environments, to reproduce, to benefit from resource pulses, or to avoid fluctuating hazards. Although climate change is predicted to modify migration, only a few studies to date have demonstrated phenological shifts in marine mammals. In the Arctic, marine mammals are considered among the most sensitive to o...

Organisms must overcome environmental limitations to optimize their investment in life history stages to maximize fitness. Human-induced climate change is generating increasingly variable environmental conditions, impacting the demography of prey items and, therefore, the ability of consumers to successfully access resources to fuel reproduction. W...

Arctic marine mammals face a multitude of challenges linked to climate change, including increasing anthropogenic noise from ship traffic. The beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas), a predominately Arctic endemic cetacean, relies heavily on acoustic communication, with documented overlap between their vocalizations and hearing range and ship noise....

In behavioural ecology, interest in the study of animal personality (i.e. consistent individual differences in behaviour) has increased in the last two decades as it is believed to have important ecological and evolutionary consequences. These consequences are especially pronounced when personality covaries with other behaviours (i.e. behavioural s...

Variable movement strategies can complicate the conservation and management of mobile species. Given its extreme life history traits as a long-lived, deep-water species, the Greenland shark ( Somniosus microcephalus ) is vulnerable to fisheries bycatch, but little is known over its long-term movements across a spatially and seasonally variable Arct...

Variable resource use and responses to environmental conditions can lead to phenotypic diversity and distinct morphotypes within salmonids, including Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus). Despite the cultural and economic importance of Arctic char in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR), limited data exists on the extent and presence of morphological...

Diel cycles in marine predator diving behaviour centre around the light‐mediated diel vertical migration (DVM) of prey, and are considered critical for optimizing foraging and limiting competition across global seascapes. Yet, our understanding of predator diel behaviour is based primarily on examining relative depth usage between constant day/nigh...

Understanding the ecological role of species with overlapping distributions is central to inform ecosystem management. Here we describe the diet, trophic level and habitat use of three sympatric stingrays; Hypanus guttatus, H. marianae and H. berthalutzae through combined stomach content and stable isotope (δ13C and δ15N) analyses. Our integrated a...

Knowledge of the three-dimensional movement patterns of elasmobranchs is vital to understand their ecological roles and exposure to anthropogenic pressures. To date, comparative studies among species at global scales have mostly focused on horizontal movements. Our study addresses the knowledge gap of vertical movements by compiling the first globa...

Marine fisheries are often allocated to stocks that reflect pragmatic considerations and may not represent the species’ spatial population structure, increasing the risk of mismanagement and unsustainable harvesting. Here we compile mark–recapture data collected across the North Atlantic to gain insight into the spatial population structure of Gree...

Aim Identify hotspots and areas of high species richness for Arctic marine mammals. Location Circumpolar Arctic. Methods A total of 2115 biologging devices were deployed on marine mammals from 13 species in the Arctic from 2005 to 2019. Getis‐Ord Gi* hotspots were calculated based on the number of individuals in grid cells for each species and fo...

Background: Reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi) populations along the Northeastern African coastline are poorly studied. Identifying critical habitats for this species is essential for future research and conservation efforts. Dungonab Bay and Mukkawar Island National Park (DMNP), a component of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Sudan, hosts the largest...

Recent advancements in telemetry have redefined our ability to quantify the fine-scale movements of aquatic animals and derive a mechanistic understanding of movement behaviours. The VEMCO Positioning System (VPS) is a fine-scale commercial positioning system used to generate highly accurate semi-continuous animal tracks. To date, VPS has been used...

The present study evaluated As, Hg, Pb and Cd burdens in both ecologically and commercially important 314 marine fishes belonging to 47 species sampled along the Amazon Coast. We specifically investigated variations in these four elements among different habitats and their relationships with trophic position and estimated potential human health ris...

To quantify maternal provisioning of nutrients in the pelagic thresher shark (Alopias pelagicus) and the potential for negative impacts, the concentrations of trace elements (essential: Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Se, and Zn; nonessential: As, Ba, Cd, Hg, and Pb) and fractionation of stable isotopes (¹³C and ¹⁵N) were analyzed in the muscle and liver of 10...

Field metabolic rate (FMR) is a holistic measure of metabolism representing the routine energy utilization of a species living within a specific ecological context, thus providing insight into its ecology, fitness and resilience to environmental stressors. For animals which cannot be easily observed in the wild, FMR can also be used in concert with...

Arctic waters are warming rapidly due to climate change, which is altering the timing of seasonal sea ice dynamics. Summer ice breakup provides a critical productivity bloom that consumers depend on. Arctic char Salvelinus alpinus undertake seasonal migrations to marine waters presumably to exploit this prey pulse. However, specific migratory timin...

Dive behavior represents multiple ecological functions for marine mammals, but our understanding of dive characteristics is typically limited by the resolution or longevity of tagging studies. Knowledge on the time-depth structures of dives can provide insight into the behaviors represented by vertical movements; furthering our understanding of the...

The Arctic is changing rapidly due to climate change, which is allowing unprecedented levels of vessel traffic to transit the region. Vessel traffic can negatively affect marine wildlife in a number of ways, particularly in areas where vessels overlap with high concentrations of ecologically important species, and the significance of these impacts...

Understanding how mobile, marine predators use three-dimensional space over time is central to inform management and conservation actions. Combining tracking technologies can yield powerful datasets over multiple spatio-temporal scales to provide critical information for these purposes. For the white shark ( Carcharodon carcharias ), detailed movem...

Organisms must overcome environmental limitations to optimize their investment in life history stages to maximize fitness. Human-induced climate change is generating increasingly variable environmental conditions, impacting the demography of prey items and therefore the ability of consumers to successfully access resources to fuel reproduction. Whi...

Understanding variability in distributions and habitat-use among populations of anadromous salmonids is essential for their sustainable management. Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) is an important cultural and socioeconomic species, however, knowledge of their spatio-temporal habitat-use during the marine phase is limited. Here, a large-scale acous...

Small-scale fisheries are often considered data poor due to a myriad of complex factors. Precise estimates of key demographic rates are central to the sustainable management of these fisheries. We used three years of acoustic telemetry data to derive survival estimates of Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides; n = 255) within a small-scal...

In recent years, the incorporation of lower levels of organization to the understanding of population ecology, has led to an increase in interest for animal personality and individual foraging specialization. Despite these topics investigating comparable phenomena, that is, individual consistency in behaviour and in food resource use respectively,...

106,107 ✉ replying to A. V. Harry & J. M. Braccini Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03463-w (2021) Our global analysis 1 estimated the overlap and fishing exposure risk (FEI) using the space use of satellite-tracked sharks and longline fishing effort monitored by the automatic identification system (AIS). In the accompanying Comment, Harry...

As Arctic ecosystems become increasingly vulnerable to climate- and human-induced stressors, effective marine management will rely on the characterization of fish movements. Over a six-year study period, the movements of 65 Greenland sharks (Somniosus microcephalus) (41 males, 24 females [mean LT = 2.48 ± 0.50 m]) were monitored using static acoust...

This article is a response to Murua et al.'s Matters Arising article in Nature, "Shark mortality cannot be assessed by fishery overlap alone," which arose from arising from N. Queiroz et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1444-4 (2019).

In recent years, the incorporation of lower levels of organization to the understanding of population ecology, has led to an increase in interest for animal personality and individual foraging specialization. Despite these topics investigating comparable phenomena, that is, individual consistency in behaviour and in food resource use respectively,...

Underwater visual surveys represent an essential component of coastal marine research and play a crucial role in supporting the management of marine systems. However, logistical and financial considerations can limit the availability of survey data in some systems. While biologging camera tag devices are being attached to an increasing diversity of...

Monitoring animals with electronic tags is an increasingly important tool for fundamental and applied ecological research. Based on the size of the system under study, the ability to recapture the animal, and research medium (e.g., aerial, freshwater, saltwater, terrestrial), tags selected may either log data in memory (bio-logging), transmit it to...

Mobile consumers often match their movements to short-term resource pulses. In the Arctic, seasonal ice breakup facilitates an ephemeral productivity pulse exploited by marine consumers. The migration of anadromous Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) to marine waters occurs around the beginning of ice breakup, but the precise timing of movement is equ...

The Arctic has been a refuge from anthropogenic underwater noise; however, climate change has caused summer sea ice to diminish, allowing for unprecedented access and the potential for increased underwater noise. Baseline underwater sound levels must be quantified to monitor future changes and manage underwater noise in the Arctic. We analyzed 39 p...

Blue sharks (Prionace glauca) are globally distributed, large-bodied pelagic sharks that make extensive migrations throughout their range. In the North Pacific, mark-recapture studies have shown trans-Pacific migrations, but knowledge gaps in migration frequency hinder understanding of regional connectivity and assessments of regional demography fo...

The list of threatened species (Red List), established by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), aims to provide global assessments on the extinction risk of species. However, protecting vulnerable populations requires establishing threat criteria at sub-global scales, e.g., national Red Lists. In data-poor contexts, typical of...

Large sharks shape ecosystems across their geographic ranges and have become a top research and conservation priority. Eastern North Pacific (ENP) white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) aggregations off the United States and Mexico are well described, but their population status is currently uncertain. Population assessments of ENP white sharks are c...

Intraguild predation (IGP) is a complex, multi-species interaction that simultaneously combines predation and competition among a minimum of three individuals-a predator (IG predator) that kills and consumes prey (IG prey) with which it competes for a common resource, resulting in a 'trophic loop'. Although ubiquitous, IGP occurrence and strength v...

Animal distribution and movement facilitate energy- and nutrient-transfer within and between regions, thus influencing ecosystem structure and function. Ringed seals (Pusa hispida) have been observed making sustained, extensive migrations (> 1000km) in the western Canadian Arctic, but observations of their movements from the eastern Canadian Arctic...

Understanding fish movement in the Arctic is paramount during the current era of rapidly warming seas, receding sea ice and associated shifting species distributions and fishing effort. We synthesized the literature and identified key knowledge gaps on the movement ecology of Arctic cod (Boreogadus saida) and Polar/Ice cod (Arctogadus glacialis, bo...

Large-scale migrations present challenges to management of exploited or at-risk marine species. Our understanding of predator movements has greatly improved, but data are often inadequate to understand patterns on population scales. The chemical composition of predator tissues, most often stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen (δ‎ ¹³ C and δ‎...

Animal-borne telemetry devices have become a popular and valuable means for studying the cryptic lives of cetaceans. Evaluating the effect of capture, handling and tagging procedures remains largely unassessed across species. Here, we examine the effect of capture, handling and tagging activities on an iconic Arctic cetacean, the narwhal (Monodon m...

Mark-recapture approaches are among the most powerful fisheries methods for estimating demographic parameters relating to survival, components of mortality (i.e. fishing, catch and release, or predation), and abundance. Yet conventional fisheries mark-recapture studies are logistically challenging and can suffer low recapture probabilities and poor...

Quantifying vertical distributions of pelagic predators elucidates pelagic ecosystem structure and informs fisheries management. In the tropical South Atlantic Ocean, the recently designated large-scale marine protected area around Ascension Island hosts diverse pelagic predators for which basin-specific vertical habitat information is minimal or a...

This is the conference presentation given by William Halliday at the Acoustical Society of America meeting.

A detailed account of a variety of species foraging on Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides) fisheries discards associated with a commercial fishing vessel in central Baffin Bay, Nunavut, Canada is presented. Species observed included three marine mammals; northern bottlenose whales (Hyperoodon ampullatus), sperm whales (Physeter macroce...