Highlights:
1. The resilience of marine ecosystems is influenced by a number of human induced drivers, such as climate change, fisheries, eutrophication and pollution. Seabirds are marine top predators that are responding to, and sometimes themselves causing, changes in marine ecosystems.
2. Topic: Seabird responses to dynamic marine ecosystem changes
3. The PhD position(s) will deepen the understanding of such interactions and their implications for management of marine ecosystem services. Special focus will be on how changes in fish stocks affect different seabird species and how changes affect different life and breeding-cycle stages, including state-dependent variables (e.g. age, sex, reproductive stage).
4. This project will use fish stocks (mainly sprat and herring) and seabirds in the Baltic Sea as a case study to integrate state-dependant life history responses in predators and responses of ecologically similar predator and prey species with changes in abundance and condition of prey.
5. In addition, indirect impacts from changes in fish stocks will be addressed by studying density-dependent prey-mediated effects on predator health. The significance of such interactions for management of resilience and regime shifts in the Baltic Sea will also be addressed.
