Top Predators in Marine Ecosystems : Their Role in Monitoring and Management

The sustainable exploitation of the marine environment depends upon our capacity to develop systems of management with predictable outcomes. Unfortunately, marine ecosystems are highly dynamic and this property could conflict with the objective of sustainable exploitation. This book investigates the theory that the population and behavioural dynamics of predators at the upper end of marine food chains can be used to assist with management. Since these species integrate the dynamics of marine ecosystems across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales, they offer new sources of information that can be formally used in setting management objectives. This book examines the current advances in the understanding of the ecology of marine predators and will investigate how information from these species could be used in management.

C. J. Camphuysen's current research interests include foraging ecology, mortality and distribution patterns of seabirds in the Atlantic Ocean and in the North Sea, the impacts of fishing on marine birds and the spatial distribution and temporal trends in abundance of cetaceans in the North Sea.

Ian Boyd is Director of the Sea Mammal Research Unit at the University of St Andrews. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a recipient of the Bruce Medal of the Zoological Society of London for his scientific studies in Antarctica.

Sarah Wanless of the NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, works on long term studies of bird populations.