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 fixation of carbon atoms that were ultimately assimilated into muscle tissues of 5,394 sharks from 114 species, we identify globally consistent biogeographic traits in trophic interactions between sharks found in different habitats. We show that populations of shelf-dwelling sharks derive a substantial proportion of their carbon from regional pelagic sources, but contain individuals that forage within additional isotopically diverse local food webs, such as those supported by terrestrial plant sources, benthic production and macrophytes. In contrast, oceanic sharks seem to use carbon derived from between 30 degrees and 50 degrees of latitude. Global-scale compilations of stable isotope data combined with biogeochemical modelling generate hypotheses regarding animal behaviours that can be tested with other methodological approaches.

The bottom pressure distribution beneath large amplitude waves is studied within linear theory in time and space domain, weakly dispersive Serre-Green-Naghdi system and fully nonlinear potential equations. These approaches are used to compare pressure fields induced by solitary waves, but also by transient wave groups. It is shown that linear analysis in time domain is in good agreement with Serre-Green-Naghdi predictions for solitary waves with highest amplitude A = 0.7h, h being water depth. In the meantime, when comparing results to fully nonlinear potential equations, neither linear theory in time domain, nor in space domain, provide a good description of the pressure peak. The linear theory in time domain underestimates the peak by an amount similar to the overestimation by linear theory in space domain. For transient wave groups (up to A = 0.52h), linear analysis in time domain provides results very similar to those based on the Serre-Green-Naghdi system. In the meantime, linear theory in space domain provides a surprisingly good comparison with prediction of fully nonlinear theory. In all cases, it has to be emphasized that a discrepancy between linear theory in space domain and in time domain was always found, and presented an averaged value of 20%. Since linear theory is often used by coastal engineers to reconstruct water elevation from bottom mounted sensors, the so-called inverse problem, an important result of this work is that special caution should be given when doing so. The method might surprisingly work with strongly nonlinear waves, but is highly sensitive to the imbalance between nonlinearity and dispersion. In most cases, linear theory, in both time and space domain, will lead to important errors when solving this inverse problem.

The aim of the present study is to evidence the role of a boundary current and meteorological conditions in the transport and stranding of floating marine debris. The used data are from a beach survey and an inter-annual unique effort of marine debris sightings along the French Riviera in the North-Western Mediterranean region. Offshore data have been collected during oceanic cruises while beach surveys were performed around Antibes city. Debris were found on 97% of the ocean transects, with a large spatial and temporal variability, showing contrasted areas of low (~ 1 item/km2) and of high (> 10 items/km2) debris densities. Results suggest that the debris spatio-temporal distribution is related to the Northern current (NC) dynamics, the regional boundary current, with accumulation patterns in its core and external edge. By playing a role in the alongshore transport, such a boundary current can form a cross-shore transport barrier. Stranding events can then occur after strong on-shore wind bursts modifying the sea surface dynamics and breaking this transport barrier. It is also shown that episodic enhancement of the stranding rate can be explained by combining the NC dynamics with the wind forcing and the rainfall effect via the local river run-off. Conversely, off-shore wind bursts could also free the marine litter from the boundary current and export them towards the open sea.

The eastern lagoon of New Caledonia (NC, Southwest Pacific), listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, hosts the world's second longest double-barrier coral reef. This lagoon receives river inputs, oceanic water arrivals, and erosion pressure fromultramafic rocks, enriched in nickel (Ni) and cobalt (Co). The aimof this study was to characterize colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM), aswell as to determine its main sources and its possible relationships (through the use of Pearson correlation coefficients, r) with biogeochemical parameters, plankton communities and trace metals in the NC eastern lagoon. Water sampleswere collected inMarch 2016 along a series of river/lagoon/open-ocean transects. The absorption coefficient at 350 nm (a350) revealed the influence of river inputs on the CDOMdistribution. The high values of spectral slope (S275–295, N0.03m−1) and the lowvalues of specific ultraviolet absorbance (SUVA254, b4 L mg-C−1 m−1) highlighted the photodegradation of CDOM in surface waters. The application of parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) on excitation-emission matrices (EEMs) allowed the identification of four CDOM components: (1) one humic- and one tyrosine-like fluorophores. They had terrestrial origin, exported through rivers and undergoing photo- and bio-degradation in the lagoon. These two fluorophores were linked to manganese (Mn) in southern rivers (r = 0.46–0.50, n = 21, p b 0.05). (2) A tryptophan-like fluorophore, which exhibited higher levels offshore. It would be potentially released from the coral reef. (3) A second tyrosine-like (“tyrosine 2-like”) fluorophore. Linked to Prochlorococcus cyanobacteria (r= 0.39, n =47, p b 0.05), this fluorophore would have an oceanic origin and enter in the lagoon through its southern and northern extremities. It also displayed relationshipswith Ni and Co content (r=0.53–0.54, n=21, p b 0.05). This work underlines the diversity of CDOM sources in the NC eastern lagoon.