The ocean is a soup of its resident species' genetic material, cast off in the forms of metabolic waste, shed skin cells, or damaged tissue. Sampling this environmental DNA (eDNA) is a potentially ...powerful means of assessing whole biological communities, a significant advance over the manual methods of environmental sampling that have historically dominated marine ecology and related fields. Here, we estimate the vertebrate fauna in a 4.5-million-liter mesocosm aquarium tank at the Monterey Bay Aquarium of known species composition by sequencing the eDNA from its constituent seawater. We find that it is generally possible to detect mitochondrial DNA of bony fishes sufficient to identify organisms to taxonomic family- or genus-level using a 106 bp fragment of the 12S ribosomal gene. Within bony fishes, we observe a low false-negative detection rate, although we did not detect the cartilaginous fishes or sea turtles present with this fragment. We find that the rank abundance of recovered eDNA sequences correlates with the abundance of corresponding species' biomass in the mesocosm, but the data in hand do not allow us to develop a quantitative relationship between biomass and eDNA abundance. Finally, we find a low false-positive rate for detection of exogenous eDNA, and we were able to diagnose non-native species' tissue in the food used to maintain the mesocosm, underscoring the sensitivity of eDNA as a technique for community-level ecological surveys. We conclude that eDNA has substantial potential to become a core tool for environmental monitoring, but that a variety of challenges remain before reliable quantitative assessments of ecological communities in the field become possible.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Trait-based approaches are increasingly recognized as a tool for understanding ecosystem re-assembly and function under intensifying global change. Here we synthesize trait-based research globally (
...= 865 studies) to examine the contexts in which traits may be used for global change prediction. We find that exponential growth in the field over the last decade remains dominated by descriptive studies of terrestrial plant morphology, highlighting significant opportunities to expand trait-based thinking across systems and taxa. Very few studies (less than 3%) focus on predicting ecological effects of global change, mostly in the past 5 years and via singular traits that mediate abiotic limits on species distribution. Beyond organism size (the most examined trait), we identify over 2500 other morphological, physiological, behavioural and life-history traits known to mediate environmental filters of species' range and abundance as candidates for future predictive global change work. Though uncommon, spatially explicit process models-which mechanistically link traits to changes in organism distributions and abundance-are among the most promising frameworks for holistic global change prediction at scales relevant for conservation decision-making. Further progress towards trait-based forecasting requires addressing persistent barriers including (1) matching scales of multivariate trait and environment data to focal processes disrupted by global change, and (2) propagating variation in trait and environmental parameters throughout process model functions using simulation.
Mobile protected areas for biodiversity on the high seas Maxwell, Sara M; Gjerde, Kristina M; Conners, Melinda G ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
01/2020, Volume:
367, Issue:
6475
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Protecting mobile marine species and habitats under climate change will require innovative and dynamic tools
A new agreement is being negotiated under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of ...the Sea (UNCLOS) to provide legally binding mechanisms to protect the marine environment and to conserve and ensure the sustainable use of marine biodiversity on the high seas (international waters in areas beyond national jurisdiction) (
1
). One of the suggested objectives in the current draft text is to “apply an approach that builds ecosystem resilience to the adverse effects of climate change” when applying area-based management tools (ABMTs), including marine protected areas (MPAs). Yet even though climate change is resulting in shifts in species' ranges (
2
) and in the behavior of the human users of mobile, commercially valuable species (
3
), protection of highly mobile species and the dynamic habitats on which they depend is not currently a focus of negotiations. With the final language to be determined as early as 2020 (
1
), we urge negotiators to include new dynamic management tools, including mobile MPAs (mMPAs), whose boundaries shift across space and time, that could help to safeguard marine life and build ecosystem resilience by protecting dynamic habitats as well as migratory marine species in a changing ocean.
Recent research on ocean health has found large predator abundance to be a key element of ocean condition. Fisheries can impact large predator abundance directly through targeted capture and ...indirectly through incidental capture of nontarget species or bycatch. However, measures of the global nature of bycatch are lacking for air-breathing megafauna. We fill this knowledge gap and present a synoptic global assessment of the distribution and intensity of bycatch of seabirds, marine mammals, and sea turtles based on empirical data from the three most commonly used types of fishing gears worldwide. We identify taxa-specific hotspots of bycatch intensity and find evidence of cumulative impacts across fishing fleets and gears. This global map of bycatch illustrates where data are particularly scarce—in coastal and small-scale fisheries and ocean regions that support developed industrial fisheries and millions of small-scale fishers—and identifies fishing areas where, given the evidence of cumulative hotspots across gear and taxa, traditional species or gear-specific bycatch management and mitigation efforts may be necessary but not sufficient. Given the global distribution of bycatch and the mitigation success achieved by some fleets, the reduction of air-breathing megafauna bycatch is both an urgent and achievable conservation priority.
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BFBNIB, NMLJ, NUK, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
External drivers increasingly impact small-scale fisheries worldwide. As globalization accelerates the flow of information, commodities, and capital across geographic space, neoliberal reforms have ...fueled the development of the international seafood trade. Small-scale fisheries traditionally driven by local forces and market demands are increasingly nested within the broader structures of global markets and international institutions. Building on existing work that integrates social-ecological systems thinking and critical social science theory, we address how globalization has transformed the social fabric of coastal fishing communities and consider the implications for institutional and environmental integrity. Using small-scale fisheries across the Gulf of California as an empirical example, we extend a theory of small-scale fisheries interactions proposed by development scholars to incorporate global market forces, considering how drivers operating at multiple temporal and geographic scales have influenced outcomes in one of the world’s most diverse and productive marine ecosystems. We suggest that neoliberal reforms promoting the growth and development of an export-oriented seafood industry have restructured the relationships between small-scale fishermen, coastal communities, and the marine environment. As the benefits of trade liberalization have been captured by local elites, small-scale fishermen have been left increasingly vulnerable to the shocks and uncertainties associated with political, economic, and environmental change. By situating our findings within an emerging body of scholarship documenting parallel dynamics across diverse geographies, we argue that efforts to avoid and/or mitigate the tragedy of the commons within small-scale fishery systems must address the relationships between global markets, social and economic inequality, and local capacities for self-organization and collective action.
Dynamic ocean management, or management that uses near real-time data to guide the spatial distribution of commercial activities, is an emerging approach to balance ocean resource use and ...conservation. Employing a wide range of data types, dynamic ocean management can be used to meet multiple objectives—for example, managing target quota, bycatch reduction, and reducing interactions with species of conservation concern. Here, we present several prominent examples of dynamic ocean management that highlight the utility, achievements, challenges, and potential of this approach. Regulatory frameworks and incentive structures, stakeholder participation, and technological applications that align with user capabilities are identified as key ingredients to support successful implementation. By addressing the variability inherent in ocean systems, dynamic ocean management represents a new approach to tackle the pressing challenges of managing a f luid and complex environment.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Although bycatch of industrial-scale fisheries can cause declines in migratory megafauna including seabirds, marine mammals, and sea turtles, the impacts of small-scale fisheries have been largely ...overlooked. Small-scale fisheries occur in coastal waters worldwide, employing over 99% of the world's 51 million fishers. New telemetry data reveal that migratory megafauna frequent coastal habitats well within the range of small-scale fisheries, potentially producing high bycatch. These fisheries occur primarily in developing nations, and their documentation and management are limited or non-existent, precluding evaluation of their impacts on non-target megafauna.
30 North Pacific loggerhead turtles that we satellite-tracked from 1996-2005 ranged oceanwide, but juveniles spent 70% of their time at a high use area coincident with small-scale fisheries in Baja California Sur, Mexico (BCS). We assessed loggerhead bycatch mortality in this area by partnering with local fishers to 1) observe two small-scale fleets that operated closest to the high use area and 2) through shoreline surveys for discarded carcasses. Minimum annual bycatch mortality in just these two fleets at the high use area exceeded 1000 loggerheads year(-1), rivaling that of oceanwide industrial-scale fisheries, and threatening the persistence of this critically endangered population. As a result of fisher participation in this study and a bycatch awareness campaign, a consortium of local fishers and other citizens are working to eliminate their bycatch and to establish a national loggerhead refuge.
Because of the overlap of ubiquitous small-scale fisheries with newly documented high-use areas in coastal waters worldwide, our case study suggests that small-scale fisheries may be among the greatest current threats to non-target megafauna. Future research is urgently needed to quantify small-scale fisheries bycatch worldwide. Localizing coastal high use areas and mitigating bycatch in partnership with small-scale fishers may provide a crucial solution toward ensuring the persistence of vulnerable megafauna.
Harnessing DNA to improve environmental management Kelly, Ryan P.; Port, Jesse A.; Yamahara, Kevan M. ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
06/2014, Volume:
344, Issue:
6191
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Genetic monitoring can help public agencies implement environmental laws
Responsive environmental policy demands a constant stream of information about the living world, but biological monitoring is ...difficult and expensive. For many species and ecosystems—especially in aquatic and marine environments—practical monitoring methods are lacking; even where methods do exist, they may be inefficient, highly destructive, or dependent on diminishing taxonomic expertise.
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BFBNIB, NMLJ, NUK, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Most spatial marine management techniques (e.g., marine protected areas) draw stationary boundaries around often mobile marine features, animals, or resource users. While these approaches can work ...for relatively stationary marine resources, to be most effective marine management must be as fluid in space and time as the resources and users we aim to manage. Instead, a shift towards dynamic ocean management is suggested, defined as management that rapidly changes in space and time in response to changes in the ocean and its users through the integration of near real-time biological, oceanographic, social and/or economic data. Dynamic management can refine the temporal and spatial scale of managed areas, thereby better balancing ecological and economic objectives. Temperature dependent habitat of a hypothetical mobile marine species was simulated to show the efficiency of dynamic management, finding that 82.0 to 34.2 percent less area needed to be managed using a dynamic approach. Dynamic management further complements existing management by increasing the speed at which decisions are implemented using predefined protocols. With advances in data collection and sharing, particularly in remote sensing, animal tracking, and mobile technology, managers are poised to apply dynamic management across numerous marine sectors. Existing examples demonstrate that dynamic management can successfully allow managers to respond rapidly to changes on-the-water, however to implement dynamic ocean management widely, several gaps must be filled. These include enhancing legal instruments, incorporating ecological and socioeconomic considerations simultaneously, developing ‘out-of-the-box’ platforms to serve dynamic management data to users, and developing applications broadly across additional marine resource sectors.
•Marine management follows terrestrial management but oceans are more dynamic.•Marine management must be as fluid in space and time as resources and users managed.•Dynamic management rapidly changes in space and time like marine species, habitats, users.•Dynamic management can refine the temporal and spatial scale of managed areas.•Integrate dynamic management with existing management such as adaptive management.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
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