3,357 research outputs found

    Perceptions in small-scale fisheries regarding institutional, economic, technological and environmental factors. Case study in North-Western Spain

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    This paper focuses on the analysis of the perceptions of small-scale fisheries (SSF) agents in order to identify concerns and sensitivities regarding the relevant socioeconomic dynamics of this sector. The analysis is applied to a case study in north-western Spain. Specifically, in the study our aim has been to contrast the perception of aspects related to initiatives in fisheries regulation (main general initiatives highlighted in FAO reports, and some more upcoming actions) and, simultaneously, to the influence of factors significant for the SSF (economic, technological and environmental). Aspects such as globalisation and markets, technological advances in the sector, climate change or generational and gender matters are considered in the analysis. The results show that both global movements as well as local dynamics are present in the perceptions of agents (and probably in their strategies), which could reduce the effectiveness of general regulatory initiatives, conceived on scientific bases, but which have to be applied in diverse socioecological contexts. In this sense, this work joins other case studies in helping address fishery governance and management matters.Xunta de Galicia | Ref. Ref. ED431C2018/48Agencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. RTI2018-099225-B-I0

    A risk assessment for the remote ocean: the case of the South East Atlantic

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    Degradation of the natural world and associated ecosystem services is attributed to a historical failure to include its ‘value’ in decision-making. Uncertainty in the quantification of the relationship between natural capital ‘assets’ that give rise to critical societal benefits and people is one reason for the omission of these values from natural resource management. As this uncertainty increases in marine systems and further still with distance from the coast, the connection between society and natural capital assets is less likely to be included adequately in decision-making. Natural capital assets of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ), including those of the deep sea, are distant but are known to generate many benefits for society, from the diffuse and broad-scale benefits of climate regulation to the provision of wild fish for food. While our understanding of the precise relationships (the status of asset stocks, ecosystem functions and processes) that control the availability of ecosystem services and the flows of benefits is limited, this does not preclude opening a discourse on how these natural capital assets could best be managed to continue to benefit society. Here we apply a natural capital approach to the South East Atlantic ABNJ, one of the least scientifically understood regions of the planet, and develop a framework for risk assessment. We do this by describing the benefit flows from the natural capital assets of the region, appraising how activities are creating pressures on these flows and whether the controls for these pressures protect them. Our risk register highlights how governance currently favours the protection of direct (extractive) benefit flows from natural capital assets of the region, which are primarily targeted for financial benefit. Without a systems-based framework that can account for the cumulative pressures on natural capital assets their status, associated ecosystem services and benefits are at risk. Such an approach is essential to capture and protect the foundational and often diffuse connections between marine natural capital and global society.</jats:p

    An Evaluation of the risks to food safety and shellfish farming in Great Britain,posed by marine biotoxins from, current and future emerging, marine microalgal species

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    Harmful marine microalgae are a global concern, impacting human and ecosystem health as well as having socioeconomic impacts for coastal communities. The changing world climate has an impact on marine organisms including the harmful algal species. These changes will have impacts on species already present in a nations waters whilst also influencing the emergence of novel species. This is assessed here, in part, with regards to Great Britain (GB). This thesis explores the current extent of a harmful species, Alexandrium minutum, globally and in the South of GB. This shows that A. minutum occurs widely across the globe with different populations possessing varying toxin profiles. Populations from GB geographically neighbouring areas share similar toxin profiles. Within the South of GB, the current extent of A. minutum appears patchy, with evidence gathered by toxin profile analysis but successful germinations of vegetative cells from field samples proving unsuccessful. Experimental work determined a mechanism for the use of chemotaxonomy to differentiate the source of shellfish intoxications, allowing for separation of two key GB saxitoxin producers, A. minutum and Alexandrium catenella. This technique could enhance routine monitoring data with little additional cost. Assessment of harmful microalgal taxa considered as non-native species (NNS) to GB suggested that several species could pose a risk of future successful invasion of GB coastal waters, within the next 30 years. This was principally based on the environmental tolerances of NNS. If established the impacts which NNS could impose on GB include similar impacts to native harmful species as well as a higher risk of environmental damage. Experimental work with a high-risk potential invasive species, Ostreopsis cf. ovata, indicated that this impact could be acute, with rapid mortalities observed in exposed naïve GB mussels. Taken together this body of work shows the validity of chemotaxonomic assessment of toxin profiles as an additional tool for the tracking of harmful microalgal species as well as proactively assessing the risk and impacts which climate change might have for the future impacts of harmful marine microalgal species around GB

    A blueprint for integrating scientific approaches and international communities to assess basin-wide ocean ecosystem status

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    Ocean ecosystems are at the forefront of the climate and biodiversity crises, yet we lack a unified approach to assess their state and inform sustainable policies. This blueprint is designed around research capabilities and cross-sectoral partnerships. We highlight priorities including integrating basin-scale observation, modelling and genomic approaches to understand Atlantic oceanography and ecosystem connectivity; improving ecosystem mapping; identifying potential tipping points in deep and open ocean ecosystems; understanding compound impacts of multiple stressors including warming, acidification and deoxygenation; enhancing spatial and temporal management and protection. We argue that these goals are best achieved through partnerships with policy-makers and community stakeholders, and promoting research groups from the South Atlantic through investment and engagement. Given the high costs of such research (€800k to €1.7M per expedition and €30–40M for a basin-scale programme), international cooperation and funding are integral to supporting science-led policies to conserve ocean ecosystems that transcend jurisdictional borders

    Use of emerging technologies to help measure fjordic biodiversity and blue carbon: mini-manned submarines and autonomous underwater vehicle swarms

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    Meaningful protection of global oceans lags far behind that of land and has taken little consideration of climate mitigation potential to date (such as through assessment of blue carbon stocks and change). With the new emphasis on synergistic approaches to the identification and conservation of both carbon- and species- rich habitats, we need much better knowledge of the geography and status of blue carbon habitats beyond coastal wetlands. In subpolar and polar regions, some blue carbon habitats are still emerging and work as negative (mitigating) feedback on climate change, yet remain unprotected despite strong evidence of threat overlap. Scientific research expeditions are gradually increasing our understanding, but appropriate vessels are a limiting factor due to high costs and carbon footprints. Even when available such vessels cannot access all areas (e.g., remote fjords with sills) and may struggle to measure certain aspects of habitats (e.g., steep or vertical surfaces). New technologies and opportunities have advanced to aid some of these problems, and here, two of them are considered, mini-manned submersibles and autonomous underwater vehicles. These two platforms have both become much more available and affordable (through novel partnerships) while also being much more scientifically capable. This technology has the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of science and particularly aid in assessing biology and environment status and change on steep sides, such as fjord walls

    Fish nets to nests, from the shallow tropics to bathyal Antarctica.

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    Marine fish are found in all oceans on Earth, compose over half of the world’s vertebrates, and exhibit highly differing morphologies (Nelson et al., 2016). They occupy the deep hadopelagic to the shallowest coastal regions. As this group of animals are so diverse, the term ‘fish’ is not contained within a specific lineage. Fish occupy different ecosystems within the global ocean, being adapted to exploit their specific environments. Zonation occurs between areas of the global ocean due to different environmental conditions, mainly driven by depth; as light levels decrease, and temperatures reduce, species are evolved to exploit these environments. Broadly species diversity is higher in the shallow waters of the global ocean than in the deep sea; however, morphologically, the deep sea hosts greater diversity (Martinez et al., 2021). Fishes have different life histories that determine their development, and the challenges faced in development are dictated by their environment (Thorson et al., 2017). Species exploit niches which are unique to their specific habitat. A heterogeneous habitat allows for a wider range of niches, and as such, a higher species diversity (Brownscombe et al., 2019; Charton and Ruzafa, 1999). The different morphologies that species of fishes exhibit are specialised for their way of life, for example, fin design and use. Most fishes have some form of locomotion, either by swimming, or using their fins to walk (Lauder, 2000). Movement is widely used by fishes to complete daily and developmental activities such as migration between regions for food. Fishes, like most animals, are impacted by anthropogenic actions (Pauly et al., 2005). Humans have established fisheries to exploit and extract fishes from their habitats, something undertaken by all coastal countries and communities (Hicks et al., 2019). Fishing can be classed into three overall forms: recreational, commercial, and subsistence fishing (Cooke et al., 2016; Love, 2006). Fishes are an important source of protein for small island developing states (SIDS) as they have limited space for farming and other agricultural practices (Robinson et al., 2022; Sing Wong et al., 2022). Different types of fishing gear can be used to target different morphologies and movements (Eyo and Akpati, 1995). These fishing gears may be restricted by legislation. Fisheries departments in governments, local enforcements, and international treaties or organisations, such as the United Nations and the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, can enact levels of restrictions, as can local laws and traditions. Governments and local communities can establish marine protected areas, which have the power to protect marine resources from being extracted by abiding groups. This can offer recovery to a certain stock from stock depletion or provide an area for spill-over effects for fishing to occur beside it (Di Lorenzo et al., 2016; García-Rubies et al., 2013). This dissertation encompasses and has themes covering the movement, life histories, and governance of fishes. I present data from 1) a tropical island fishery and 2) a unique bathyal cryonotothenioid nesting site in Antarctica in two chapters

    MARINE ECOSYSTEMS THROUGH THE LENS OF SOUNDSCAPE ECOLOGY: HOW BIOLOGICAL PROCESSES, LANDSCAPE STRUCTURE, AND ANTHROPOGENIC ACTIVITY AFFECT SPATIOTEMPORAL SOUNDSCAPE PATTERNS

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    Marine soundscapes, or the collection of all sounds across a landscape, consist of dynamic patterns resulting from natural and anthropogenic sound-producing processes. Soundscape ecology is focused on understanding how these processes interact with environmental variables and landscape structure to create dynamic soundscape patterns across space and time. As the field develops, there has been rising interest in using soundscapes as a tool to assess biodiversity and inform conservation and management decisions. However, understanding spatiotemporal soundscape patterns and their associations with ecological and environmental covariates is needed for passive acoustic monitoring to be informative. My dissertation addresses this need through two focal questions: (1) how do soundscapes vary across marine landscapes and is this variation explained by ecological metrics; and (2) how can soundscapes, or passive acoustic monitoring, be used to inform conservation and management priorities? To understand soundscape variation, I first compared the soundscapes of natural and artificial offshore reefs, finding that their temporal patterns were similar but spectral content differed. Following these results, I evaluated soundscape spatial variation across a range of estuarine habitat mosaics to explore whether soundscape differences between habitat types were associated with environmental metrics. I observed four distinct soundscape types that were associated with patch- and landscape-scale habitat metrics. Variation in all soundscape metrics summarized was explained by landscape-scale habitat metrics, while patch-scale metrics also explained sound levels, and abiotic metrics explained species-specific call rates. To evaluate how passive acoustic monitoring can be applied to conservation and management questions, I assessed whether soundscape monitoring was a useful complement to traditional video monitoring for tracking community development following deployment of an artificial reef. Comparing the soundscape of a newly deployed artificial reef to that of a nearby established reef revealed the colonization of multiple cryptic species that were not available from video monitoring. Lastly, I used multiple passive acoustic monitoring technologies to assess the spawning-associated grunt dynamics of Atlantic cod in a region with imminent offshore wind energy development. Elucidating the peak spawning period and aggregation site revealed that interactions between Atlantic cod spawning and offshore wind energy construction are likely. This dissertation advances understanding of soundscape variability in multiple ecosystems and demonstrates the benefit of passive acoustic monitoring for addressing applied ecological questions. By focusing on periods of peak acoustic activity and exploring variation across marine landscapes, my research explained previously undescribed soundscape variation and identified the relevance of landscape context in understanding marine soundscape variability. In applied contexts, my findings demonstrate that species-specific results are the most ecologically informative, but the current application of passive acoustic monitoring is limited by a lack of reliable identification of species-specific call types and associated call detectors. Advances in call detection will facilitate more nuanced ecological questions to be asked of marine soundscape and expand its relevance for addressing conservation and management priorities.Doctor of Philosoph

    Advanced Bionic Attachment Equipment Inspired by the Attachment Performance of Aquatic Organisms: A Review

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    In nature, aquatic organisms have evolved various attachment systems, and their attachment ability has become a specific and mysterious survival skill for them. Therefore, it is significant to study and use their unique attachment surfaces and outstanding attachment characteristics for reference and develop new attachment equipment with excellent performance. Based on this, in this review, the unique non-smooth surface morphologies of their suction cups are classified and the key roles of these special surface morphologies in the attachment process are introduced in detail. The recent research on the attachment capacity of aquatic suction cups and other related attachment studies are described. Emphatically, the research progress of advanced bionic attachment equipment and technology in recent years, including attachment robots, flexible grasping manipulators, suction cup accessories, micro-suction cup patches, etc., is summarized. Finally, the existing problems and challenges in the field of biomimetic attachment are analyzed, and the focus and direction of biomimetic attachment research in the future are pointed out

    Integrating Traditional and Close Range Photogrammetric Bathymetric Reconstructions to Enhance Predictions of Fish Abundance and Distribution on the NSW Coast

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    The physical structure of marine habitat is a key determinant of the distribution and abundance of marine biota. Photogrammetry is a new method of obtaining bathymetric reconstructions using overlapping imagery. It is associated with several potential improvements over traditional bathymetric reconstruction methods (e.g., hydroacoustic and optical remote sensing), including finer resolutions, 3D mesh surfaces, and novel metrics of structural complexity. However, the greater cost of photogrammetric data collection requires evaluation of its purported benefits to marine research. This thesis objectively assessed the potential for photogrammetry to improve predictions of marine biota abundance and distribution. Chapter 2 undertook a quantitative review and metanalysis of latest research and the relative performance of metrics. It indicated common metrics, e.g., surface-rugosity, may not always be the best performing. Chapter 3 systematically explored the relationships between metrics derived from common bathymetric reconstructions and reduced a 2,000 predictor dataset to 100 predictors, whilst maximising information captured. Metric relative performance was assessed in Chapter 4. Photogrammetric metrics contributed to 22 / 35 fish species and 10 / 15 trophic-mobility group best performing abundance models and helped explain a third more variability compared to traditional methods. Chapter 5 extrapolated (‘engineered’) broad-scale photogrammetric metrics from traditional metrics to help alleviate the cost of photogrammetry. Using an independent dataset, the variance 26 / 50 fish species distribution models was explained best when engineered photogrammetric metrics were included. These findings help confirm the purported benefits to marine research associated with photogrammetric metrics, which would likely improve predictions of the distribution and abundance of fish, and likely other marine biota, across Australia and worldwide. Engineered metrics would allow greater model performance to be translated to broad-extents required by marine spatial prioritisation, conservation and management. Notably, traditional metrics were important for some fish species and groups, and future studies should seek to combine these methods wherever possible
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