Future role of marine protected areas in the dynamics and management of exploited ecosystems

International audienceIn a context of global change, the international scientific community recommends an increase in the number of MPAs for the preservation of biodiversity and the sustainable exploitation of resources. It is thus advisable to estimate the real efficiency of MPAs and to follow their evolution in time. Within the framework of the French project ANR AMPHORE, research operations were led in two West African reserves: Sine Saloum estuary in Senegal and PNBA in Mauritania. Information on the fish assemblage inside and outside of the reserves was collected as well as the fishing activities in the bordering zones of the MPAs. Besides, IBM and ecosystem modelling were realized, allowing to better understand the real evolution of the fish populations and the contribution of MPAs to the outside areas. The conjugation of methods used at different scales of observation and processing, gave a clearer vision of the real efficiency of these reserves: effects are not immediate and long-term measures need to be set up for ecosystems restoration, with possibly late returns on investment. It clearly appeared that the systematic implementation of MPAs with severe limitations and bans on use could lead to real difficulties of acceptability for the local population

Des modèles écosystémiques pour évaluer les effets des AMPs : démarches et enseignements du projet Amphore

Des modèles écosystémiques pour évaluer les effets des AMPs : démarches et enseignements du projet Amphor

Who Gets the Catch? How Conventional Catch Attribution Frameworks Undermine Equity in Transboundary Fisheries

The focus on flag States for the purpose of attributing fisheries catch is inconsistent with the assignment of sovereign rights to coastal States under international law and undermines equity in contemporary quota allocation negotiations. We propose modernizing reporting frameworks to include zone-based reporting of fish catches to more equitably present data, ensure consistency with the Law of the Sea, and better support the realization by developing coastal States of their development aspirations consistent with SDG 14, Life Below Water. States are already required to collect the data necessary to support this change, and many regional fisheries management authorities already do so. Reforms to data collection and reporting mechanisms should support zone-based catch attribution as a central feature of negotiations around access to future fishing opportunities on shared resources. Doing so will ensure that the sovereign rights of developing coastal States are properly accounted for and implemented

Multidisciplinary approach of an emblematic MPA, the Bamboung area in Senegal

International audienc

Energy Flow Through Marine Ecosystems: Confronting Transfer Efficiency.

Transfer efficiency is the proportion of energy passed between nodes in food webs. It is an emergent, unitless property that is difficult to measure, and responds dynamically to environmental and ecosystem changes. Because the consequences of changes in transfer efficiency compound through ecosystems, slight variations can have large effects on food availability for top predators. Here, we review the processes controlling transfer efficiency, approaches to estimate it, and known variations across ocean biomes. Both process-level analysis and observed macroscale variations suggest that ecosystem-scale transfer efficiency is highly variable, impacted by fishing, and will decline with climate change. It is important that we more fully resolve the processes controlling transfer efficiency in models to effectively anticipate changes in marine ecosystems and fisheries resources

Social equity is key to sustainable ocean governance

AbstractCalls to address social equity in ocean governance are expanding. Yet ‘equity’ is seldom clearly defined. Here we present a framework to support contextually-informed assessment of equity in ocean governance. Guiding questions include: (1) Where and (2) Why is equity being examined? (3) Equity for or amongst Whom? (4) What is being distributed? (5) When is equity considered? And (6) How do governance structures impact equity? The framework supports consistent operationalization of equity, challenges oversimplification, and allows evaluation of progress. It is a step toward securing the equitable ocean governance already reflected in national and international commitments.</jats:p

A meta-analysis of correlated behaviours with implications for behavioural syndromes: Mean effect size, publication bias, phylogenetic effects and the role of mediator variables

In evolutionary and behavioural ecology, increasing attention is being paid to the fact that functionally distinct behaviours are often not independent from each other. Such phenomenon is labelled as behavioural syndrome and is usually demonstrated by phenotypic correlations between behaviours like activity, exploration, aggression and risk-taking across individuals in a population. However, published studies disagree on the strength, and even on the existence of such relationships. To make general inferences from this mixed evidence, we quantitatively reviewed the literature using modern meta-analytic approaches. Based on a large dataset, we investigated the overall relationship between behaviours that are expected to form a syndrome and tested which factors can mediate heterogeneities in study outcomes. The average strength of the phenotypic correlation between behaviours was weak; we found no effect of the phylogeny of species but did observe significant publication bias. However, even accounting for this bias, the mean effect size was positive and statistically different from zero (r = 0. 198). Effect sizes showed considerable heterogeneity within species, implying a role for population-specific adaptation to environmental factors and/or between-study differences in research design. There was a significant positive association between absolute effect size and repeatability of behaviours, suggesting that within-individual variation of behavioural traits can set up an upper limit for the strength of the detected phenotypic correlations. Moreover, spatial overlap between the contexts in which different behaviours were assayed increased the magnitude of the association. The small effect size for the focal relationship implies that a huge sample size would be required to demonstrate a correlation between behaviours with sufficient statistical power, which is fulfilled only in very few studies. This suggests that behavioural syndromes often remain undetected and unpublished. Collectively, our meta-analysis revealed a number of points that might be worth to consider in the future study of behavioural syndromes. © 2012 The Author(s).Peer Reviewe