Overfishing and Habitat Loss Drives Range Contraction of Iconic Marine Fishes to Near Extinction

Extinctions on land are often inferred from sparse sightings over time, but this technique is ill-suited for wide-ranging species. We develop a space-for-time approach to track the spatial contraction and drivers of decline of sawfishes. These iconic and endangered shark-like rays were once found in warm, coastal waters of 90 nations and are now presumed extinct in more than half (n = 46). Using dynamic geography theory, we predict that sawfishes are gone from at least nine additional nations. Overfishing and habitat loss have reduced spatial occupancy, leading to local extinctions in 55 of the 90 nations, which equates to 58.7% of their historical distribution. Retention bans and habitat protections are urgently necessary to secure a future for sawfishes and similar species

Carcharhinus hemiodon Pondicherry Shark

The Pondicherry Shark (Carcharhinus hemiodon) is a small (to 102 cm total length) and very rare Indo- West Pacific whaler shark. It has a wide historic range from Oman to southern China, but known records are scattered, and it has only been reliably verified from a handful of countries. It appears to occur in shallow coastal waters, and has also been reported to enter rivers, although this has not been verified. The contemporary range of this species is poorly defined and museum specimens were collected pre- 1960. There are reports from 1979, the 1990s, and 2000, but none of these could be verified. Its identification is problematic, and it is easily confused with a number of other Carcharhinus species (for example, recent putative records from Sri Lanka)

Overfishing Drives Over One-Third of All Sharks and Rays Toward a Global Extinction Crisis

The scale and drivers of marine biodiversity loss are being revealed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assessment process. We present the first global reassessment of 1,199 species in Class Chondrichthyes-sharks, rays, and chimeras. The first global assessment (in 2014) concluded that one-quarter (24%) of species were threatened. Now, 391 (32.6%) species are threatened with extinction. When this percentage of threat is applied to Data Deficient species, more than one-third (37.5%) of chondrichthyans are estimated to be threatened, with much of this change resulting from new information. Three species are Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct), representing possibly the first global marine fish extinctions due to overfishing. Consequently, the chondrichthyan extinction rate is potentially 25 extinctions per million species years, comparable to that of terrestrial vertebrates. Overfishing is the universal threat affecting all 391 threatened species and is the sole threat for 67.3% of species and interacts with three other threats for the remaining third: loss and degradation of habitat (31.2% of threatened species), climate change (10.2%), and pollution (6.9%). Species are disproportionately threatened in tropical and subtropical coastal waters. Science-based limits on fishing, effective marine protected areas, and approaches that reduce or eliminate fishing mortality are urgently needed to minimize mortality of threatened species and ensure sustainable catch and trade of others. Immediate action is essential to prevent further extinctions and protect the potential for food security and ecosystem functions provided by this iconic lineage of predators

Testing a global standard for quantifying species recovery and assessing conservation impact

Recognizing the imperative to evaluate species recovery and conservation impact, in 2012 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called for development of a “Green List of Species” (now the IUCN Green Status of Species). A draft Green Status framework for assessing species’ progress toward recovery, published in 2018, proposed 2 separate but interlinked components: a standardized method (i.e., measurement against benchmarks of species’ viability, functionality, and preimpact distribution) to determine current species recovery status (herein species recovery score) and application of that method to estimate past and potential future impacts of conservation based on 4 metrics (conservation legacy, conservation dependence, conservation gain, and recovery potential). We tested the framework with 181 species representing diverse taxa, life histories, biomes, and IUCN Red List categories (extinction risk). Based on the observed distribution of species’ recovery scores, we propose the following species recovery categories: fully recovered, slightly depleted, moderately depleted, largely depleted, critically depleted, extinct in the wild, and indeterminate. Fifty-nine percent of tested species were considered largely or critically depleted. Although there was a negative relationship between extinction risk and species recovery score, variation was considerable. Some species in lower risk categories were assessed as farther from recovery than those at higher risk. This emphasizes that species recovery is conceptually different from extinction risk and reinforces the utility of the IUCN Green Status of Species to more fully understand species conservation status. Although extinction risk did not predict conservation legacy, conservation dependence, or conservation gain, it was positively correlated with recovery potential. Only 1.7% of tested species were categorized as zero across all 4 of these conservation impact metrics, indicating that conservation has, or will, play a role in improving or maintaining species status for the vast majority of these species. Based on our results, we devised an updated assessment framework that introduces the option of using a dynamic baseline to assess future impacts of conservation over the short term to avoid misleading results which were generated in a small number of cases, and redefines short term as 10 years to better align with conservation planning. These changes are reflected in the IUCN Green Status of Species Standard

Diving into the vertical dimension of elasmobranch movement ecology

Knowledge of the three-dimensional movement patterns of elasmobranchs is vital to understand their ecological roles and exposure to anthropogenic pressures. To date, comparative studies among species at global scales have mostly focused on horizontal movements. Our study addresses the knowledge gap of vertical movements by compiling the first global synthesis of vertical habitat use by elasmobranchs from data obtained by deployment of 989 biotelemetry tags on 38 elasmobranch species. Elasmobranchs displayed high intra- and interspecific variability in vertical movement patterns. Substantial vertical overlap was observed for many epipelagic elasmobranchs, indicating an increased likelihood to display spatial overlap, biologically interact, and share similar risk to anthropogenic threats that vary on a vertical gradient. We highlight the critical next steps toward incorporating vertical movement into global management and monitoring strategies for elasmobranchs, emphasizing the need to address geographic and taxonomic biases in deployments and to concurrently consider both horizontal and vertical movements

Ricercare l'abitare

Il volume è l’ultimo risultato della ricerca “Cohousing. Programmi e progetti per la riqualificazione del patrimonio esistente” svoltasi nel Dipartimento di Architettura dell’Università degli Studi Roma Tre e delle riflessioni scaturite nel Laboratorio di Laurea “Spazi dell’abitare” svoltosi nello stesso Dipartimento negli anni accademici 2015-16 e 2016-17. “Abitare la condivisione” è quindi il risultato di un confronto divulgativo tenuto da studiosi e professionisti sul tema dell’abitare e della condivisione.Il testo ripercorre alcuni principi metodologici della ricerca analizzando strumenti e risultati

Cohousing. Programmi e progetti per la riqualificazione del patrimonio esistente. Cohousing. Programs and projects to recover heritage buildings

This book is the upshot of the Study Day entitled “Cohousing. Programs and projects to recover heritage buildings” staged in Rome on 24 October 2014, and organized by a team of researchers (Adolfo F. L. Baratta, Fabrizio Finucci, Stefano Gabriele, Annalisa Metta, Luca Montuori, Valerio Palmieri) of the Department of Architecture of the Roma Tre University, with a multi-disciplinary approach. The book contains the contributions of scholars, professionals and voluntary sector operators relating to two topics all set to play a lead role in global policies in the next decade: the topic of houses, which for years in Italy has been addressed with a welfare rather than structural approach, and the topic of the requalification of the existing building heritage, which must be recovered in terms of architectural and urban quality, safety, efficiency and inclusiveness. “Cohousing. Programs and projects to recover heritage buildings” is therefore the upshot of an instructive discussion on the topic of sharing common spaces, more widespread in the north-European countries, combined with the topic of the requalification of existing buildings, more central to the Mediterranean area.This book is the upshot of the Study Day entitled “Cohousing. Programs and projects to recover heritage buildings” staged in Rome on 24 October 2014, and organized by a team of researchers (Adolfo F. L. Baratta, Fabrizio Finucci, Stefano Gabriele, Annalisa Metta, Luca Montuori, Valerio Palmieri) of the Department of Architecture of the Roma Tre University, with a multi-disciplinary approach. The book contains the contributions of scholars, professionals and voluntary sector operators relating to two topics all set to play a lead role in global policies in the next decade: the topic of houses, which for years in Italy has been addressed with a welfare rather than structural approach, and the topic of the requalification of the existing building heritage, which must be recovered in terms of architectural and urban quality, safety, efficiency and inclusiveness. “Cohousing. Programs and projects to recover heritage buildings” is therefore the upshot of an instructive discussion on the topic of sharing common spaces, more widespread in the north-European countries, combined with the topic of the requalification of existing buildings, more central to the Mediterranean area