Fishers' local ecological knowledge to support mangrove research in the Galapagos

Mangroves provide multiple ecosystem services to coastal communities and their fisheries. In the Galapagos, mangroves have been primarily prized for their role as nursery grounds; though, the importance of cultural benefits, including the development of knowledge systems among fishers, needs to be further explored. Fishers' local ecological knowledge (LEK) has been employed in the past to answer questions about the marine environment; not yet about mangroves. In such regard, this ethnoecological approach can contribute to unveil mangrove habitat-dependence relationships among fishery taxa across the life cycle, connectivity among habitats, and productivity spatial patterns across the archipelago. To access fishers' LEK, we conducted 35 semi-structured interviews and 2 facilitated community workshops comprising 3 activities. A photo-elicitation method allowed us to extract values given to mangroves (i.e., ecosystem services), from which indirect use values were considered more relevant for fisheries. As such, the accumulation of LEK might have been crucial for the establishment of these values among fishers. By using a species-habitat association method, we revealed a high perceived connectivity between mangroves and other coastal and marine habitats in the Galapagos. Although this suggests an overall weak dependence to the ecosystem, fishers' anecdotes allowed us to recognize novel species occurrences and exclusive habitat uses (e.g., spawning in Centropomus viridis). By applying Social Network Analysis to species-habitat association results, we learned that certain migratory commercial species (e.g., Lutjanus argentiventris, Seriola rivoliana) might constitute critical links in marine trophic webs and across seascapes. Finally, through scoring and participatory mapping methods, we revealed the prominence of western islands' mangroves for fishery productivity, which were linked to biophysical attributes, like forest canopy and freshwater. Yet, other locations in central and southeastern islands might also be important, as they hold similar attributes. Interviews to other mangrove users (e.g., naturalist guides, park rangers, scientists; N = 33), and past scientific studies allowed us to triangulate LEK and to find complementarity among knowledge sources. Despite having an explorative focus, our work already showcases the potential of fishers' LEK in improving mangrove research in the Galapagos, and the arising opportunities for ecosystem-based fisheries management and mangrove protection

Neotropical freshwater fisheries : A dataset of occurrence and abundance of freshwater fishes in the Neotropics

The Neotropical region hosts 4225 freshwater fish species, ranking first among the world's most diverse regions for freshwater fishes. Our NEOTROPICAL FRESHWATER FISHES data set is the first to produce a large-scale Neotropical freshwater fish inventory, covering the entire Neotropical region from Mexico and the Caribbean in the north to the southern limits in Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and Uruguay. We compiled 185,787 distribution records, with unique georeferenced coordinates, for the 4225 species, represented by occurrence and abundance data. The number of species for the most numerous orders are as follows: Characiformes (1289), Siluriformes (1384), Cichliformes (354), Cyprinodontiformes (245), and Gymnotiformes (135). The most recorded species was the characid Astyanax fasciatus (4696 records). We registered 116,802 distribution records for native species, compared to 1802 distribution records for nonnative species. The main aim of the NEOTROPICAL FRESHWATER FISHES data set was to make these occurrence and abundance data accessible for international researchers to develop ecological and macroecological studies, from local to regional scales, with focal fish species, families, or orders. We anticipate that the NEOTROPICAL FRESHWATER FISHES data set will be valuable for studies on a wide range of ecological processes, such as trophic cascades, fishery pressure, the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation, and the impacts of species invasion and climate change. There are no copyright restrictions on the data, and please cite this data paper when using the data in publications

Evaluation of a quality improvement intervention to reduce anastomotic leak following right colectomy (EAGLE): pragmatic, batched stepped-wedge, cluster-randomized trial in 64 countries

Background Anastomotic leak affects 8 per cent of patients after right colectomy with a 10-fold increased risk of postoperative death. The EAGLE study aimed to develop and test whether an international, standardized quality improvement intervention could reduce anastomotic leaks. Methods The internationally intended protocol, iteratively co-developed by a multistage Delphi process, comprised an online educational module introducing risk stratification, an intraoperative checklist, and harmonized surgical techniques. Clusters (hospital teams) were randomized to one of three arms with varied sequences of intervention/data collection by a derived stepped-wedge batch design (at least 18 hospital teams per batch). Patients were blinded to the study allocation. Low- and middle-income country enrolment was encouraged. The primary outcome (assessed by intention to treat) was anastomotic leak rate, and subgroup analyses by module completion (at least 80 per cent of surgeons, high engagement; less than 50 per cent, low engagement) were preplanned. Results A total 355 hospital teams registered, with 332 from 64 countries (39.2 per cent low and middle income) included in the final analysis. The online modules were completed by half of the surgeons (2143 of 4411). The primary analysis included 3039 of the 3268 patients recruited (206 patients had no anastomosis and 23 were lost to follow-up), with anastomotic leaks arising before and after the intervention in 10.1 and 9.6 per cent respectively (adjusted OR 0.87, 95 per cent c.i. 0.59 to 1.30; P = 0.498). The proportion of surgeons completing the educational modules was an influence: the leak rate decreased from 12.2 per cent (61 of 500) before intervention to 5.1 per cent (24 of 473) after intervention in high-engagement centres (adjusted OR 0.36, 0.20 to 0.64; P < 0.001), but this was not observed in low-engagement hospitals (8.3 per cent (59 of 714) and 13.8 per cent (61 of 443) respectively; adjusted OR 2.09, 1.31 to 3.31). Conclusion Completion of globally available digital training by engaged teams can alter anastomotic leak rates. Registration number: NCT04270721 (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov)