Fueling of a marine-terrestrial ecosystem by a major seabird colony

Seabirds redistribute nutrients between different ecosystem compartments and over vast geographical areas. This nutrient transfer may impact both local ecosystems on seabird breeding islands and regional biogeochemical cycling, but these processes are seldom considered in local conservation plans or biogeochemical models. The island of Stora Karlso in the Baltic Sea hosts the largest concentration of piscivorous seabirds in the region, and also hosts a large colony of insectivorous House martins Delichon urbicum adjacent to the breeding seabirds. We show that a previously reported unusually high insectivore abundance was explained by large amounts of chironomids-highly enriched in delta N-15-that feed on seabird residues as larvae along rocky shores to eventually emerge as flying adults. Benthic ammonium and phosphate fluxes were up to 163% and 153% higher close to the colony (1,300 m distance) than further away (2,700 m) and the estimated nutrient release from the seabirds at were in the same order of magnitude as the loads from the largest waste-water treatment plants in the region. The trophic cascade impacting insectivorous passerines and the substantial redistribution of nutrients suggest that seabird nutrient transfer should be increasingly considered in local conservation plans and regional nutrient cycling models.Peer reviewe

Adapting to Regional Enforcement: Fishing Down the Governance Index

Background: Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is a problem for marine resource managers, leading to depletion of fish stocks and negative impacts on marine ecosystems. These problems are particularly evident in regions with weak governance. Countries responsible for sustainable natural resource management in the Southern Ocean have actively worked to reduce IUU fishing in the region over a period of 15 years, leading to a sequence of three distinct peaks of IUU fishing. Methodology/Principal Findings: We reviewed existing public records relating to IUU fishing in the Southern Ocean between 1995–2009 and related this information to the governance capacity of flag states responsible for IUU vessels. IUU operators used a number of methods to adapt to enforcement actions, resulting in reduced risks of detection, apprehension and sanctioning. They changed fishing locations, vessel names and flag states, and ports for offloading IUU catches. There was a significant decrease in the proportion of IUU vessels flagged to CCAMLR countries, and a significant decrease in the average governance index of flag states. Despite a decreasing trend of IUU fishing, further actions are hampered by the regional scope of CCAMLR and the governance capacity of responsible states. Conclusions/Significance: This is the first study of long-term change in the modus operandi of IUU fishing operators, illustrating that IUU operators can adapt to enforcement actions and that such dynamics may lead to new problems elsewhere, where countries have a limited capacity. This outsourcing of problems may have similarities to natural resourc

Review of the research knowledge and gaps on fish populations, fisheries and linked ecosystems in the Central Arctic Ocean (CAO)

This report presents a review of the research knowledge and gaps on fish populations, fisheries and linked ecosystems in the Central Arctic Ocean (CAO). The CAO comprises the deep basins of the Arctic Ocean beyond the shelf break, which largely overlap with the High Seas of the Arctic Ocean, i.e. the marine areas outside the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of the Arctic coastal nations. The authors of the report are members of the European Fisheries Inventory in the Central Arctic Ocean (EFICA) Consortium. This study was funded by the European Commission as an EU contribution to the international cooperation within the Agreement to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean. The report contains desk-based research, using scientific research data bases as well as any available research performed by the EFICA Consortium partners and EU institutions or others. In Chapters 2-8 the authors review the literature and identify specific knowledge gaps. The gap analyses involve comparisons of actual knowledge with desired knowledge on the fish stocks of the CAO to be able to evaluate possibilities for future sustainable fisheries in the area. Chapter 1 is an introductory chapter, and Chapter 9 presents a holistic gap analysis based on Chapters 2-8 and recommendations for research priorities and the next steps. The critical gap analysis highlights that the knowledge gaps for the CAO are enormous and obstruct any quantitative analyses of its fish stocks. This agrees with the conclusions from the Fifth FiSCAO Report (FiSCAO 2018). While data for the physical environment in the CAO (oceanography, bottom topography and ice-cover dynamics) would be sufficient for fish stock modelling and assessment, there is a massive lack of biological and ecological data. The CAO is not a closed system and some aspects of the shelf seas are of high relevance for the CAO, notably connectivity of fish stocks and fish species moving north with climate warming. Scientific research and monitoring programs are established in the shelf seas, and new data are constantly being produced. Fish stock data are available from scientific projects and monitoring programs for some of the shelf seas (Barents Sea, Bering Sea, and to a lesser extent for the Beaufort Sea and the Chukchi Sea). Data exist also for the Russian shelf seas (Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, East Siberian Sea), but these data are not internationally available, while for the areas north of Canada/Greenland data are missing; they do not exist because of the severe ice conditions there. More data from all shelf seas may be hidden in reports that are not publicly accessible. We recommend to make current knowledge generally available by translating key publications and identification of valuable data reports. Research priorities comprise the collection and analysis of primary data in the CAO, and – to a limited extent – from adjacent waters through collaborations with other Signatories of the Agreement (e.g. on population genetics). Further research priorities include an evaluation of ecosystem vulnerability, social-ecological analyses, i.e. recognizing the close and often complex interactions between humans and nature, and recommendations for governance of the CAO. Fulfilling the 14 specific research priorities mentioned in Chapter 9 to “sufficient knowledge available” could enable the potential, future application of an Ecosystem Approach to Management for the CAO

Can fisheries management be quantified?

Policy efforts to reduce fisheries impact have often created micro-management. Detailed regulations are restricting the fishing industry, and are also acknowledged to limit the progress towards sustainable management. Industry representatives, political bodies and scientists have therefore argued for more simplicity and transparency. Here, fisheries management is quantified in terms of trends in regulations for different Swedish fisheries in the Baltic Sea during the period 1995–2009. The results suggest that many fisheries are suffering from increased micro-management, but interestingly some fisheries showing a different trend

Seabird fertilisation stable isotope data

C and N stable isotope data from a study on seabird fertilisation in the Baltic Sea.THIS DATASET IS ARCHIVED AT DANS/EASY, BUT NOT ACCESSIBLE HERE. TO VIEW A LIST OF FILES AND ACCESS THE FILES IN THIS DATASET CLICK ON THE DOI-LINK ABOV

Porewater nutrient data, seabird fertilisation study

Porewater nutrient data from sediment sampled near the Stora Karlsö seabird colony, April 2017.THIS DATASET IS ARCHIVED AT DANS/EASY, BUT NOT ACCESSIBLE HERE. TO VIEW A LIST OF FILES AND ACCESS THE FILES IN THIS DATASET CLICK ON THE DOI-LINK ABOV

Seabird fertilisation stable isotope data

C and N stable isotope data from a study on seabird fertilisation in the Baltic Sea.THIS DATASET IS ARCHIVED AT DANS/EASY, BUT NOT ACCESSIBLE HERE. TO VIEW A LIST OF FILES AND ACCESS THE FILES IN THIS DATASET CLICK ON THE DOI-LINK ABOV

Does fisheries management incentivize non-compliance? Estimated misreporting in the Swedish Baltic Sea pelagic fishery based on commercial fishing effort

Fisheries management agencies and fishing industry representatives depend on reliable estimates of fish biomass and mortality for the determin- ation of sustainable catch levels. Lack of data or misreporting may be reasons for unreliable stock assessment, which, in turn, may result in advice that does not reflect the availability of fisheries resources. It has been suggested that the mixed pelagic trawl fisheries in the Baltic represent a case of biased estimates of fish biomass and mortality resulting from misreporting. Here, we estimate the degree of misreporting in the Swedish pelagic fishery (1996 – 2009) and propose an approach for reconstructing historical catches based on commercial effort data. The analysis suggests that total catches have been underestimated during part of our study period and that systematic misreporting of species composition has taken place over the whole study period. The analysis also suggests that there is overcapacity in the fishery and that such economic incentive could explain the general patterns of misreporting. Applying our method for fisheries with suspected misreporting could significantly improve assessment accuracy, reduce uncertainty and thereby allow for a better link between catches and resource levels.

Teoría de la educación : educación y cultura en la sociedad de la información

Resumen basado en el de la publicaciónUno de los aspectos más interesantes en la formación inicial en informática en el contexto universitario es la diversidad de experiencias y competencias de los alumnos. A fin de percibir la evolución de la utilización del ordenador en el tramo de edad de los 10 a los 19 años de los jóvenes portugueses, se elabora un cuestionario sobre: utilización del ordenador, contexto, tipo de equipamiento; acceso a Internet, modalidad, actividades desarrolladas, tiempo, contexto; programas de chat, redes sociales y blog; control de su uso por parte de sus padres, modalidad; formación en Tecnologías de la Información y de la Comunicación (TIC). A partir de una muestra de 390 jóvenes portugueses los datos fueron tratados para permitir comparaciones en función de los grupos de edad 10-12 años, 13-15 años y 16-19 años. La información recogida permite elaborar un cuadro evolutivo de las competencias de los jóvenes, así como tener una idea aproximada del uso de las TIC en los sujetos que inician la universidad.Castilla y LeónES

A mechanistic framework to inform the spatial management of conflicting fisheries and top predators

Conflicts of interest between resource extraction and conservation are widespread, and negotiating such conflicts, or trade-offs, is a key issue for ecosystem managers. One such trade-off is resource competition between fisheries and marine top predators. Managing this trade-off has so far been difficult due to a lack of knowledge regarding the amount and distribution of prey required by top predators.Here, we develop a framework that can be used to address this gap: a bio-energetic model linking top predator breeding biology and foraging ecology with forage fish ecology and fisheries management.We apply the framework to a Baltic Sea colony of common guillemots Uria aalge and razorbills Alca torda, two seabird species sensitive to local prey depletion, and show that densities of forage fish (sprat Sprattus sprattus and herring Clupea harengus) corresponding to the current fisheries management target B-MSY are sufficient for successful breeding. A previously proposed fisheries management target for conserving seabirds, 1/3 of historical maximum prey biomass (B-1/3), was also sufficient.However, the results highlight the importance of maintaining sufficient prey densities in the vicinity of the colony, suggesting that fine-scale spatial fisheries management is necessary to maintain high seabird breeding success.Despite foraging on the same prey, razorbills could breed successfully at lower prey densities than guillemots but needed higher densities for self-maintenance, emphasizing the importance of considering species-specific traits when determining sustainable forage fish densities for top predators.Synthesis and applications. Our bio-energetic modelling framework provides spatially explicit top predator conservation targets that can be readily integrated with current fisheries management. The framework can be combined with existing management approaches such as dynamic ocean management, marine spatial planning and management strategy evaluation to inform ecosystem-based management of marine resources