Do different levels of fishing pressure, through spatial management, influence communities and ecological interactions in seagrass meadows in South Western Australia?

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are internationally recognised as a significant spatial management and cost-effective strategy to restore and conserve the marine ecosystems structure and function from human impact. MPAs have been declared with the aim to address a single or a set of management objectives in response to anthropogenic threats, such as fishing, which can have repercussions on biodiversity through indirect interactions or top-down control within an ecosystem or across ecosystems where consumers migrate to forage. However, this indirect impact of fishing remains poorly understood, and as a consequence, the effectiveness of MP As in conserving those ecological processes and broader biodiversity is also poorly understood. Therefore, this study investigated the potential effects of sanctuary zones (no-take MPAs) on higher-order consumers and their effects on benthic assemblage structure both on the reef and in adjacent seagrass meadows. Consumer assemblages were examined using underwater visual census (UVC) on reefs and seagrass meadows at a range of sites in sanctuary and fished zones in Marmion Marine Park (MMP) and Rottnest Island Marine Reserve (RIMP) over three seasons between July 2009 and March 2010. Epibenthic fauna and flora were also sampled using quadrats on reefs and at set distances away from reefs in adjacent Amphibolis seagrass meadows over the same period. Sanctuary zones had higher mean total abundance and biomass of fish compared to adjacent fished zones, and while not significant, there was also a trend of higher means rock lobsters abundance in sanctuary zones. However, there was a high degree of variability among sites nested in zone, and among seasons. Kingston Reefs sanctuary zone contained the highest rock lobster and fish abundance, biomass, and species richness across all seasons. In addition, there was a trend of decreasing mean abundance, biomass, and species richness of fish with increasing distance away from the reef in Amphibolis meadows. In terms of epibenthic fauna and flora assemblages, there was no significant difference in their abundances and taxa richness between zones, but as with consumers, there was high variability among sites within zone and among seasons. As sanctuary zones ii had substantially higher densities of consumers in close proximity to reefs than fished zones, it was expected that predation levels would be higher in sanctuary zones and would decrease with increasing distances away from the reef. However, there were no clear trends of decreasing epibenthic abundance and diversity with distance away from the reef. Furthermore, tethering experiments with gastropods, a major prey item for some consumer species, showed no significant differences in gastropod mortality between sites or with increasing distances away from the reef. Thus, a top-down effect caused by different abundances of consumers in sanctuary versus fished zones was not evident from the results. Much of the variability in higher-order consumers and epibenthic assemblage could be due to site-specific characteristics, including the age, size, and the geographical location of sanctuary zones, and the structural complexity of the habitat. The detection of consumers\u27 direct influence on prey abundance, richness, and distribution could be partly masked by their feeding habits, and the level of mobility of higher-order consumers. This study highlights the level of complexity of food web structures with consideration of other environmental and biological factors. It also provides important baseline of biological data on marine ecosystems in marine parks of southwest temperate waters of W A for future assessments of those marine parks. To meet a MPAs objective of biodiversity conservation, it is crucial for managers to acknowledge all natural variations in marine ecosystems, such as the life-history traits of individuals, when setting objectives for a MPAs performance, as protection may be suitable for some species and inadequate for others

Seagrass meadows provide 3D habitat for reef fish

For large fishes, seagrass canopies typically provide a relatively flat habitat on seabeds, but seagrasses in the genus Posidonia can provide additional habitat complexity by forming organic-rich deposits known as mats. Erosional processes can scour channels through the mats, resulting in the formation of escarpments with caves. Here we report that reef fishes, such as groupers, inhabit the caves found within mat escarpments. The characteristics of the cavities are highly variable, ranging from small-elongated holes to deep caves with large entrances. The origin of these caves (biological and/or geological) is unknown, but it is possible that fish behavior enhance their formation. Posidonia seagrass escarpments provide a complex 3D habitat for reef fish that is not provided by typical canopy structure of seagrass. Further studies are required to gain insights into the natural history of seagrass escarpments and their ecological importance

Seagrass posidonia escarpments support high diversity and biomass of rocky reef fishes

Although seagrass meadows form a relatively homogenous habitat, escarpments, which form three-dimensional structures and originate from the erosion of seagrass peat, can provide important habitat for reef fishes. Here, we compare fish assemblages and habitat structural complexity among seagrass Posidonia australis escarpments and canopies, as well as limestone reef habitats, to understand the role of seagrass escarpments as reef fish habitat in Shark Bay, Western Australia. The total number of fish species, fish biomass, and top predator biomass were significantly higher in seagrass escarpments and reef habitats than in seagrass canopies due to lower habitat structural complexity and thus becoming suitable habitats for predators and prey in the latter. Both seagrass escarpment and reef habitats host similar assemblages of top predators and carnivorous fishes, such as Epinephelus coioides, Microcanthus strigatus, and Choerodon schoenleinii, that were absent in seagrass canopies. Seagrass escarpments provide an alternative habitat for reef fishes comparable to rocky reefs, which are limited in Shark Bay. Caves and ledges within the escarpments support 13.4 Mg of fish and 3.6 Mg of top predator species of commercial interest within the Shark Bay World Heritage Site. Additional research is needed to further understand the ecological importance of seagrass escarpments in enhancing fish biomass and biodiversity, as reproduction grounds or refuge from predators, and to investigate the role of meadow edges in ecosystem function

Affective manifestations in young people with intellectual disabilities

La afectividad en personas con discapacidad intelectual es un tema que ha sido omitido y ha generado prejuicios desde la ética cultural. La investigación que se informa consistió en develar las manifestaciones afectivas en jóvenes con discapacidad intelectual, con un rango de edad de 15 a 25 años. El nivel de conocimiento que alcanza la investigación, se enmarca en un estudio de tipo descriptivo denso. La recolección de datos se realizó en una escuela especial de la Araucanía (Chile), aplicando entrevistas semiestructuradas con diseño estudio de caso. Se develó que las manifestaciones deafectividad de los jóvenes se sustentan en el cuidado y respeto mutuo, evidenciando creencias marcadas por la presencia de machismo, conciencia de responsabilidades y posicionamientos valóricos de adultos significativos que limitan, regulan comportamientos y omiten la educación sexual por la condición de los jóvenes, evidenciándose esta última de forma transversal al currículo de escuela especial.This research studies the affectivity in people with intellectual disability condition, in order to visualize the process of self-construction of the sense of being person. This research looks for revealing the affective manifestations in young people with intellectual disability, whose ages are between 15 and 25 years old. This problem implies a complex issue, which involves cultural, religious, educative and idiosyncratic factors that reflect an unfair society which does not protect the rights of social groups in disadvantage situations and difficult educability conditions. Theoretically is assumed an axiological positioning which conceives the person as a value in itself and a spiritual microcosm which is alive and transcendent. The method applied is guided from the qualitative approach with a descriptive reach through the design associated to the case study and in accordance with the hermeneutic paradigm. The context of the problem was focus on a special school in the Araucanía region at the South of Chile. Semistructure interviews and appropriate rigor criteria such as confirm ability, transferability, credibility and dependency were applied. The participants were 13 students and four teachers. The research is adjusted to the ethical requirements in the Helsinki and Singapore Declaration, according to the appropriate behavior of the researcher and the informed consent. The qualitative data were reduced through the transcription and coding process using the Atlas.ti software version 7.0. With the primary transcribed documents axial and open coding were applied, which let to develop analysis from the constant comparative method. An empirical- theoretical sample and content analysis were done. The results let the categories raise, operationalized in codes, highlighting between them, affective manifestations, couple relationship, personal care, young people beliefs and teachers’ beliefs. It was revealed that the affective manifestations of young people are based in the mutual respect and care, demonstrating beliefs with sexist characteristics, conscience of responsibilities and the meaningful adults’ positions related to values, which limit and regulate behaviors and omit the sexual education because the condition that the young people have, evincing the sexual education in a transversal way to the curriculum of the special school. The sexual education must give precise information and not be restricted to the intellectual agreement, but respecting the appropriate ages of the people life cycle, where the education must be precise and direct. To accomplish this task, it was discovered that didactic resources must be given to help young people to be aware of their action. Additionally, it was revealed that young people must be constantly accompanied by guides, mediation regarding to the construction of bonds and affective experience suitable to their own characteristics. Family is presented as an obstructive element in the young people affective relationships, evincing a lack of communication and comprehension. Teachers consider the young people as valuable people, where their intellectual conditions do not affect their rights to manifest themselves affectively either their friends or partners. In summary, it must advance toward an education that overcomes the existence of false beliefs, and that will exist in the sexual education the disposition to talk with respect about what the young people say their interests, worries, responsibilities and respect with themselves and with others. For this reason, it is necessary to guide and orient young people, not only from the formal educational institution, but also from the collaborative work with the family, where this formation should not be delegated only to the professionals, but also that it constitutes in a contextualized learning of sexual education and that it must be accepted as an inherent condition from the human being, so that, in this way it must be experienced the liberty of the rights and the ethical personalism of each human being

Manifestaciones afectivas en jóvenes con discapacidad intelectual

This research studies the affectivity in people with intellectual disability condition, in order to visualize the process of self-construction of the sense of being person. This research looks for revealing the affective manifestations in young people with intellectual disability, whose ages are between 15 and 25 years old. This problem implies a complex issue, which involves cultural, religious, educative and idiosyncratic factors that reflect an unfair society which does not protect the rights of social groups in disadvantage situations and difficult educability conditions. Theoretically is assumed an axiological positioning which conceives the person as a value in itself and a spiritual microcosm which is alive and transcendent. The method applied is guided from the qualitative approach with a descriptive reach through the design associated to the case study and in accordance with the hermeneutic paradigm. The context of the problem was focus on a special school in the Araucanía region at the South of Chile. Semi-structure interviews and appropriate rigor criteria such as confirm ability, transferability, credibility and dependency were applied. The participants were 13 students and four teachers. The research is adjusted to the ethical requirements in the Helsinki and Singapore Declaration, according to the appropriate behavior of the researcher and the informed consent. The qualitative data were reduced through the transcription and coding process using the Atlas.ti software version 7.0. With the primary transcribed documents axial and open coding were applied, which let to develop analysis from the constant comparative method. An empirical- theoretical sample and content analysis were done. The results let the categories raise, operationalized in codes, highlighting between them, affectivemanifestations, couple relationship, personal care, young people beliefs and teachers' beliefs. It was revealed that the affective manifestations of young people are based in the mutual respect and care, demonstrating beliefs with sexist characteristics, conscience of responsibilities and the meaningful adults' positions related to values, which limit and regulate behaviors and omit the sexual education because the condition that the young people have, evincing the sexual education in a transversal way to the curriculum of the special school. The sexual education must give precise information and not be restricted to the intellectual agreement, but respecting the appropriate ages of the people life cycle, where the education must be precise and direct. To accomplish this task, it was discovered that didactic resources must be given to help young people to be aware of their action. Additionally, it was revealed that young people must be constantly accompanied by guides, mediation regarding to the construction of bonds and affective experience suitable to their own characteristics. Family is presented as an obstructive element in the young people affective relationships, evincing a lack of communication and comprehension. Teachers consider the young people as valuable people, where their intellectual conditions do not affect their rights to manifest themselves affectively either their friends or partners. In summary, it must advance toward an education that overcomes the existence of false beliefs, and that will exist in the sexual education the disposition to talk with respect about what the young people say their interests, worries, responsibilities and respect with themselves and with others. For this reason, it is necessary to guide and orient young people, not only from the formal educational institution, but also from the collaborative work with the family, where this formation should not be delegated only to the professionals, but also that it constitutes in a contextualized learning of sexual education and that it must be accepted as an inherent condition from the human being, so that, in this way it must be experienced the liberty of the rights and the ethical personalism of each human being.La afectividad en personas con discapacidad intelectual es un tema que ha sido omitido y ha generado prejuicios desde la ética cultural. La investigación que se informa consistió en develar las manifestaciones afectivas en jóvenes con discapacidad intelectual, con un rango de edad de 15 a 25 años. El nivel de conocimiento que alcanza la investigación, se enmarca en un estudio de tipo descriptivo denso. La recolección de datos se realizó en una escuela especial de la Araucanía (Chile), aplicando entrevistas semiestructuradas con diseño estudio de caso. Se develó que las manifestaciones de afectividad de los jóvenes se sustentan en el cuidado y respeto mutuo, evidenciando creencias marcadas por la presencia de machismo, conciencia de responsabilidades y posicionamientos valóricos de adultos significativos que limitan, regulan comportamientos y omiten la educación sexual por la condición de los jóvenes, evidenciándose esta última de forma transversal al currículo de escuela especial

Quantifying Patterns in Fish Assemblages and Habitat Use Along a Deep Submarine Canyon-Valley Feature Using a Remotely Operated Vehicle

The aim of this study was to document the composition and distribution of deep-water fishes associated with a submarine canyon-valley feature. A work-class Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) fitted with stereo-video cameras was used to record fish abundance and assemblage composition along transects at water depths between 300 and 900 metres. Three areas (A, B, C) were sampled along a submarine canyon-valley feature on the continental slope of tropical north-western Australia. Water conductivity/salinity, temperature, and depth were also collected using an ROV mounted Conductivity Temperature and Depth (CTD) instrument. Multivariate analyses were used to investigate fish assemblage composition, and species distribution models were fitted using boosted regression trees. These models were used to generate predictive maps of the occurrence of four abundant taxa over the survey areas. CTD data identified three water masses, tropical surface water, South Indian Central Water (centred ∼200 m depth), and a lower salinity Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) ∼550 m depth. Distinct fish assemblages were found among areas and between canyon-valley and non-canyon habitats. The canyon-valley habitats supported more fish and taxa than non-canyon habitats. The fish assemblages of the deeper location (∼700–900 m, Area A) were different to that of the shallower locations (∼400–700 m, Areas B and C). Deep-water habitats were characterised by a Paraliparis (snail fish) species, while shallower habitats were characterised by the family Macrouridae (rat tails). Species distribution models highlighted the fine-scale environmental niche associations of the four most abundant taxa. The survey area had a high diversity of fish taxa and was dominated by the family Macrouridae. The deepest habitat had a different fish fauna to the shallower areas. This faunal break can be attributed to the influence of AAIW. ROVs provide a platform on which multiple instruments can be mounted and complementary streams of data collected simultaneously. By surveying fish in situ along transects of defined dimensions it is possible to produce species distribution models that will facilitate a greater insight into the ecology of deep-water marine systems

Global dataset on seagrass meadow structure, biomass and production

Seagrass meadows provide valuable socio-ecological ecosystem services, including a key role in climate change mitigation and adaption. Understanding the natural history of seagrass meadows across environmental gradients is crucial to deciphering the role of seagrasses in the global ocean. In this data collation, spatial and temporal patterns in seagrass meadow structure, biomass and production data are presented as a function of biotic and abiotic habitat characteristics. The biological traits compiled include measures of meadow structure (e.g. percent cover and shoot density), biomass (e.g. above-ground biomass) and production (e.g. shoot production). Categorical factors include bioregion, geotype (coastal or estuarine), genera and year of sampling. This dataset contains data extracted from peer-reviewed publications published between 1975 and 2020 based on a Web of Science search and includes 11 data variables across 12 seagrass genera. The dataset excludes data from mesocosm and field experiments, contains 14271 data points extracted from 390 publications and is publicly available on the PANGAEA® data repository (10.1594/PANGAEA.929968; Strydom et al., 2021). The top five most studied genera are Zostera, Thalassia, Cymodocea, Halodule and Halophila (84 % of data), and the least studied genera are Phyllospadix, Amphibolis and Thalassodendron (2.3 % of data). The data hotspot bioregion is the Tropical Indo-Pacific (25 % of data) followed by the Tropical Atlantic (21 %), whereas data for the other four bioregions are evenly spread (ranging between 13 and 15 % of total data within each bioregion). From the data compiled, 57 % related to seagrass biomass and 33 % to seagrass structure, while the least number of data were related to seagrass production (11 % of data). This data collation can inform several research fields beyond seagrass ecology, such as the development of nature-based solutions for climate change mitigation, which include readership interested in blue carbon, engineering, fisheries, global change, conservation and policy

Inteligencia y estilos de aprendizaje en alumnos universitarios ingresantes

The present investigation is a study that the relation among Intelligence's level is focused in determining and styles learning utilizing as instruments Dominos' (Intelligence) and Inventory's Test of learning styles respectively. Worked to him with 1,620's total sign pupils incomers to the University Cesar Vallejo 2005 - 1, with to determine whereon measure purpose has relation the Intelligence with the Styles learning and likewise will serve for knowing learning style prevailing in the population. Finally following conclusions were reached: There are significant relation among Intelligence and the Styles for reflexive Observation, abstract Conceptualization and active Experimentation learning; however, there was not significant relation among Intelligence and the learning style for concrete experience.La presente investigación es un estudio que se centra en determinar la relación entre el nivel de Inteligencia y Estilos de Aprendizaje. Se trabajó con una muestra total de 1,620 alumnos ingresantes a la Universidad “César Vallejo 2005 - I” y se utilizó como instrumentos el Test de Dominos (Inteligencia) e Inventario de Estilos de Aprendizaje respectivamente. Al término de la Investigación se llegó a las siguientes conclusiones: Existe relación significativa entre Inteligencia y los Estilos de Aprendizaje por observación reflexiva, conceptualización abstracta y experimentación activa; sin embargo, no se halló relación significativa entre Inteligencia y el Estilo de Aprendizaje por experiencia concreta

Polyp bail-out by the coral Astroides calycularis (Scleractinia, Dendrophylliidae)

Knowledge of reproductive biology is essential for ecological studies on coral population dynamics. The azooxanthellate colonial coral Astroides calycularis is endemic to the western Mediterranean Sea and adjacent Atlantic coasts. Specimens of this species in artificial conditions, an aquarium with enclosed seawater and low food availability, appeared to show an asexual dispersal mechanism. This mechanism consisted of the detachment and release of single, skeletonless polyps from the underlying colony skeleton (i.e., polyp bail-out). While the released free-living polyps regularly showed extended tentacles and most of them survived, they did not show re-attachment to the substrate or any skeleton formation until the end of the experiment, ∼2–3 months after bail-out. Formation of new reproductive colonies, thereby the eventual completion of asexual reproduction through polyp bail-out in A. calycularis, still needs to be confirmed. In addition to sexual reproduction, polyp bail-out may constitute an alternative propagation mechanism during periods of environmental stress, thereby potentially increasing the survival rate of the parental genotype and the dispersal by drifting soft polyps. © 2017 Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelber