Marine social sciences: Looking towards a sustainable future

Marine and coastal environments provide extensive and essential ecosystem services upon which much of humanity relies, yet the incorporation of human dimensions into marine and coastal policy and management has historically been lacking. As efforts to address the substantial and diverse challenges facing marine and coastal environments continue, recent years have seen a growing call for greater consideration of people, how they interact with the marine environment, and the resultant implications for developing effective policy and man- agement. Indeed, in recent times recognition of the importance of marine social science research, data, evidence and expertise has undergone an upward trajectory. Despite this growing level of awareness of the value of social science to the wider marine and coastal management agenda, effective and meaningful inclusion of marine social science into research and practice has remained a challenge. Here we approach this global challenge as an opportunity to bring the community together to set a forward-looking international research agenda, recognising the role of multiple approaches and diverse methods understanding the relationship between society and the sea, galvanising the research and practice community across marine social sciences and beyond. Furthermore, by bringing together this increasingly active community, we can identify mechanisms of change and pathways to enable inclusion of marine social sciences within global ocean policy. This paper draws on the views of re- searchers and practitioners from across the marine social science disciplines, brought together through an expert workshop held at the MARE 2019 conference (June 2019) and representing a range of geographical regions and perspectives. Through the workshop, delegates identified a number of priorities for the ongoing development of the marine social science community, including the need to improve capacity for marine social science research globally, the importance of nurturing an inclusive and equitable marine social science research community and the role of networks to continue to raise the profile of marine social science data and evidence for global ocean policy and management. Additionally, the discussions provided valuable insight into existing knowledge gaps and potential research priorities for the future. Finally, the paper presents a future vision and recommendations for an international and interdisciplinary marine social science agenda, calling for collaborative and strategic thinking on marine social sciences from across the marine science and policy interface. Critically, we show how social science needs to be embedded in all aspects of marine and coastal management in order to create truly sustainable solutions to the pervasive environmental challenges we face

Extent, accuracy and repeatability of bare sand and vegetation cover in dunes mapped from aerial imagery is highly variable

Vegetation cover on coastal sand dunes has been increasing worldwide since at least the 1940s. Analysis of aerial and satellite imagery has been the principal source used to measure this change, however no studies have systematically evaluated the accuracy of remotely sensed estimates. Using established land cover classification methods and in-situ field measurements, we show that both the extent and accuracy of remotely sensed areas of bare sand and vegetation in dunes varies with image resolution and classification method. We found that supervised methods of classification (semi-automatic), whilst mapping a greater extent of bare sand and being more accurate than manual digitisation, had poor repeatability, exhibiting a relatively large range of bare sand and vegetation extent between classifications replicated under the same conditions. In contrast, areas of bare sand and vegetation classified by manual digitisation had high repeatability but a relatively low percentage of observed agreement with data collected in the field. For all classification methods, observed agreement with field data generally increased with image resolution. Our results demonstrate that users of land classification data in dunes should be cautious when interpreting trends of bare sand and vegetation cover due to substantial repeatability error in supervised classification methods, and relatively poor observed agreement with field data of manual classification. We recommend that analysis of bare sand and vegetation cover in dunes should be based on multiple replicates using supervised classification, employing the highest resolution imagery available and that all results presented should also include the range measured by multiple replicates

Purpose vs performance : what does marine protected area success look like?

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are an increasingly deployed spatial management tool. MPAs are primarily designed for biodiversity conservation, with their success commonly measured using a narrow suite of ecological indicators. However, for MPAs to achieve their biodiversity conservation goals they require community support, which is dependent on wider social, economic and political factors. Despite this, research into the human dimensions of MPAs continues to lag behind our understanding of ecological responses to MPA protection. Here, we explore stakeholders’ perceptions of what MPA success is. We conducted a series of semi-structured interviews and focus groups with a diverse group of stakeholders local to a South Australian MPA. What constitutes success varied by stakeholder group, and stakeholders’ stated understanding of the purpose of the MPA differed from how they would choose to measure the MPA’s success. Indeed, all interviewees stated that the primary purpose of the MPA was ecological, yet almost all (>90%) would measure the success of the MPA using social and economic measures, either exclusively or in conjunction with ecological ones. Many respondents also stated that social and economic factors were key to the MPA achieving ongoing/future success. Respondents generated a large range of novel socio-economic measures of MPA success, many of which could be incorporated into monitoring programs for relatively little additional cost. These findings also show that success is not straightforward and what constitutes success depends on who you ask. Even where an MPA’s primary ecological purpose is acknowledged by stakeholders, stakeholders are likely to only consider the MPA a success if its designation also demonstrates social and economic benefits to their communities. To achieve local stakeholder support MPAs and associated monitoring programs need to be designed for a variety of success criteria in mind, criteria which reflect the priorities and needs of the adjacent communities as well as national and international conservation objectives

Cardiomyocyte-Specific Human Bcl2-Associated Anthanogene 3 P209L Expression Induces Mitochondrial Fragmentation, Bcl2-Associated Anthanogene 3 Haploinsufficiency, and Activates p38 Signaling

Supplemental Data Supplemental Table S1 Download Supplemental Table S2 Download Supplemental Table S3 Download Supplemental Table S4 Download Supplemental Data Supplemental material for this article can be found at . The Bcl2-associated anthanogene (BAG) 3 protein is a member of the BAG family of cochaperones, which supports multiple critical cellular processes, including critical structural roles supporting desmin and interactions with heat shock proteins and ubiquitin ligases intimately involved in protein quality control. The missense mutation P209L in exon 3 results in a primarily cardiac phenotype leading to skeletal muscle and cardiac complications. At least 10 other Bag3 mutations have been reported, nine resulting in a dilated cardiomyopathy for which no specific therapy is available. We generated αMHC-human Bag3 P209L transgenic mice and characterized the progressive cardiac phenotype in vivo to investigate its utility in modeling human disease, understand the underlying molecular mechanisms, and identify potential therapeutic targets. We identified a progressive heart failure by echocardiography and Doppler analysis and the presence of pre-amyloid oligomers at 1 year. Paralleling the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases (eg, Parkinson disease), pre-amyloid oligomers–associated alterations in cardiac mitochondrial dynamics, haploinsufficiency of wild-type BAG3, and activation of p38 signaling were identified. Unexpectedly, increased numbers of activated cardiac fibroblasts were identified in Bag3 P209L Tg+ hearts without increased fibrosis. Together, these findings point to a previously undescribed therapeutic target that may have application to mutation-induced myofibrillar myopathies as well as other common causes of heart failure that commonly harbor misfolded proteins

A standard protocol for reporting species distribution models

Species distribution models (SDMs) constitute the most common class of models across ecology, evolution and conservation. The advent of ready-to-use software packages and increasing availability of digital geoinformation have considerably assisted the application of SDMs in the past decade, greatly enabling their broader use for informing conservation and management, and for quantifying impacts from global change. However, models must be fit for purpose, with all important aspects of their development and applications properly considered. Despite the widespread use of SDMs, standardisation and documentation of modelling protocols remain limited, which makes it hard to assess whether development steps are appropriate for end use. To address these issues, we propose a standard protocol for reporting SDMs, with an emphasis on describing how a study's objective is achieved through a series of modeling decisions. We call this the ODMAP (Overview, Data, Model, Assessment and Prediction) protocol, as its components reflect the main steps involved in building SDMs and other empirically-based biodiversity models. The ODMAP protocol serves two main purposes. First, it provides a checklist for authors, detailing key steps for model building and analyses, and thus represents a quick guide and generic workflow for modern SDMs. Second, it introduces a structured format for documenting and communicating the models, ensuring transparency and reproducibility, facilitating peer review and expert evaluation of model quality, as well as meta-analyses. We detail all elements of ODMAP, and explain how it can be used for different model objectives and applications, and how it complements efforts to store associated metadata and define modelling standards. We illustrate its utility by revisiting nine previously published case studies, and provide an interactive web-based application to facilitate its use. We plan to advance ODMAP by encouraging its further refinement and adoption by the scientific community

Evaluation of Clustering and Genotype Distribution for Replication in Genome Wide Association Studies: The Age-Related Eye Disease Study

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) assess correlation between traits and DNA sequence variation using large numbers of genetic variants such as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) distributed across the genome. A GWAS produces many trait-SNP associations with low p-values, but few are replicated in subsequent studies. We sought to determine if characteristics of the genomic loci associated with a trait could be used to identify initial associations with a higher chance of replication in a second cohort. Data from the age-related eye disease study (AREDS) of 100,000 SNPs on 395 subjects with and 198 without age-related macular degeneration (AMD) were employed. Loci highly associated with AMD were characterized based on the distribution of genotypes, level of significance, and clustering of adjacent SNPs also associated with AMD suggesting linkage disequilibrium or multiple effects. Forty nine loci were highly associated with AMD, including 3 loci (CFH, C2/BF, LOC387715/HTRA1) already known to contain important genetic risks for AMD. One additional locus (C3) reported during the course of this study was identified and replicated in an additional study group. Tag-SNPs and haplotypes for each locus were evaluated for association with AMD in additional cohorts to account for population differences between discovery and replication subjects, but no additional clearly significant associations were identified. Relying on a significant genotype tests using a log-additive model would have excluded 57% of the non-replicated and none of the replicated loci, while use of other SNP features and clustering might have missed true associations

ENM2020 : A FREE ONLINE COURSE AND SET OF RESOURCES ON MODELING SPECIES NICHES AND DISTRIBUTIONS

The field of distributional ecology has seen considerable recent attention, particularly surrounding the theory, protocols, and tools for Ecological Niche Modeling (ENM) or Species Distribution Modeling (SDM). Such analyses have grown steadily over the past two decades-including a maturation of relevant theory and key concepts-but methodological consensus has yet to be reached. In response, and following an online course taught in Spanish in 2018, we designed a comprehensive English-language course covering much of the underlying theory and methods currently applied in this broad field. Here, we summarize that course, ENM2020, and provide links by which resources produced for it can be accessed into the future. ENM2020 lasted 43 weeks, with presentations from 52 instructors, who engaged with >2500 participants globally through >14,000 hours of viewing and >90,000 views of instructional video and question-and-answer sessions. Each major topic was introduced by an "Overview" talk, followed by more detailed lectures on subtopics. The hierarchical and modular format of the course permits updates, corrections, or alternative viewpoints, and generally facilitates revision and reuse, including the use of only the Overview lectures for introductory courses. All course materials are free and openly accessible (CC-BY license) to ensure these resources remain available to all interested in distributional ecology.Peer reviewe

Models of marine fish biodiversity : assessing predictors from three habitat classification schemes

Prioritising biodiversity conservation requires knowledge of where biodiversity occurs. Such knowledge, however, is often lacking. New technologies for collecting biological and physical data coupled with advances in modelling techniques could help address these gaps and facilitate improved management outcomes. Here we examined the utility of environmental data, obtained using different methods, for developing models of both uni- and multivariate biodiversity metrics. We tested which biodiversity metrics could be predicted best and evaluated the performance of predictor variables generated from three types of habitat data: acoustic multibeam sonar imagery, predicted habitat classification, and direct observer habitat classification. We used boosted regression trees (BRT) to model metrics of fish species richness, abundance and biomass, and multivariate regression trees (MRT) to model biomass and abundance of fish functional groups. We compared model performance using different sets of predictors and estimated the relative influence of individual predictors. Models of total species richness and total abundance performed best; those developed for endemic species performed worst. Abundance models performed substantially better than corresponding biomass models. In general, BRT and MRTs developed using predicted habitat classifications performed less well than those using multibeam data. The most influential individual predictor was the abiotic categorical variable from direct observer habitat classification and models that incorporated predictors from direct observer habitat classification consistently outperformed those that did not. Our results show that while remotely sensed data can offer considerable utility for predictive modeling, the addition of direct observer habitat classification data can substantially improve model performance. Thus it appears that there are aspects of marine habitats that are important for modeling metrics of fish biodiversity that are not fully captured by remotely sensed data. As such, the use of remotely sensed data to model biodiversity represents a compromise between model performance and data availability

Conserving European biodiversity across realms

Terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems are connected via multiple biophysical and ecological processes. Identifying and quantifying links among ecosystems is necessary for the uptake of integrated conservation actions across realms. Such actions are particularly important for species using habitats in more than one realm during their daily or life cycle. We reviewed information on the habitats of 2,408 species of European conservation concern and found that 30% of the species use habitats in multiple realms. Transportation and service corridors, which fragment species habitats, were identified as the most important threat impacting ∼70% of the species. We examined information on 1,567 European Union (EU) conservation projects funded over the past 25 years, to assess the adequacy of efforts toward the conservation of “multi‐realm” species at a continental scale. We discovered that less than a third of multi‐realm species benefited from projects that included conservation actions across multiple realms. To achieve the EU's conservation target of halting biodiversity loss by 2020 and effectively protect multi‐realm species, integrated conservation efforts across realms should be reinforced by: (1) recognizing the need for integrated management at a policy level, (2) revising conservation funding priorities across realms, and (3) implementing integrated land‐freshwater‐sea conservation planning and management