Evolutionary consequences of fishing and their implications for salmon

We review the evidence for fisheries-induced evolution in anadromous salmonids. Salmon are exposed to a variety of fishing gears and intensities as immature or maturing individuals. We evaluate the evidence that fishing is causing evolutionary changes to traits including body size, migration timing and age of maturation, and we discuss the implications for fisheries and conservation. Few studies have fully evaluated the ingredients of fisheries-induced evolution: selection intensity, genetic variability, correlation among traits under selection, and response to selection. Most studies are limited in their ability to separate genetic responses from phenotypic plasticity, and environmental change complicates interpretation. However, strong evidence for selection intensity and for genetic variability in salmon fitness traits indicates that fishing can cause detectable evolution within ten or fewer generations. Evolutionary issues are therefore meaningful considerations in salmon fishery management. Evolutionary biologists have rarely been involved in the development of salmon fishing policy, yet evolutionary biology is relevant to the long-term success of fisheries. Future management might consider fishing policy to (i) allow experimental testing of evolutionary responses to exploitation and (ii) improve the long-term sustainability of the fishery by mitigating unfavorable evolutionary responses to fishing. We provide suggestions for how this might be done

NMFS / Interagency Working Group Evaluation of CITES Criteria and Guidelines.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: At present, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) criteria used to assess whether a population qualifies for inclusion in the CITES Appendices relate to (A) size of the population, (B) area of distribution of the population, and (C) declines in the size of the population. Numeric guidelines are provided as indicators of a small population (less than 5,000 individuals), a small subpopulation (less than 500 individuals), a restricted area of distribution for a population (less than 10,000 km2), a restricted area of distribution for a subpopula-tion (less than 500 km2), a high rate of decline (a decrease of 50% or more in total within 5 years or two generations whichever is longer or, for a small wild population, a decline of 20% or more in total within ten years or three generations whichever is longer), large fluctuations (population size or area of distribution varies widely, rapidly and frequently, with a variation greater than one order of magnitude), and a short-term fluctuation (one of two years or less). The Working Group discussed several broad issues of relevance to the CITES criteria and guidelines. These included the importance of the historical extent of decline versus the recent rate of decline; the utility and validity of incorporating relative population productivity into decline criteria; the utility of absolute numbers for defining small populations or small areas; the appropriateness of generation times as time frames for examining declines; the importance of the magnitude and frequency of fluctuations as factors affecting risk of extinction; and the overall utility of numeric thresh-olds or guidelines

Evaluation of ex-vivo 9.4T MRI in post-surgical specimens from temporal lobe epilepsy patients

© 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS Purpose This study evaluates hippocampal pathology through usage of ultra-high field 9.4T ex-vivo imaging of resected surgical specimens in patients who have undergone temporal lobe epilepsy surgery. Method and materials This is a retrospective interpretation of prospectively acquired data. MRI scanning of resected surgical specimens from patients who have undergone temporal lobe epilepsy surgery was performed on a 9.4T small bore Varian MR magnet. Structural images employed a balanced steady-state free precession sequence (TrueFISP). Six patients (3 females; 3 males) were included in this study with an average age at surgery of 40.7 years (range 20Y_ 60) (one was used as a control reference). Two neuroradiologists qualitatively reviewed the ex-vivo MRIs of resected specimens while blinded to the histopathology reports for the ability to identify abnormal features in hippocampal subfield structures. Results The hippocampal subfields were reliably identified on the 9.4T ex-vivo scans in the hippocampal head region and hippocampal body region by both neuroradiologists in all 6 patients. There was high concordance to pathology for abnormalities detected in the CA1, CA2, CA3 and CA4 subfields. Detection of abnormalities in the dentate gyrus was also high with detection in 4 of 5 cases. The Cohen\u27s kappa between the two neuroradiologists was calculated at 0.734 SE = 0.102. Conclusions Ex-vivo 9.4T specimen imaging can detect abnormalities in CA1, CA2, CA3, CA4 and DG in both the hippocampal head and body. There was good concordance between qualitative findings and histopathological abnormalities for CA1, CA2, CA3, CA4 and DG