Diversity and inclusion in conservation: A proposal for a marine diversity network

Low diversity among scientists and practitioners is rampant in conservation. Currently, conservation professionals do not reflect the same diversity of perspectives and experiences of the world as the communities who bear the largest burden for implementing—or adverse consequences for failing to implement—conservation action. Acknowledging and describing the problem is important. But policies and programmes must also be put in place to correct it. Here, we highlight some measurable benefits of workforce diversity, and give an overview of some of the barriers to inclusion in marine conservation that help perpetuate low workforce diversity. Importantly, we underscore actions that both individuals and groups can take to alleviate such barriers. In particular, we describe the establishment of an online Marine Diversity Network, which conference participants proposed during a focus group meeting at the 4th International Marine Conservation Congress. The network will serve to bring together people from across the globe, from a variety of backgrounds, and from all career stages, to share knowledge, experiences and ideas, to provide and receive mentorship in marine conservation, and to forge new collaborations. Removing barriers to diverse participation requires coordinated, mindful actions by individuals and organizations. We hope that the proposed network and other actions presented in this paper find widespread support, and that they might serve both as inspiration and guide to other groups concerned with increasing diversity and inclusivity

Shifting headlines? Size trends of newsworthy fishes

The shifting baseline syndrome describes a gradual lowering of human cognitive baselines, as each generation accepts a lower standard of resource abundance or size as the new norm. There is strong empirical evidence of declining trends of abundance and body sizes of marine fish species reported from docks and markets. We asked whether these widespread trends in shrinking marine fish are detectable in popular English-language media, or whether news writers, like many marine stakeholders, are captive to shifting baselines. We collected 266 English-language news articles, printed between 1869 and 2015, which featured headlines that used a superlative adjective, such as ‘giant’, ‘huge’, or ‘monster’, to describe an individual fish caught. We combined the reported sizes of the captured fish with information on maximum species-specific recorded sizes to reconstruct trends of relative size (reported size divided by maximum size) of newsworthy fishes over time. We found some evidence of a shifting baseline syndrome in news media over the last 140 years: overall, the relative length of the largest fish worthy of a headline has declined over time. This pattern held for charismatic fish species (e.g. basking sharks, whale sharks, giant mantas), which are now reported in the media at smaller relative lengths than they were near the turn of the 20th century, and for the largest species under high risk of extinction. In contrast, there was no similar trend for pelagic gamefish and oceanic sharks, or for species under lower risk of extinction. While landing any individual of the large-bodied ‘megafish’ may be newsworthy in part because of their large size relative to other fish species, the ‘megafish’ covered in our dataset were small relative to their own species—on average only 56% of the species-specific maximum length. The continued use in the English-language media of superlatives to describe fish that are now a fraction of the maximum size they could reach, or a fraction of the size they used to be, does reflect a shifting baseline for some species. Given that media outlets are a powerful tool for shaping public perception and awareness of environmental issues, there is a real concern that such stories might be interpreted as meaning that superlatively large fish still abound

A global perspective on the trophic geography of sharks

Sharks are a diverse group of mobile predators that forage across varied spatial scales and have the potential to influence food web dynamics. The ecological consequences of recent declines in shark biomass may extend across broader geographic ranges if shark taxa display common behavioural traits. By tracking the original site of photosynthetic fixation of carbon atoms that were ultimately assimilated into muscle tissues of 5,394 sharks from 114 species, we identify globally consistent biogeographic traits in trophic interactions between sharks found in different habitats. We show that populations of shelf-dwelling sharks derive a substantial proportion of their carbon from regional pelagic sources, but contain individuals that forage within additional isotopically diverse local food webs, such as those supported by terrestrial plant sources, benthic production and macrophytes. In contrast, oceanic sharks seem to use carbon derived from between 30° and 50° of latitude. Global-scale compilations of stable isotope data combined with biogeochemical modelling generate hypotheses regarding animal behaviours that can be tested with other methodological approaches.This research was conducted as part of C.S.B.’s Ph.D dissertation, which was funded by the University of Southampton and NERC (NE/L50161X/1), and through a NERC Grant-in-Kind from the Life Sciences Mass Spectrometry Facility (LSMSF; EK267-03/16). We thank A. Bates, D. Sims, F. Neat, R. McGill and J. Newton for their analytical contributions and comments on the manuscripts.Peer reviewe

Perspectivas de innovación en gestión, educación ambiental para la adaptación y la mitigación

Esta publicación del libro-foro sobre ciudad y cambio climático responde al aporte de los diferentes profesionales de las entidades públicas y privadas que participaron en calidad de conferencistas, ponentes, panelistas y expositores y compartieron sus experiencias en la ciudad como una contribución al conocimiento de las comunidades acerca de la creciente importancia y consideración de la adaptación y mitigación. Se consideraron acciones de políticas públicas por parte de las administraciones públicas, los sectores económicos y la sociedad, grupos ecológicos y fundaciones ecológicas y de igual forma las acciones y grandes esfuerzos realizados por el Ministerio del Ambiente, el IDEAM, la CAR, la Secretaría de Ambiente, el Jardín Botánico, la Red RAUS y de los grupos de investigación de las universidades

Assessing the ecological and socioeconomic impacts of the lionfish invasion in the Wider Caribbean Region

Environmental changes of different scales and magnitudes are occurring at an alarming pace throughout the globe. As natural and human systems resist, cope, and/or adapt to global changes, new equilibrium states might be reached. To understand these changes we need to obtain information relevant to both biological and human systems and the interactions within and between them. My thesis combines approaches from ecology and socioeconomic to investigate the impacts of a specific stressor - invasive Indo-Pacific lionfish - on coral reef ecosystems. First, I explore how this invasion has changed trophic interactions and food web dynamics of coral reef fish communities. Second, I investigate how the impacts of an invasive predator can scale up to affect and change socioeconomic systems associated with natural systems. I found that the trophic niche of lionfish has changed over time, concomitant with large changes in native fish prey abundance. I also found that lionfish predation is having impacts on energy flow through coral reef fish communities even in the absence of marked changes in fish community structure. Combined, these changes could affect ecosystem function. I also present some of the first evidence of economic impacts of this invasion in regions that depend on reef-related tourism. I show that reductions in lionfish abundance through management actions should be beneficial to the reef tourism industry, and that tourist user fees are an acceptable means of financing such actions. As new management strategies are explored, the popularity of lionfish tournaments (derbies) has increased, premised on the idea that involving the public could help to tackle this invasion. However, my results show that such events are most likely to be successful only when lionfish densities are high and where there is a large pool of participants. This dissertation sheds light on the need to study and manage the impacts of biotic invasions from a multidisciplinary and integrated perspective since impacts will rarely be limited to the natural system affected by invaders

Heterogeneous Attitudes of Tourists toward Lionfish in the Mexican Caribbean: Implications for Invasive Species Management

Indo-Pacific lionfish (Pterois volitans and P. miles) are invasive predators established throughout the Wider Caribbean. They have already caused significant ecological impacts and have the potential to affect local economies that depend on coral reefs. Snorkeling and scuba diving are important activities that rely on esthetically pleasant reefs. We asked whether lionfish-invaded reefs have lower esthetic value and whether fees to help control the invasion might be acceptable to recreational divers and snorkelers in the Mexican Caribbean. To do so, we conducted a choice experiment in which tourists were asked to indicate their preferences for coral reef images with varying attributes that can be affected by lionfish. We specified a priori two classes of respondents, i.e., snorkelers and divers, but two latent classes of recreational divers (casual vs. committed) emerged on the basis of their preferences. Tourist age, commitment to snorkeling/diving, and lionfish awareness explained class membership. Casual divers and snorkelers preferred reefs with lionfish and accepted their impacts on the reefs. In contrast, committed divers disliked lionfish and associated impacts, and would elect to dive elsewhere if such impacts were high. Casual divers and snorkelers preferred options with low lionfish control fees, while committed divers were willing to pay high fees. Our results indicate potential economic impacts of the lionfish invasion in regions that depend on reef-related tourism, and that lionfish control fees might be acceptable to some but not all recreational users. However, because all tourists favored to a greater extent reef features that can be affected detrimentally by lionfish than they favored lionfish themselves, we predict that managing the lionfish invasion should be beneficial to the local reef tourism industry

Outcomes of HTLV-1 Carriers with Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma: A Single-Center Retrospective Matched Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: The human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is associated with aggressive diseases, such as adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL). However, less is known on the impact of HTLV-1 infection in non-ATLL hematologic malignancies. We aimed to investigate if HTLV-1 carriers with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) have worse survival outcomes than non-HTLV-1 carriers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a single-center retrospective cohort study by matching HTLV-1 carriers to non-carriers based on age, sex, Ann Arbor stage, and year of diagnosis. Our outcomes of interest were overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate OS and PFS between carriers and non-carriers. We fitted multivariate Cox regression models to assess the mortality and recurrence/disease progression risk of HTLV-1 infection. RESULTS: A total of 188 patients, 66 with HTLV-1 infection and 122 without HTLV-1, were included in the study. HTLV-1 carriers had higher extranodal involvement than non-carriers (47% vs. 27%, P = .010). With a median follow-up of 78 months (95% CI: 41-90 months), HTLV-1 carriers had a similar 5 year OS (41% vs. 42%, P = .940) and PFS (34% vs. 32%, P = .691) compared to non-carriers. In the multivariate Cox analysis, HTLV-1 infection was not associated with worse OS (aHR: 0.98, 95% CI: 0.64-1.50) or PFS (aHR: 0.90, 95% CI: 0.60-1.34). CONCLUSION: HTLV-1 carriers with DLBCL did not have worse survival outcomes compared to non-carriers. Our results suggest that clinicians should follow standard guidelines for DLBCL management on HTLV-1 seropositive patients