Habitat Suitability Modeling to Identify the Potential Nursery Grounds of the Atlantic Mackerel and Its Relation to Oceanographic Conditions in the Mediterranean Sea

Our knowledge for the distribution of Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus) in the Mediterranean Sea is limited and fragmented. In the current work habitat suitability modeling was applied to summer acoustic surveys data of Atlantic mackerel juveniles derived from the north part of the Mediterranean (i.e., acoustic data from the Gulf of Lions, pelagic trawls held during acoustic surveys in Spanish Mediterranean waters, south Adriatic Sea, Strait of Sicily, and North Aegean Sea) using generalized additive models (GAMs) along with satellite environmental and bathymetry data. Bathymetry along with sea surface temperature and circulation patterns, expressed through sea level anomaly and the zonal component of the absolute geostrophic velocity, were the environmental variables best to describe nursery grounds. The selected model was used to produce maps presenting the potential nursery grounds of Atlantic mackerel throughout the Mediterranean Sea as a measure of habitat adequacy. However, the assessed potential nursery grounds were generally marked as “occasional,” implying that although there are areas presenting high probability to encounter Atlantic mackerel, this picture can largely vary from year to year stressing the high susceptibility of the species to environmental conditions. In a further step and toward a spatial management perspective, we have estimated and visualized the overlap between Atlantic mackerel and anchovy/ sardine juvenile grounds throughout the basin. Results showed that although the degree of overlapping was generally low, not exceeding 15% in general, this varied at a regional level going up to 30%. The potential of the output of this work for management purposes like the implementation of spatially-explicit management tools is discussedVersión del edito

Symptom-based stratification of patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome: multi-dimensional characterisation of international observational cohorts and reanalyses of randomised clinical trials

Background Heterogeneity is a major obstacle to developing effective treatments for patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome. We aimed to develop a robust method for stratification, exploiting heterogeneity in patient-reported symptoms, and to relate these differences to pathobiology and therapeutic response. Methods We did hierarchical cluster analysis using five common symptoms associated with primary Sjögren's syndrome (pain, fatigue, dryness, anxiety, and depression), followed by multinomial logistic regression to identify subgroups in the UK Primary Sjögren's Syndrome Registry (UKPSSR). We assessed clinical and biological differences between these subgroups, including transcriptional differences in peripheral blood. Patients from two independent validation cohorts in Norway and France were used to confirm patient stratification. Data from two phase 3 clinical trials were similarly stratified to assess the differences between subgroups in treatment response to hydroxychloroquine and rituximab. Findings In the UKPSSR cohort (n=608), we identified four subgroups: Low symptom burden (LSB), high symptom burden (HSB), dryness dominant with fatigue (DDF), and pain dominant with fatigue (PDF). Significant differences in peripheral blood lymphocyte counts, anti-SSA and anti-SSB antibody positivity, as well as serum IgG, κ-free light chain, β2-microglobulin, and CXCL13 concentrations were observed between these subgroups, along with differentially expressed transcriptomic modules in peripheral blood. Similar findings were observed in the independent validation cohorts (n=396). Reanalysis of trial data stratifying patients into these subgroups suggested a treatment effect with hydroxychloroquine in the HSB subgroup and with rituximab in the DDF subgroup compared with placebo. Interpretation Stratification on the basis of patient-reported symptoms of patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome revealed distinct pathobiological endotypes with distinct responses to immunomodulatory treatments. Our data have important implications for clinical management, trial design, and therapeutic development. Similar stratification approaches might be useful for patients with other chronic immune-mediated diseases. Funding UK Medical Research Council, British Sjogren's Syndrome Association, French Ministry of Health, Arthritis Research UK, Foundation for Research in Rheumatology

An ethical issue in biodiversity science: the monitoring of penguins with flipper bands

International audienceIndividual marking is essential to study the life-history traits of animais and to tracl< them in ail kinds of ecological. behavioural or physiological studies. Unlike other birds, penguins cannot be banded on their legs due to their leg joint anatomy and a band is instead fixed around a flipper. However, there is now detailed evidence that flipperbanding has a detrimental impact on individuals. It can severely injure flipper tissues, and the drag effect of their flipper bands results in a higher energy expenditure when birds are moving through the water. It also results in lower efficiency in foraging, since they require longer foraging trips, as weil as in lower survival and lower breeding success. Moreover, due to the uncertainty of the rate of band 1055, flipper bands induce a scientific bias. These problems, which obviously have serious ethical implications, can be avoided with alternative methods such as radiofrequency identification technique

Etude du profil immunologique des patients atteints de sclérodermie souffrant de prurit.

International audienc

Food limitation of seabirds in the Benguela ecosystem and management of their prey base

International audienceFour of seven seabirds that are endemic to the Benguela ecosystem (African Penguin Spheniscus demersus, Cape Gannet Morus capensis, Cape Cormorant Phalacrocorax capensis, Bank Cormorant P. neglectus) compete with fisheries for prey and have an IUCN classification of Endangered. Prey depletion and food resource limitations have been major drivers of recent large population decreases of each of these species. As populations decrease, colony sizes also dwindle rendering them susceptible to Allee effects and higher probabilities of extinction. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain colonies at sizes that minimise their probability of extinction. Means to ensure an adequate availability of food to achieve this goal include closing important seabird foraging areas (often adjacent to key colonies) to relevant fishing, implementing ecosystem thresholds below which such fishing is disallowed (which are also expected to benefit forage resources) and, should there be an altered distribution of prey, attempting to establish seabird colonies close to the new location of forage resources

Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries. Mediterranean Fisheries Assessments Part 2 (STECF-14-19)

The STECF expert working group "EWG 1419 - Mediterranean assessment part 2", has convened in Rome during 19-23 January 2015 and addressed a series of issues as requested by DG MARE in the correspomnding terms of references. The detailed output of this working group efforts is included in the following report. The report was reviewed by the STECF spring plenary during 13-17 April 201

Rovers minimize human disturbance in research on wild animals

International audienceInvestigating wild animals while minimizing human disturbance remains an important methodological challenge. When approached by a remote-operated vehicle (rover) able tomake radio-frequency identifications, wild penguins had significantly lower and shorter stress responses (determined by heart rate and behavior) than when approached by humans. Upon immobilization, the rover—unlike humans—did not disorganize colony structure, and stress rapidly ceased. Thus, rovers can reduce human disturbance and the resulting scientific bias

Best practices for assessing forage fish fisheries-seabird resource competition

Worldwide, in recent years capture fisheries targeting lower-trophic level forage fish and euphausiid crustaceans have been substantial (∼20 million metric tons [MT] annually). Landings of forage species are projected to increase in the future, and this harvest may affect marine ecosystems and predator-prey interactions by removal or redistribution of biomass central to pelagic food webs. In particular, fisheries targeting forage fish and euphausiids may be in competition with seabirds, likely the most sensitive of marine vertebrates given limitations in their foraging abilities (ambit and gape size) and high metabolic rate, for food resources. Lately, apparent competition between fisheries and seabirds has led to numerous high-profile conflicts over interpretations, as well as the approaches that could and should be used to assess the magnitude and consequences of fisheries-seabird resource competition. In this paper, we review the methods used to date to study fisheries competition with seabirds, and present “best practices” for future resource competition assessments. Documenting current fisheries competition with seabirds generally involves addressing two major issues: 1) are fisheries causing localized prey depletion that is sufficient to affect the birds? (i.e., are fisheries limiting food resources?), and 2) how are fisheries-induced changes to forage stocks affecting seabird populations given the associated functional or numerical response relationships? Previous studies have been hampered by mismatches in the scale of fisheries, fish, and seabird data, and a lack of causal understanding due to confounding by climatic and other ecosystem factors (e.g., removal of predatory fish). Best practices for fisheries-seabird competition research should include i) clear articulation of hypotheses, ii) data collection (or summation) of fisheries, fish, and seabirds on matched spatio-temporal scales, and iii) integration of observational and experimental (including numerical simulation) approaches to establish connections and causality between fisheries and seabirds. As no single technique can provide all the answers to this vexing issue, an integrated approach is most promising to obtain robust scientific results and in turn the sustainability of forage fish fisheries from an ecosystem perspective