Mapping and Evaluating Marine Protected Areas and Ecosystem Services: A Transdisciplinary Delphi Forecasting Process Framework

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are an important tool for management and conservation and play an increasingly recognised role in societal and human well-being. However, the assessment of MPAs often lacks a simultaneous consideration of ecological and socio-economic outcomes, and this can lead to misconceptions on the effectiveness of MPAs. In this perspective, we present a transdisciplinary approach based on the Delphi method for mapping and evaluating Marine Protected Areas for their ability to protect biodiversity while providing Ecosystem Services (ES) and related human well-being benefits - i.e., the ecosystem outputs from which people benefit. We highlight the need to include the human dimensions of marine protection in such assessments, given that the effectiveness of MPAs over time is conditional on the social, cultural and institutional contexts in which MPAs evolve. Our approach supports Ecosystem-Based Management and highlights the importance of MPAs in achieving restoration, conservation, and sustainable development objectives in relation to EU Directives such as the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive (MSPD), and the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP)

A Baltic pelagic fish community revisited: Indications of profound changes in species composition in the Stockholm Archipelago

While the central Baltic herring (Clupea harengus) stock biomass is estimated to have been reduced by similar to 80 per cent since the 1970 s, the local effects of this decline remain unassessed. Coastal commercial fishermen have witnessed a widespread depletion at the spawning grounds and generally low herring abundance in inshore areas. We carried out hydroacoustic surveys, supported by midwater trawling in August 2021, to test whether herring abundance and recruitment have changed over time in the inshore areas. We used assessed recruitment success, measured as young-of-the-year (YOY) abundance, as a proxy for herring abundance in several areas of the southeast Stockholm Archipelago and compared the results with previous investigations in this area (hydroacoustics 2000-2001 and midwater trawling 2002-2004 monitoring). We found that the composition of the fish community had undergone significant changes. While acoustic backscattering (sA) representing the whole fish community were similar to previous estimates, species composition was significantly changed. YOY herring, previously dominant, had declined from 55% to 4% in numbers, whereas three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) increased from no representation to 76%. The observed changes makes it imperative that further investigation concerning herring population structure, biomass, and recruitment are conducted

Large and fine scale population structure in European hake (Merluccius merluccius) in the Northeast Atlantic

WOS:000404450700007Recently, there have been reports of increased abundance and landings of European hake in the northern part of the species range. Biological studies are however scarce and information about finer scale population structure important for stock assessments and fishery management is largely lacking. Here, we report on a population genetic study using neutral and outlier SNP loci assessing population structure in hake in the north-eastern parts of its range in the Atlantic. Hake samples from localities along the west coast of Norway, the Kattegat, the northern North Sea, and one locality in the Bay of Biscay were analysed using 53 SNPs, six of which were outliers potentially influenced by natural selection. We detected small-scale structure among northern samples, all of which were also distinct from Bay of Biscay hake, with the exception of a few individuals from the North Sea and the coast of Norway who clustered genetically together with Bay of Biscay hake. Our findings suggest that the present management unit of a single northern stock of hake is not biologically correct, and that there is more detail in the fine-scale population structure indicating that independent population dynamics could be expected in response to fishing patterns or changing environmental conditions