Adaptive management, international co-operation and planning for marine conservation hotspots in a changing climate

Acknowledgements This work received funding from the MASTS pooling initiative (The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland) and their support is gratefully acknowledged. MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (Grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions.

Adaptive management, international co-operation and planning for marine conservation hotspots in a changing climate

Acknowledgements This work received funding from the MASTS pooling initiative (The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland) and their support is gratefully acknowledged. MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (Grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions.

Monitoring and conservation of the largest loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) nesting population in Africa: successes and challenges.

[EN] The Republic of Cape Verde is situated about 500 km off the coast of Senegal, West Africa. The islands of Sal, Boa Vista and Maio constitute the Eastern group and harbour the most important nesting beaches for loggerhead turtles in the Archipelago. During 1998-2004 nesting seasons, fieldwork has been focused on the eastern beaches of Boa Vista and, occasionally, in other beaches of Boa Vista and in the islands of Maio, Sal and Santa Luzia. The main study area includes a total extension of 3.1 km of suitable nesting beaches. All through these years, a tagging program has been carried out, alongside recording of biological data and monitoring of nests.

Phenotypically linked dichotomy in sea turtle foraging requires multiple conservation approaches

[EN] Marine turtles undergo dramatic ontogenic changes in body size and behavior, with the loggerhead sea turtle, Caretta caretta, typically switching from an initial oceanic juvenile stage to one in the neritic, where maturation is reached and breeding migrations are subsequently undertaken every 2-3 years [1-3]. Using satellite tracking, we investigated the migratory movements of adult females from one of the world's largest nesting aggregations at Cape Verde, West Africa. In direct contrast with the accepted life-history model for this species [4], results reveal two distinct adult foraging strategies that appear to be linked to body size. The larger turtles (n = 3) foraged in coastal waters, whereas smaller individuals (n = 7) foraged oceanically.

Efforts to increase the participation of local communities in the conservation of the endangered loggerhead population of Cape Verde

[EN] The loggerhead population of Cape Verde is one of the most important in the world. Several islands from this archipelago capture nesting females for human consumption. This a widespread practice in the local population that can be killing more than 25% of nesting females every year. This activity is not relevant for the general economy of the country but can be important for some families.

Conservation genetics of North Atlantic loggerhead sea turtles: analysis of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA

[EN] Complex population structure has been described for the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta), revealing lower levels of population genetic structure in nuclear compared to mitochondrial DNA assays. This may result from mating during spatially overlapping breeding migrations, or male-biased dispersal as previously found for the green turtle (Chelonia mydas). To further investigate these multiple possibilities, we carried out a comparative analysis from twelve newly developed microsatellite loci and the mitochondrial DNA control region (~804 bp) in adult females of the Cape Verde Islands (n=158), and Georgia, USA (n=17).

Context dependency of trait repeatability and its relevance for management and conservation of fish populations

Repeatability of behavioural and physiological traits is increasingly a focus for animal researchers, for which fish have become important models. Almost all of this work has been done in the context of evolutionary ecology, with few explicit attempts to apply repeatability and context dependency of trait variation toward understanding conservation-related issues. Here, we review work examining the degree to which repeatability of traits (such as boldness, swimming performance, metabolic rate and stress responsiveness) is context dependent. We review methods for quantifying repeatability (distinguishing between within-context and across-context repeatability) and confounding factors that may be especially problematic when attempting to measure repeatability in wild fish. Environmental factors such temperature, food availability, oxygen availability, hypercapnia, flow regime and pollutants all appear to alter trait repeatability in fishes. This suggests that anthropogenic environmental change could alter evolutionary trajectories by changing which individuals achieve the greatest fitness in a given set of conditions. Gaining a greater understanding of these effects will be crucial for our ability to forecast the effects of gradual environmental change, such as climate change and ocean acidification, the study of which is currently limited by our ability to examine trait changes over relatively short time scales. Also discussed are situations in which recent advances in technologies associated with electronic tags (biotelemetry and biologging) and respirometry will help to facilitate increased quantification of repeatability for physiological and integrative traits, which so far lag behind measures of repeatability of behavioural traits.

The role of agriculture and food consumption in tropical conservation

A growing human population, shifting human dietary habits, and climate change are negatively affecting global ecosystems on a massive scale. Expanding agricultural areas to feed a growing population drives extensive habitat loss, and climate change compounds stresses on both food security and ecosystems. Understanding the negative effects of human diet and climate change on agricultural and natural ecosystems provides a context within which potential technological and behavioral solutions can be proposed to help maximize conservation. The purpose of this research was to (1) examine the potential effects of climate change on the suitability of areas for commercial banana plantations in Latin America in the 2050s and how shifts in growing areas could affect protected areas; (2) test the ability of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to map productivity of banana plantations as a potential tool for increasing yields and decreasing future plantation expansions; (3) project the effects on biodiversity of increasing rates of animal product consumption in developing megadiverse countries; and (4) estimate the capacity of global pasture biomass production and Fischer-Tropsch hydrocarbon synthesis (IGCC-FT) processing to meet electricity, gasoline and diesel needs. The results indicate that (1) the overall extent of areas suitable for conventional banana cultivation is predicted to decrease by 19% by 2050 because of a hotter and drier climate, but all current banana exporting countries are predicted to maintain some suitable areas with no effects on protected areas; (2) Spatial patterns of NDVI and ENDVI were significantly positively correlated with several metrics of fruit yield and quality, indicating that UAV systems can be used in banana plantations to map spatial patterns of fruit yield; (3) Livestock production is the single largest driver of habitat loss, and both livestock and feedstock production are increasing in developing biodiverse tropical countries. Reducing global animal product consumption should therefore be at the forefront of strategies aimed at reducing biodiversity loss; (4) Removing livestock from global pasture lands and instead utilizing the biomass production could produce enough energy to meet 100% of the electricity, gasoline, and diesel needs of over 40 countries with extensive grassland ecosystems, primarily in tropical developing countries.^

Life history of a wide-ranging deepwater lantern shark in the north-east Atlantic, Etmopterus spinax (Chondrichthyes: Etmopteridae), with implications for conservation

In this paper, the population biology of the velvet belly lanternshark Etmopterus spinax was studied and life-history coefficients determined. Age was estimated from sections of the second dorsal spine and validated by marginal increment analysis. Males attained a maximum age of 8 years while 11 year-old females were found. Several growth models were fitted and compared for both size-at-age and mass-at-age data, showing that even though this is a small-sized species, it has a relatively slow growth rate. This species matures late, specifically at 49.6 and 42.5% of the maximum observed ages for males and females, respectively. It has a low fecundity, with a mean ovarian fecundity of 9.94 oocytes and a mean uterine fecundity of 7.59 embryos per reproductive cycle. This species seems to have a long reproductive cycle, and even though no conclusive data were obtained, a 2-3 year cycle is possible. The estimated coefficients indicate that this species has a vulnerable life cycle, typical of deepwater squalid sharks. Given the high fishing pressures that it is suffering in the north-east Atlantic, this fish may already be facing severe declines or in risk of facing them in the near future. (C) 2008 The Authors Journal compilation (C) 2008 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles

Biology and management of dogfish sharks

This book comprises 34 chapters (35 including the initial keynote paper), each written as a stand-alone scientific paper, that are grouped in functional categories. The keynote paper is followed by 11 papers addressing Distribution and Abundance, 6 papers on Age, Growth and Reproduction, 6 papers on Ecology and Physiology, and 10 papers on Fisheries, Assessment and Management, and Conservation. Some of the papers are based upon presentations that were given at the First International Symposium on the Management and Biology of Dogfish Sharks, held in Seattle, WA in 2005.

Collective actions for environmental monitoring and conservation: citizen science, informal environmental education, and participatory approach

This PhD was driven by an interest for inclusive and participatory approaches. The methodology that bridges science and society is known as 'citizen science' and is experiencing a huge upsurge worldwide, in the scientific and humanities fields. In this thesis, I have focused on three topics: i) assessing the reliability of data collected by volunteers; ii) evaluating the impact of environmental education activities in tourist facilities; and iii) monitoring marine biodiversity through citizen science. In addition to these topics, during my research stay abroad, I developed a questionnaire to investigate people's perceptions of natural areas to promote the implementation of co-management. The results showed that volunteers are not only able to collect sufficiently reliable data, but that during their participation in this type of project, they can also increase their knowledge of marine biology and ecology and their awareness of the impact of human behaviour on the environment. The short-term analysis has shown that volunteers are able to retain what they have learned. In the long term, knowledge is usually forgotten, but awareness is retained. Increased awareness could lead to a change in behaviour and in this case a more environmentally friendly attitude. This aspect could be of interest for the development of environmental education projects in tourism facilities to reduce the impact of tourism on the environment while adding a valuable service to the tourism offer. We also found that nature experiences in childhood are important to connect to nature in adulthood. The results also suggest that membership or volunteering in an environmental education association could be a predictor of people's interest in more participatory approaches to nature management. In most cases, the COVID -19 pandemic had not changed participants' perceptions of the natural environment.

Experiences From The Brazilian Atlantic Forest: Ecological Findings And Conservation Initiatives.

The Brazilian Atlantic Forest hosts one of the world's most diverse and threatened tropical forest biota. In many ways, its history of degradation describes the fate experienced by tropical forests around the world. After five centuries of human expansion, most Atlantic Forest landscapes are archipelagos of small forest fragments surrounded by open-habitat matrices. This 'natural laboratory' has contributed to a better understanding of the evolutionary history and ecology of tropical forests and to determining the extent to which this irreplaceable biota is susceptible to major human disturbances. We share some of the major findings with respect to the responses of tropical forests to human disturbances across multiple biological levels and spatial scales and discuss some of the conservation initiatives adopted in the past decade. First, we provide a short description of the Atlantic Forest biota and its historical degradation. Secondly, we offer conceptual models describing major shifts experienced by tree assemblages at local scales and discuss landscape ecological processes that can help to maintain this biota at larger scales. We also examine potential plant responses to climate change. Finally, we propose a research agenda to improve the conservation value of human-modified landscapes and safeguard the biological heritage of tropical forests.

Molecular Genetic Variability Of Commercial And Wild Accessions Of Passion Fruit (passiflora Spp.) Targeting Ex Situ Conservation And Breeding.

Passiflora species are distributed throughout Latin America, and Brazil and Colombia serve as the centers of diversity for this genus. We performed cross-species amplification to evaluate 109 microsatellite loci in 14 Passiflora species and estimated the diversity and genetic structure of Passiflora cincinnata, Passiflora setaceae and Passiflora edulis. A total of 127 accessions, including 85 accessions of P. edulis, a commercial species, and 42 accessions of 13 wild species, were examined. The cross-species amplification was effective for obtaining microsatellite loci (average cross-amplification of 70%). The average number of alleles per locus (five) was relatively low, and the average diversity ranged from 0.52 in P. cincinnata to 0.32 in P. setacea. The Bayesian analyses indicated that the P. cincinnata and P. setacea accessions were distributed into two groups, and the P. edulis accessions were distributed into five groups. Private alleles were identified, and suggestions for core collections are presented. Further collections are necessary, and the information generated may be useful for breeding and conservation.

Reproductive biology of Davilla kunthii A. St-Hil. (Dilleniaceae) in Central Amazonia

This survey aimed at describing the interactions of floral visitors and Davilla kunthii A. St.-Hil. as well as characteristics of its reproductive biology in Itacoatiara, state of Amazonas, Brazil. Tests of the breeding system were performed. The guild of visitors was described according to richness, abundance, relative frequency and constancy. The breeding system tests indicated that D. kunthii is self-compatible. The pollination system was characterized as generalist, with 39 visitor species, from three different orders. Bees were the main group of pollinators, thus some behavioural aspects were described. Th e period of highest foraging activity was between 7 and 10 am. Some species presented agonistic and monopolistic behaviour. Given the behaviour and destructive potential, the Curculionidae seem to have a greater impact as seed predators than pollinators.