Marine Refuges Research Articles

Ostracodal evolution during the Permian–Triassic transition at the Youping section of the Nanpanjiang Basin

The Permian–Triassic mass extinction has been considered the largest bio-crisis of the Phanerozoic, with more than 90% of marine species extinct. Previous studies showed that ostracods suffered various extinction patterns in different localities and were relatively enriched in the lowermost Triassic shallow marine microbialites. Multiple hypotheses have been put forward to explore the reasons for this phenomenon. Abundant ostracod fossils were collected from the microbialite-bearing Youping section in the Nanpanjiang Basin. 45 species in 22 genera from Wujiaping Formation increased dramatically to 104 species in 33 genera from the microbialites of basal Luolou Formation. However, Ostracods from the Youping section suffered severe extinction during the second phase of the Permian–Triassic crisis, i.e., the earliest Triassic mass extinction (ETME), rather than the first phase, i.e., the latest Permian mass extinction (LPEM). In addition, the Sørenson coefficient has been used to examine the similarity of faunal associations among different sections of the Permian–Triassic transitional beds. There was no significant differences for ostracods between microbialites and non-microbialites sections based on similarity analysis. Thus, we proposed that “Shallow marine refuge” hypothesis could explain the high diversity and high abundance of ostracods of the Permian–Triassic transitional beds. Besides, ostracods showed remarkable geographical differentiation at both regional and global scales during the Permian–Triassic transitional beds and were presumably controlled by geographical isolation.

Running to stand still: The application of substandard OECMs in national and provincial policy in Canada

Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs) were introduced in the language of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) 2011–2020 Strategic Plan for Biodiversity as a mechanism to formally recognize the contributions that areas beyond traditional protected areas can make to the effective, long-term, in-situ conservation of biodiversity. Since the international conservation community agreed to a definition of OECMs in 2018, various Parties to the CBD have begun designating these areas and they are now being reported in global and national protected and conserved area databases. Using examples from Canada, this perspective details how the designation of some OECMs is circumventing the use of established and well-known decision support tools that work to uphold conservation standards, and why these designations may result in negligible gains for biodiversity. The perspective also details how labeling OECMs as “marine refuges” and “conserved areas” is misleading and can misinform the public on conservation success. To avoid the loss of biodiversity in ‘paper parks’ and eroding public trust in the institutions charged with effectively conserving biodiversity, the paper concludes by underscoring the need for new tools to evaluate the effectiveness of OECMs and new measures to hold countries accountable to protected and conserved area targets in the CBD so that their original intent is not further compromised in the post-2020 era of conservation.

Science, Diplomacy, and the Red Sea’s Unique Coral Reef: It’s Time for Action

Rapid ocean warming due to climate change poses a serious risk to the survival of coral reefs. It is estimated that 70-90 percent of all reefs will be severely degraded by mid-century even if the 1.5 degrees C goal of the Paris Climate Agreement is achieved. However, one coral reef ecosystem seems to be more resilient to rising sea temperatures than most others. The Red Sea's reef ecosystem is one of the longest continuous living reefs in the world, and its northernmost portion extends into the Gulf of Aqaba. The scleractinian corals in the Gulf have an unusually high tolerance for the rapidly warming seawater in the region. They withstand water temperature anomalies that cause severe bleaching or mortality in most hard corals elsewhere. This uniquely resilient reef employs biological mechanisms which are likely to be important for coral survival as the planet's oceans warm. The Gulf of Aqaba could potentially be one of the planet's largest marine refuges from climate change. However, this unique portion of the Red Sea's reef will only survive and flourish if serious regional environmental challenges are addressed. Localized anthropogenic stressors compound the effects of warming seawater to damage corals and should be mitigated immediately. Reefs in the rest of the Red Sea are already experiencing temperatures above their thermal tolerance and have had significant bleaching, though they too would benefit from fewer local anthropogenic stressors. The countries bordering the entire Red Sea will need to cooperate to enable effective scientific research and conservation. The newly established Transnational Red Sea Center, based at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), can serve as the regionally inclusive, neutral organization to foster crucial regional scientific collaboration.

From one to ten: Canada's approach to achieving marine conservation targets

Abstract The Government of Canada has committed to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, which includes the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. Aichi Target 11 indicates that countries are to conserve at least 10% of coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services, by 2020. In 2015 Canada affirmed its commitment to the 10% target, and also committed to an interim target to protect 5% of coastal and marine areas by the end of 2017. The interim target was met in October 2017 through a combination of federal and provincial marine protected areas (MPAs) and fisheries area closures that qualify as other effective area‐based conservation measures (OECMs), which are referred to domestically as marine refuges. In 2016 the Government of Canada set out a five‐point plan for achieving its marine conservation targets, which includes finishing what was started, protecting large offshore areas, protecting areas under pressure, advancing OECMs and establishing MPAs faster. Key challenges that the Government of Canada faces in meeting its 2020 marine conservation target include balancing socio‐economic impacts with the need to conserve biodiversity and sustain ecosystem health and ensuring meaningful engagement with partners and stakeholders in a short period of time. Once Canada has met its 2020 marine conservation target it will continue to advance ongoing marine conservation initiatives, most notably the development of a national conservation network, and seek to ensure effective long‐term conservation through the management, monitoring and enforcement of established MPAs and OECMs.

How the race to achieve Aichi Target 11 could jeopardize the effective conservation of biodiversity in Canada and beyond

In 2010 Parties to the United Nations (UN) Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) agreed to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss within a decade by achieving 20 objectives that are commonly known as the Aichi Targets. This article explores aspects of Canada's work on one of the few quantified targets (Target 11), which is intended to improve the status of biodiversity through protected areas (PAs) and a new type of designation, “other effective area-based conservation measures” (OECMs). In a faltering attempt to reach its Aichi Target 11 commitments by 2020, some Canadian jurisdictions have elected to focus more on coverage (quantity) and less on ecological integrity (quality), which has significant ramifications for long-term success of biodiversity conservation. For example, a jurisdiction responsible for marine conservation has re-designated regulated fishery closures as ‘marine refuges’ under the auspices of an OECM designation, which brings into question the real intent of Canada's commitment to the CBD and its own Biodiversity Strategy. Ambiguous language used to define and prescribe application of OECMs is being used as the basis for a revisionist paradigm that promises to undermine national and international conservation standards, fracture partnerships, and jeopardize the integrity of Canada's PA network. Canada must reject half measures that will result in ineffective or unintended perverse conservation outcomes, and focus on a post-2020 agenda that prioritizes conservation outcomes, management effectiveness, and the implementation of accountability measures within and between jurisdictions and by the Secretariat of the CBD.

Optimization of Sampling of Small Pelagic Fishes in the Exclusive Economic Zone of Senegal under the Climate Impact

Senegal is in a very favourable geographical position for sea fishing. Its coast has an upwelling favouring a good development of phytoplankton very appreciated by the various fish families that populate its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The little pelagic fish make up the majority of landings. The dynamics of this family of resources is very complex while its perfect mastery is essential for a fishing well controlled maritime. The mathematical models that exist in the literature have not address the different issues related to maritime fisheries and climate change in the Senegalese fishing areas. The linear programming model in integer numbers has been developed after calculation of equilibrium biomass, catches at equilibrium catchability by the application of Schaefer and Freon models in the Senegalese Economic Exclusive Zone. Two proposals have been developed to better explain the tools used in the writing of the mathematical model. The simulation results were led to the design of a linear integer Program (PLNE). The objective is to maximize the biomass of this family of fish resources on the Petite C\^ote, Grande C\^ote and Cape Verde depending on samples and climate change. In the application of the model, real data made it possible to test the Linear program in integer numbers obtained. This optimization study allowed us to find an effective way to maximize recruitment within this resource family. This consists in setting up several less expensive marine refuges to build in the fishing zones targeted by the study. The simulation computer program of the model is presented in the appendix.

Nutrient-Rich Water Around Seamounts Lures Top Predators

At an Indian Ocean marine refuge, tides drive cold water laden with nutrients onto the tops of underwater mountains, where it sustains a long food chain that culminates in sharks, tuna, and seabirds.

Life in the arena: infaunal gastropods and the late Phanerozoic expansion of marine ecosystems into sand

AbstractMarine ecosystems have expanded into the infaunal realm below the surface of soft sediments throughout the Phanerozoic eon. During the Palaeozoic era, this expansion largely involved sedentary animals living in permanent resting places. Active sand‐burrowing animals colonized the infaunal environment later, but when this happened and when specialization for infaunal life evolved remain open questions. Here, phylogenetic evidence, fossil occurrences and previously established criteria for recognizing the sand‐burrowing habit in marine gastropods are used to determine how many gastropod clades became infaunal and when the transitions from surface‐dwelling to infaunal life occurred. At least 20, and as many as 35, clades (all but one of post‐Palaeozoic age) contain actively infaunal species. The overwhelming majority (15 of 20 clades) became infaunal during the Cenozoic, and clades with hundreds of infaunal species in the living fauna diversified beginning in the Early Miocene. The repeated evolution of, and specialization to, the sand‐burrowing habit by gastropods and other animals was enabled by increased habitat availability and higher marine productivity, and was necessitated by intensifying predation. As a result, the infaunal realm was transformed from a marine refuge to an integrated part of the marine biosphere in which high performance in locomotion and defence has become the norm.

Glacial refuges for three‐spined stickleback in theIberianPeninsula: mitochondrialDNAphylogeography

SummaryAnalyses of the mtDNAof 183 three‐spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus), from freshwater Iberian populations, were performed to reconstruct the phylogeography of this species and to inform conservation recommendations on the basis of genetic diversity and the geographical distribution of variation.A high degree of population structure, with high overall genetic diversity but very low intrapopulation variation, was observed. Haplotypes were distributed according to a geographical pattern with most samples fixed by a unique haplotype.Phylogenetic analyses supported two independent lineages in the Mediterranean region, highly divergent from Atlantic (Portuguese) haplotypes. Analyses of the historical demography confirmed that the Iberian Mediterranean three‐spined stickleback diverged prior to the last glaciation.Phylogeographic reconstruction, together with 114 representative sequences of the European three‐spined stickleback, revealed eight mtDNAlineages and related our Iberian Mediterranean haplotypes to those previously described in the lower Rhône (southern France). Multiple ancient Pleistocene lineages were described through the Adriatic, Black Sea and Mediterranean regions. The highly structured network fits well with a freshwater habit of the three‐spined stickleback in the ancient colonisation of southern Europe.Results suggested a Middle Adriatic and Black Sea origin of the European post‐glacial three‐spined stickleback, but additional colonisation from the northern Adriatic and even from Atlantic marine refuges cannot be discarded. Mediterranean three‐spined sticklebacks probably did not contribute to this post‐glacial colonisation.Conservation priorities should be established in the Iberian Mediterranean, where the three‐spined stickleback has many endemic genotypes whose habitats are threatened. On the basis of the genetic data, we recommend that each river system is considered as an independent conservation unit.

The Tindouf Basin, a marine refuge during the Serpukhovian (Carboniferous) mass extinction in the northwestern Gondwana platform

Several macrofaunas and microfossils of the Carboniferous Saharan basins have longer stratigraphic ranges than those of other basins in the western Palaeotethys realm, particularly in the Tindouf Basin (Morocco–Algeria). Foraminifers are particularly abundant and diverse in the Serpukhovian and basal Bashkirian compared to coeval basins, and some taxa have longer ranges than in the neighbouring Reggan and Béchar basins, although this effect is more marked compared to the western Palaeotethyan assemblages in Europe. Several rugose coral species are recorded from the early Bashkirian that previously were considered to have disappeared in the Serpukhovian. The Tindouf Basin, as one of the most western Saharan basins in North Africa, shows the greatest stratigraphic ranges of taxa which diminish eastwards. Evidence for a mass extinction event during the Serpukhovian in the Tindouf Basin has not been clearly recognized, although a possible influence of glaciation is observed in the faunal diversity. Eustatic sea-level changes were experienced in Tindouf with the cyclic pattern of sedimentation, but warm water ocean currents from the palaeoequator were able to maintain tropical conditions on the platform. Tectonics in the area, led to emerging land masses and barriers, and created a partly isolated basin in this sector of the western part of the Sahara Platform in northern Gondwana. The combination of those factors controlled the environmental conditions in the area, allowing the persistence of the fauna for longer stratigraphic ranges than its equivalent counterparts in the western Palaeotethys.

Calcareous dinoflagellate turnover in relation to the Messinian salinity crisis in the eastern Mediterranean Pissouri Basin, Cyprus

Abstract. The extent to which the Messinian salinity crisis modified the initially Tethyan, eastern Mediterranean phytoplankton community has been investigated by monitoring the fate of calcareous dinoflagellate cyst assemblages prior to, during and after the salinity crisis in the Pissouri section (Cyprus). A rich, but low diversity open oceanic assemblage, dominated by Calciodinellum albatrosianum, is found in the upper Tortonian and lower Messinian. The upper Messinian (pre-evaporitic) sediments yield only few cysts but the assemblage is much more diverse and reflects unstable more neritic conditions (Bicarinellum tricarinelloides), fluvial influence (Leonella granifera) and varying, temporally increased salinities (Pernambugia tuberosa), probably related to the increasingly restricted environment. The basal Pliocene sediments reflect the return to normal marine conditions; the dinoflagellate assemblage is rich in cysts and again has a low diversity. However, in contrast to the C. albatrosianum-dominated upper Tortonian and pre-evaporitic Messinian sediments, L. granifera clearly dominates the basal Pliocene association just after the replenishment of the Mediterranean basin. Apart from this shift in dominance, the onset of the Pliocene is furthermore marked by the first appearance of Calciodinellum elongatum, which must have immigrated from the Atlantic Ocean. Lebessphaera urania, a postulated remnant of the Tethyan Ocean survived the salinity crisis, possibly in as yet unidentified marine refuges in the Mediterranean itself. Although the environmental changes caused by the Messinian salinity crisis did not lead to an extinction of calcareous dinoflagellate species of the Pissouri Basin, it resulted in a significant change in the assemblages and contributed to a more modern character of the Pliocene dinoflagellate association in the eastern Mediterranean.

The California Gray Whale: Its Legal Regime Under Mexican Law

The Gulf of California has been added as the newest site to the World Heritage List. According to the evaluation study produced by UNESCO, thirty-nine per cent of the world's total number of species of marine mammals and a third of the world's marine cetacean species are found within this gulf. In May 2002, Mexico established the largest Marine Refuge Area in the world giving protection to 39 of the 81 world known species of large cetaceans. Part One of this article introduces the legal regime established by Mexico to protect large whales within its exclusive economic zone, the territorial sea and the internal waters, by describing in detail the physical and biological characteristics of the Eastern Gray Whale population, commonly known as the California gray whale. This cetacean has been visiting the coastal lagoons along the west coast of the Baja California Peninsula since time immemorial in one of the longest annual migrations in the animal world. Part Two discusses the Mexican constitutional bases that serve as the foundation for the protection of large whales within Mexico's marine spaces. Part Three discusses the Mexican presidential decrees that established Refuge zones (or marine sanctuaries) for the protection of eight types of large whales, including the 1972 decree that created these marine sanctuaries for the first time on a global scale. And Part Four examines Mexico's domestic legislation involved in the protection of Mexico's resident whales (i.e., the gray whales), including the regulation of eco-tourism activities.

The present-day Mediterranean brachiopod fauna: diversity, life habits, biogeography and paleobiogeography

The present-day brachiopods from the Mediterranean Sea were thoroughly described by nineteenth-century workers, to the extent that Logan´s revision in 1979 listed the same 11 species as Davidson, almost 100 years earlier. Since then recent discoveries, mainly from cave habitats inaccessible to early workers, have increased the number of species to 14. The validity of additional forms, which are either contentious or based on scanty evidence, is evaluated here. Preferred substrates and approximate bio-depth zones of all species are given and their usefulness for paleoecological reconstruction is discussed. A previous dearth of material from the eastern Mediterranean has now been at least partially remedied by new records from the coasts of Cyprus, Israel, Egypt, and, in particular, Lebanon and the southern Aegean Sea. While 11 species (79 % of the whole fauna) have now been recorded from the eastern basin, Terebratulina retusa, Argyrotheca cistellula, Megathiris detruncata and Platidia spp. appear to be less common than in the western basin. Lacazella mediterranea, I>Tethyrhynchia mediterranea and Gwynia capsula have not yet been recorded from the eastern Mediterranean, but whether this is due to a west-east faunal impoverishment or insufficient collecting is uncertain. L. mediterranea and T. mediterranea may be endemic to the Mediterranean. The Messinian (Late Miocene) salinity crisis caused most species to disappear from the ancestral Mediterranean Sea. T. mediterranea may be a paleoendemic that has survived in marine refuges mostly located on the outer margin of the western basin, while other species either entered or re-entered the Mediterranean from the Atlantic after the Miocene.

Marine Protected Areas should be managed with greater integration

Abstract Not Available – First paragraph follows: Like their counterparts on land, protected areas in U.S. coastal waters are numerous and complex. California alone has 104 marine protected areas (MPAs). MPAs carry a variety of names. State-designated sites are called areas of special biological significance, coastal sanctuaries, ecological reserves, marine refuges, marine reserves, marine resource protection act ecological reserves, natural reserves or simply parks. Federal sites are called national marine sanctuaries, national parks or ecological preserves. International sites include Man and Biosphere Reserves.

Applications of Marine Refugia to Coastal Fisheries Management

Marine fisheries refugia, unaltered areas that serve as sources of replenishment, can potentially compensate for recruitment and ecosystem overfishing and enhance fishery yields for some coastal stocks. The efficacy of refugia in fisheries management is virtually untested, despite the existence of many marine parks and reserves. Evidence from existing marine reserves indicates that increased abundance, individual size, reproductive output, and species diversity occurred in a variety of marine species in refuges of various sizes, shapes, and histories in communities ranging from coral reefs to temperate kelp forests. Fishery yield enhancement in areas surrounding refuges occurred in the few studies where yields were examined. The export of propagules required to enhance fisheries in areas surrounding refugia adds a level of complexity to the design of fishery refugia beyond that of terrestrial reserves. Fishery refugia design should consider species life histories, oceanographic regimes, habitat quality, and socioeconomic factors. Further evaluation of existing marine refuges and the investigation of experimental refugia over appropriate time spans will help resolve questions of optimal sizes, shapes, and distribution of fishery refugia.

Sexual reproduction in the corallimorpharian sea anemone Corynactis californica in a central California kelp forest

The seasonal cycle of sexual reproduction in the corallimorpharian sea anemone Corynactis californica (Calgren, 1936) was studied for 18 consecutive months (July 1987 to December 1988) at a subtidal area in the Hopkins Marine Refuge (HMLR), Pacific Grove, Monterey Bay, California. Samples were collected, histological sections were prepared, and gametocytes were examined and measured. C. californica grows by multiple or longitudianl fission to form single-sexed clones of various color and size. In female clones, oocytes appeared in late August and early September; they increased in size steadily in fall, and peaked in early December in both years. In male clones, spermatogenesis was synchronous with the female oogenic cycle, and motile sperm were observed in most testes in early December. Spawned gonads were found in both sexes from late November to early December. Spawning was induced in the laboratory in early December, and external fertilization was followed by development of free-swimming larvae. Gametogenesis and spawning are correlated with seasonal increases in seawater temperature and phytoplankton abundance, and we discuss and compare timing of sexual reproduction in this corallimorpharian to those in several actiniarian and scleractinian species.