Assessing the vulnerability of marine life to climate change in the Pacific Islands region.

Our changing climate poses growing challenges for effective management of marine life, ocean ecosystems, and human communities. Which species are most vulnerable to climate change, and where should management focus efforts to reduce these risks? To address these questions, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Climate Science Strategy called for vulnerability assessments in each of NOAA's ocean regions. The Pacific Islands Vulnerability Assessment (PIVA) project assessed the susceptibility of 83 marine species to the impacts of climate change projected to 2055.

High-frequency temperature variability mirrors fixed differences in thermal limits of the massive coral .

Spatial heterogeneity in environmental characteristics can drive adaptive differentiation when contrasting environments exert divergent selection pressures. This environmental and genetic heterogeneity can substantially influence population and community resilience to disturbance events. Here, we investigated corals from the highly variable back-reef habitats of Ofu Island in American Samoa that thrive in thermal conditions known to elicit widespread bleaching and mortality elsewhere.

Dredging in the Spratly Islands: Gaining Land but Losing Reefs.

Coral reefs on remote islands and atolls are less exposed to direct human stressors but are becoming increasingly vulnerable because of their development for geopolitical and military purposes. Here we document dredging and filling activities by countries in the South China Sea, where building new islands and channels on atolls is leading to considerable losses of, and perhaps irreversible damages to, unique coral reef ecosystems. Preventing similar damage across other reefs in the region necessitates the urgent development of cooperative management of disputed territories in the South China Sea.

Incorporating climate and ocean change into extinction risk assessments for 82 coral species.

Many marine invertebrate species facing potential extinction have uncertain taxonomies and poorly known demographic and ecological traits. Uncertainties are compounded when potential extinction drivers are climate and ocean changes whose effects on even widespread and abundant species are only partially understood. The U.

The importance of ships and spare parts in LCAs of offshore wind power.

We develop and assess life cycle inventories of a conceptual offshore wind farm using a hybrid life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. Special emphasis is placed on aspects of installation, operation, and maintenance, as these stages have been given only cursory consideration in previous LCAs. The results indicate that previous studies have underestimated the impacts caused by offshore operations and (though less important) exchange of parts.

Protein expression and genetic structure of the coral Porites lobata in an environmentally extreme Samoan back reef: does host genotype limit phenotypic plasticity?

The degree to which coral reef ecosystems will be impacted by global climate change depends on regional and local differences in corals' susceptibility and resilience to environmental stressors. Here, we present data from a reciprocal transplant experiment using the common reef building coral Porites lobata between a highly fluctuating back reef environment that reaches stressful daily extremes, and a more stable, neighbouring forereef. Protein biomarker analyses assessing physiological contributions to stress resistance showed evidence for both fixed and environmental influence on biomarker response.

The importance in fishery management of leaving the big ones.

Research by Berkeley et al. and by Bobko and Berkeley has recently demonstrated that older individuals of some fish species produce larvae that have substantially better survival potential than do larvae from younger fishes. These new findings augment established knowledge that larger individuals usually have exponentially greater fecundity.

Measurement of coronary flow reserve in isolated hearts from mice.

Aim: Langendorff-perfused murine hearts are increasingly used in cardiovascular research, but coronary cardiovascular haemodynamics vary considerably from one research group to another. The aim of this study was to establish an isolated, retrogradely perfused mouse heart preparation for the simultaneous measurement of left ventricular haemodynamics and of coronary flow (CF).

Methods: Heart rate was controlled by right atrial pacing (480 beats min(-1)) and heart temperature was kept constant.

Three-phase structure invariants and structure factors determined with the quantitative convergent-beam electron diffraction method.

Quantitative convergent-beam electron diffraction is used to determine structure factors and three-phase structure invariants. The refinements are based on centre-disc intensities only. An algorithm for param-eter-sensitive pixel sampling of experimental intensities is implemented in the refinement procedure to increase sensitivity and computer speed.

Use of quantitative convergent-beam electron diffraction in materials science.

Methods for quantitative convergent-beam electron diffraction are outlined and some results of our applications of convergent-beam electron diffraction are shown, with emphasis on quantitative analysis of crystal structures in materials science. Examples of thickness measurements and determination of lattice parameters are presented. Measurements of low-order structure factors to obtain information on bonding charge-density distributions are reviewed, with examples from TiAl intermetallics.

Symbiosis, fisheries and economic development on coral reefs.

Life-history traits of commercially important species, physiological attributes of the framework species, and characteristics of ecosystem processes make coral reefs especially vulnerable to export of biomass. Organisms in ecosystems driven by upwelling and terrestrial nutrient input are more amenable to biomass yield. Nonexportive approaches to resource management, exemplified by Palau, are compatible with the attributes of coral-reef ecosystems; they satisfy to a greater degree the economic demands and pressures of growing human populations, and they provide motivation to manage.

Coral reef growth in the galapagos: limitation by sea urchins.

The regular echinoid Eucidaris thouarsii is a conspicuous omnivore on coral bottoms in the Galápagos. Unlike Eucidaris in Panama and mainland Ecuador, Galápagos Eucidaris are large and abundant and graze heavily in the open on live corals day and night. These differences are probably due in large part to more intense predation by fishes on mainland compared with island urchin populations.