Assessing changes in threatened black rockcod Epinephelus daemelii abundance and length over the past 15 years in New South Wales, Australia.

Ideally, protection of a threatened fish will lead to their recovery in abundance, distribution, and size structure within the population, to a point where they are no longer considered threatened. Monitoring abundance and size is crucial to evaluate this, although low numbers associated with being threatened can strongly constrain the methods used. To assess if population recovery is occurring for the black rockcod Epinephelus daemelii, a large subtropical grouper endemic to shallow reefs in the southwest Pacific, surveys were undertaken across northern New South Wales and Lord Howe Island using roving diver timed counts and diver stereo-video measurements to assess relative abundance and length.

Opioid prescriptions among the World Trade Center Health Program population.

Background: The World Trade Center Health Program (Program) provides limited health care to those directly affected by the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Because of physical/mental trauma arising from the 9/11 attacks, Program members might be at high risk of opioid use. To prevent prescription opioid overuse, in 2018 the Program implemented various measures to improve opioid prescribing and expand access to non-opioid pain management among Program members.

Genomic analyses indicate resilience of a commercially and culturally important marine gastropod snail to climate change.

Genomic vulnerability analyses are being increasingly used to assess the adaptability of species to climate change and provide an opportunity for proactive management of harvested marine species in changing oceans. Southeastern Australia is a climate change hotspot where many marine species are shifting poleward. The turban snail, is a commercially and culturally harvested marine gastropod snail from eastern Australia.

Coral assemblages at higher latitudes favor short-term potential over long-term performance.

The persistent exposure of coral assemblages to more variable abiotic regimes is assumed to augment their resilience to future climatic variability. Yet, while the determinants of coral population resilience across species remain unknown, we are unable to predict the winners and losers across reef ecosystems exposed to increasingly variable conditions. Using annual surveys of 3171 coral individuals across Australia and Japan (2016-2019), we explore spatial variation across the short- and long-term dynamics of competitive, stress-tolerant, and weedy assemblages to evaluate how abiotic variability mediates the structural composition of coral assemblages.