Globally, there are more than 17,000 cargo-handling ports that are expected to double in capacity by 2030. Overwater structures are common in ports and create permanently shaded environments that can produce ecological shifts from primary-producer to consumer dominated communities. Yet, the extent of these structures across ports and their impact on light conditions and associated communities in different areas beneath has not been quantified.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGiant clams ( and ) are large marine bivalves occupying tropical and subtropical reefs in the Indo-Pacific. Giant clam populations have declined in many areas of the Indo-Pacific and continue to be threatened by harvesting and environmental change. The small giant clam () occurs throughout the Indo-Pacific and has been subject to several phylogeographic studies across its range.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
October 2024
The amount of ocean protected from fishing and other human impacts has often been used as a metric of conservation progress. However, protection efforts have highly variable outcomes that depend on local conditions, which makes it difficult to quantify what coral reef protection efforts to date have actually achieved at a global scale. Here, we develop a predictive model of how local conditions influence conservation outcomes on ~2,600 coral reef sites across 44 ecoregions, which we used to quantify how much more fish biomass there is on coral reefs compared to a modeled scenario with no protection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCoral reefs support an incredible abundance and diversity of fish species, with reef-associated fisheries providing important sources of income, food, and dietary micronutrients to millions of people across the tropics. However, the rapid degradation of the world's coral reefs and the decline in their biodiversity may limit their capacity to supply nutritious and affordable seafood while meeting conservation goals for sustainability. Here, we conduct a global-scale analysis of how the nutritional quality of reef fish assemblages (nutritional contribution to the recommended daily intake of calcium, iron, and zinc contained in an average 100 g fish on the reef) relates to key environmental, socioeconomic, and ecological conditions, including two key metrics of fish biodiversity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Trauma Acute Care Surg
September 2024
Background: Variations in the anatomy of the anterior rib cage and costal margin have been observed. We sought to evaluate the location of interchondral joints and evaluate their effect on mobility of the rib cage.
Methods: Cadaveric dissections were performed to evaluate the anatomy of the anterior ribs and the composition of the costal margin.
Context: Pneumonia is a leading cause of death in young infants.
Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of different antibiotic regimens to treat young infant pneumonia on critical clinical outcomes.
Data Sources: MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, World Health Organization (WHO) Global Index Medicus, Cochrane Central Registry of Trials.
Context: Sepsis is a leading cause of young infant mortality.
Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of different antibiotic regimens to treat young infant sepsis or possible serious bacterial infection (PSBI) on clinical outcomes.
Data Sources: MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, World Health Organization Global Index Medicus, Cochrane Central Registry of Trials.
Feeding habits of herbivorous fishes play an important role in shaping the form and function of coastal marine ecosystems. Rabbitfishes (Siganidae) are important consumers of macroalgae on Indo-West Pacific coral reefs. However, it is unclear how their diet varies among and within species at biogeographical scales, casting doubt on their precise functional roles across different regions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Acoustic telemetry has become a fundamental tool to monitor the movement of aquatic species. Advances in technology, in particular the development of batteries with lives of > 10 years, have increased our ability to track the long-term movement patterns of many species. However, logistics and financial constraints often dictate the locations and deployment duration of acoustic receivers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMarine artificial structures provide substrates on which organisms can settle and grow. These structures facilitate establishment and spread of non-indigenous species, in part due to their distinct physical features (substrate material, movement, orientation) compared to natural habitat analogues such as rocky shores, and because following construction, they have abundant resources (space) for species to colonise. Despite the perceived importance of these habitat features, few studies have directly compared distributions of native and non-indigenous species or considered how functional identity and associated environmental preferences drive associations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConcrete infrastructure in coastal waters is increasing. While adding complex habitat and manipulating concrete mixtures to enhance biodiversity have been studied, field investigations of sub-millimetre-scale complexity and substrate colour are lacking. Here, the interacting effects of 'colour' (white, grey, black) and 'microtexture' (smooth, 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPorolithon is one of the most ecologically important genera of tropical and subtropical crustose (non-geniculate) coralline algae growing abundantly along the shallow margins of coral reefs and functioning to cement reef frameworks. Thalli of branched, fruticose Porolithon specimens from the Indo-Pacific Ocean traditionally have been called P. gardineri, while massive, columnar forms have been called P.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSustainably managing fisheries requires regular and reliable evaluation of stock status. However, most multispecies reef fisheries around the globe tend to lack research and monitoring capacity, preventing the estimation of sustainable reference points against which stocks can be assessed. Here, combining fish biomass data for >2000 coral reefs, we estimate site-specific sustainable reference points for coral reef fisheries and use these and available catch estimates to assess the status of global coral reef fish stocks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMass coral bleaching events coupled with local stressors have caused regional-scale loss of corals on reefs globally. Following the loss of corals, the structural complexity of these habitats is often reduced. By providing shelter, obscuring visual information, or physically impeding predators, habitat complexity can influence predation risk and the perception of risk by prey.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNearly a billion people depend on tropical seascapes. The need to ensure sustainable use of these vital areas is recognised, as one of 17 policy commitments made by world leaders, in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 ('Life below Water') of the United Nations. SDG 14 seeks to secure marine sustainability by 2030.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClimate-induced coral bleaching represents the foremost threat to coral assemblages globally, however bleaching susceptibility varies among and within coral taxa. We compared bleaching susceptibility among 10 coral morpho-taxa and two colony size classes relative to reef-scale bleaching severity at 33 reefs across the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea Marine Parks in February-March 2020. Colony size and bleaching severity caused the hierarchy of bleaching susceptibility among taxa to change considerably.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParasites are important, diverse, and abundant components of natural ecosystems and can influence the behaviour and health of their hosts, inter- and intraspecific interactions, and ultimately community structure. Coral reefs are one of the world's most biodiverse ecosystems, yet our understanding of the abundance, diversity, and composition of parasite communities of coral reef fishes is limited. Here, the authors aimed to compare the abundance, richness and composition of parasite communities among three co-occurring herbivorous coral reef fishes (the barred rabbitfish Siganus doliatus, Ward's damsel Pomacentrus wardi and the obscure damsel Pomacentrus adelus) from an inshore reef of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe combined effects of global climate change and local anthropogenic stressors are leading to increasing loss and fragmentation of habitats. On coral reefs, habitat loss has been shown to influence the abundance and composition of associated fish assemblages, yet few studies have considered how habitat fragmentation may influence reef fish populations and assemblages. Herein, we compared survival, growth and recruitment of reef fish among experimental patches composed of six similar sized colonies of finely branching Pocillopora spp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFScleractinian coral populations are increasingly exposed to conditions above their upper thermal limits due to marine heatwaves, contributing to global declines of coral reef ecosystem health. However, historic mass bleaching events indicate there is considerable inter- and intra-specific variation in thermal tolerance whereby species, individual coral colonies and populations show differential susceptibility to exposure to elevated temperatures. Despite this, we lack a clear understanding of how heat tolerance varies across large contemporary and historical environmental gradients, or the selective pressures that underpin this variation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur Arch Otorhinolaryngol
December 2022
Objective: This systematic review aims to provide an overview of the current evidence-base for paediatric surgical reinnervation in unilateral and bilateral vocal fold palsies in clinical practice. We aim to assess patient demographics, surgical technique and pre- and post-operative outcome measures.
Methods: A systematic literature review was performed and reported according to international PRISMA recommendations.
Nail gun use and its associated incidence of injury have continued to increase since it was first introduced in 1959. While most of these injuries involve the extremities, a subset of patients suffer intracranial trauma. The most recent comprehensive review on this particular subject referenced 41 cases and advocated for further discussion regarding proper treatment plans for these individuals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEffective solutions to the ongoing "coral reef crisis" will remain limited until the underlying drivers of coral reef degradation are better understood. Here, we conduct a global-scale study of how four key metrics of ecosystem states and processes on coral reefs (top predator presence, reef fish biomass, trait diversity, and parrotfish scraping potential) are explained by 11 indicators based on key human-environment theories from the social sciences. Our global analysis of >1,500 reefs reveals three key findings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVariation in water quality can directly affect the composition of benthic assemblages on coral reefs. Yet, few studies have directly quantified nutrient and suspended particulate matter (SPM) to examine their potential impacts on benthic community structure, especially around high oceanic islands. We assessed the spatio-temporal variation of nutrients and SPM across six sites in American Samoa over a 12-month period and used exploratory path analysis to relate dissolved inorganic nutrients, land use, and natural and anthropogenic drivers to benthic assemblages on adjacent shallow reefs.
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