According to self-determination theory (SDT), relationships that support the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are essential to youth development. It is yet unknown whether adolescents differ in what constitutes "optimal" supplies of support. This research proposes methodological extensions to analyze how the degree of fit or misfit between needs versus supplies in support (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIslands have been used as model systems to study ecological and evolutionary processes, and they provide an ideal set-up for validating new biodiversity monitoring methods. The application of environmental DNA metabarcoding for monitoring marine biodiversity requires an understanding of the spatial scale of the eDNA signal, which is best tested in island systems. Here, we investigated the variation in Actinopterygii and Elasmobranchii species composition recovered from eDNA metabarcoding along a gradient of distance-to-reef in four of the five French Scattered Islands in the Western Indian Ocean.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnimal body-size variation influences multiple processes in marine ecosystems, but habitat heterogeneity has prevented a comprehensive assessment of size across pelagic (midwater) and benthic (seabed) systems along anthropic gradients. In this work, we derive fish size indicators from 17,411 stereo baited-video deployments to test for differences between pelagic and benthic responses to remoteness from human pressures and effectiveness of marine protected areas (MPAs). From records of 823,849 individual fish, we report divergent responses between systems, with pelagic size structure more profoundly eroded near human markets than benthic size structure, signifying greater vulnerability of pelagic systems to human pressure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIncreasing speed and magnitude of global change threaten the world's biodiversity and particularly coral reef fishes. A better understanding of large-scale patterns and processes on coral reefs is essential to prevent fish biodiversity decline but it requires new monitoring approaches. Here, we use environmental DNA metabarcoding to reconstruct well-known patterns of fish biodiversity on coral reefs and uncover hidden patterns on these highly diverse and threatened ecosystems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFQuantifying fish species diversity in rich tropical marine environments remains challenging. Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding is a promising tool to face this challenge through the filtering, amplification, and sequencing of DNA traces from water samples. However, because eDNA concentration is low in marine environments, the reliability of eDNA to detect species diversity can be limited.
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