Unlocking the potential of deep learning for marine ecology: overview, applications, and outlook
The deep learning revolution is touching all scientific disciplines and corners of our lives as a means of harnessing the power of big data. Marine ecology is no exception. These new methods provide analysis of data from sensors, cameras, and acoustic recorders, even in real time, in ways that are reproducible and rapid. Off-the-shelf algorithms can find, count, and classify species from digital images or video and detect cryptic patterns in noisy data. Using these opportunities requires collaboration across ecological and data science disciplines, which can be challenging to initiate. To facilitate these collaborations and promote the use of deep learning towards ecosystem-based management…
Toward a better understanding of fish‐based contribution to ocean carbon flux
Fishes are the dominant vertebrates in the ocean, yet we know little of their contribution to carbon export flux at regional to global scales. We synthesize the existing information on fish-based carbon flux in coastal and pelagic waters, identify gaps and challenges in measuring this flux and approaches to address them, and recommend research priorities. Based on our synthesis of passive (fecal pellet sinking) and active (migratory) flux of fishes, we estimated that fishes contribute an average (± standard deviation) of about 16.1% (± 13%) to total carbon flux out of the euphotic zone. Using the mean value of model-generated global carbon flux estimates, this equates to an annual flux of 1…
Integral functions of marine vertebrates in the ocean carbon cycle and climate change mitigation
Summary In the last decade, the ocean has absorbed a quarter of the Earth’s greenhouse gas emissions through the carbon (C) cycle, a naturally occurring process. Aspects of the ocean C cycle are now being incorporated into climate change mitigation and adaptation plans. Currently, too little is known about marine vertebrate C functions for their inclusion in policies. Fortunately, marine vertebrate biology, behavior, and ecology through the lens of C and nutrient cycling and flux is an emerging area of research that is rich in existing data. This review uses literature and trusted data sources to describe marine vertebrate C interactions, provides quantification where possible, and highligh…
Exploring Changes in Fishery Emissions and Organic Carbon Impacts Associated With a Recovering Stock
International objectives for sustainable development and biodiversity conservation require restoring fish populations to healthy levels and reducing fishing impacts on marine ecosystems. At the same time, governments, retailers, and consumers are increasingly motivated to reduce the carbon footprint of food. These concerns are reflected in measures of the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and the CFP Reform Regulation, which highlighted a need to move from traditional single-stock management toward an ecosystem approach to fisheries management (EAF). Using publicly available landings and effort data combined with estimates of adult population biomass, we develop methods to explore the potent…