Search results for "conservation."

Five key attributes can increase marine protected areas performance for small-scale fisheries management

2016

AbstractMarine protected areas (MPAs) have largely proven to be effective tools for conserving marine ecosystem, while socio-economic benefits generated by MPAs to fisheries are still under debate. Many MPAs embed a no-take zone, aiming to preserve natural populations and ecosystems, within a buffer zone where potentially sustainable activities are allowed. Small-scale fisheries (SSF) within buffer zones can be highly beneficial by promoting local socio-economies. However, guidelines to successfully manage SSFs within MPAs, ensuring both conservation and fisheries goals, and reaching a win-win scenario, are largely unavailable. From the peer-reviewed literature, grey-literature and intervie…

Bright spots as climate‐smart marine spatial planning tools for conservation and blue growth

2021

Marine spatial planning that addresses ocean climate-driven change (‘climate-smart MSP’) is a global aspiration to support economic growth, food security and ecosystem sustainability. Ocean climate change (‘CC’) modelling may become a key decision-support tool for MSP, but traditional modelling analysis and communication challenges prevent their broad uptake. We employed MSP-specific ocean climate modelling analyses to inform a real-life MSP process; addressing how nature conservation and fisheries could be adapted to CC. We found that the currently planned distribution of these activities may become unsustainable during the policy's implementation due to CC, leading to a shortfall in its s…

Consequences of Stinging Plankton Blooms on Finfish Mariculture in the Mediterranean Sea

2017

11 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, supplementary material http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmars.2017.00240/full#supplementary-material

A century of fishery data documenting the collapse of smooth-hounds (Mustelusspp.) in the Mediterranean Sea

2017

Conservation and management of shark populations is increasingly becoming important in many marine regions, since there is a growing body of evidence showing that several species are threatened and continuing to decline because of unregulated fishing. Quantifying the extent of sharks' decline, the risk of species extinction, and the consequences for marine ecosystems have been challenging and controversial, mostly due to data limitations. In this study, more than one century of multiple-sources of bibliographic records on presence and frequency of occurrence of three species of commercial sharks, the smooth-hounds Mustelus spp., in the Mediterranean Sea were compiled and analysed. Generaliz…

Marine caves of the Southern Tyrrhenian Sea: a First Census of Benthic Biodiversity

2017

This is the first paper documenting research on a selection of marine caves located along the coast of Capo Milazzo in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea. Three submarine and one semi-submerged caves were surveyed and sampled using underwater photo sampling. Surveys have only taken into account the sessile species belonging to the main taxa: Porifera, Anthozoa, Bryozoa and Polychaeta. Diversity indices and abundances were calculated for three sections within each explored cave: the Entrance Zone, Intermediate Zone and Bottom Zone. The richest group was Porifera with 21 taxa, followed by cnidarians, (Anthozoa), with 8 taxa, Polychaeta (5 taxa), and Bryozoa (5 taxa). Among Porifera, the presence of …

Scuba diver behaviour and its effects on the biota of a Mediterranean marine protected area

2009

The effects of diving activity in different Mediterranean subtidal habitats are scarcely known. This study evaluates diver behaviour (for example time spent in each habitat), use (contacts made with the substrate) and immediate effects of diver contact on benthic species in a marine protected area (MPA) in Sicily. Over a two-year period, intentions of 105 divers were observed within seven subtidal habitats: algae on horizontal substrate, algae on vertical substrate, Posidonia oceanica, encrusted walls, caves, sand and pebbles. Divers selected a habitat in proportion to its availability along the scuba trail. On average, each diver made 2.52 contacts every seven minutes, and no differences w…

Succulents and CITES

2009

OBSERVADORES DEL MAR - A MARINE CITIZEN SCIENCE PLATFORM WORKING FOR A HEALTHY OCEAN

2020

VII International Symposium on Marine Sciences (ISMS 2020), 1-3 July 2020 (Barcelona).-- 3 pages

The detrimental consequences for seagrass of ineffective marine park management related to boat anchoring.

2014

Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile meadows are recognized as priority habitat for conservation by the EU Habitats Directive. The La Maddalena Archipelago National Park (Mediterranean Sea) P. oceanica meadow. , the dominant coastal habitat of the area, is mostly threatened by boat anchoring. 12. years after the establishment of mooring fields and anchoring restrictions, a study was conducted to measure their effectiveness on the conservation of seagrass and the mitigation of anchoring damage. We found that: (i) the condition of P. oceanica was disturbed, both in the mooring fields and in control locations; (ii) mooring fields and anchoring restrictions did not show to be an efficient system for …

Towards a landscape scale management of pesticides: ERA using changes in modelled occupancy and abundance to assess long-term population impacts of p…

2015

Pesticides are regulated in Europe and this process includes an environmental risk assessment (ERA) for nontarget arthropods (NTA). Traditionally a non-spatial or field trial assessment is used. In this study we exemplify the introduction of a spatial context to the ERA as well as suggest a way in which the results of complex models, necessary for proper inclusion of spatial aspects in the ERA, can be presented and evaluated easily using abundance and occupancy ratios (AOR). We used an agent-based simulation system and an existing model for a wide-spread carabid beetle (Bembidion lampros), to evaluate the impact of a fictitious highly-toxic pesticide on population density and the distributi…