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An Operational Numerical System for Oil Stranding Risk Assessment in a High-Density Vessel Traffic Area Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-02-02 Giovanni Quattrocchi; Simone Simeone; Andrea Pes; Roberto Sorgente; Alberto Ribotti; Andrea Cucco
In the Mediterranean Sea unique environmental characteristics and sensitive assets coexist with intense maritime traffic that is represented by frequent daily passages of vessels along the main waterways. In order to assess the risk of oil stranding in case of at-sea emergencies and provide key products for environmental agencies or policymakers preparedness, a geographically relocatable, operational
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Interactive Effects of Elevated CO2 Concentration and Light on the Picophytoplankton Synechococcus Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-02-01 Nanou Bao; Kunshan Gao
Synechococcus is a major contributor to the primary production in tropic and subtropical oceans worldwide. Responses of this picophytoplankton to changing light and CO2 levels is of general concern to understand its ecophysiology in the context of ocean global changes. We grew Synechococcus sp. (WH7803), originally isolated from subtropic North Atlantic Ocean, under different PAR levels for about 15
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Human Impact on the Spatiotemporal Evolution of Beach Resilience on the Northwestern Yucatan Coast Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-27 Alec Torres-Freyermuth; Gabriela Medellín; Paulo Salles
The northern Yucatan peninsula is prone to coastal flooding and erosion owing to its low-land elevation and high exposure to storms. Therefore, it is important to assess the capability of the beach-dune system to resist, recover, and adapt from storms in the context of coastal development and climate change. This work aims to investigate the role of human impacts on the spatiotemporal evolution of
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Marine Litter Windrows: A Strategic Target to Understand and Manage the Ocean Plastic Pollution Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-26 Andrés Cózar; Stefano Aliani; Oihane C. Basurko; Manuel Arias; Atsuhiko Isobe; Konstantinos Topouzelis; Anna Rubio; Carmen Morales-Caselles
Windrow is a long-established term for the aggregations of seafoam, seaweeds, plankton and natural debris that appear on the ocean surface. Here, we define a “litter windrow” as any aggregation of floating litter at the submesoscale domain (<10 km horizontally), regardless of the force inducing the surface convergence, be it wind or other forces such as tides or density-driven currents. The marine
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Coastal Fishers Livelihood Behaviors and Their Psychosocial Explanations: Implications for Fisheries Governance in a Changing World Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-02-03 Evan J. Andrews; Sarah Wolfe; Prateep K. Nayak; Derek Armitage
This research is a critical examination of the behavioral foundations of livelihood pathways over a 50-year time period in a multispecies fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Fishers make difficult decisions to pursue, enjoy, and protect their livelihoods in times of change and uncertainty, and the resultant behaviors shape efforts to advance sustainability through coastal and marine fisheries
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Climate Change Impacts on Atlantic Oceanic Island Tuna Fisheries Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-02-03 Bryony L. Townhill; Elena Couce; James Bell; Stuart Reeves; Oliver Yates
Climate change is already affecting the distributions of marine fish, and future change is expected to have a particularly large impact on small islands that are reliant on the sea for much of their income. This study aims to develop an understanding of how climate change may affect the distribution of commercially important tuna in the waters around the United Kingdom’s Overseas Territories in the
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Disentangling the Influence of Three Major Threats on the Demography of an Albatross Community Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-02-03 Jaimie B. Cleeland; Deborah Pardo; Ben Raymond; Geoffrey N. Tuck; Clive R. McMahon; Richard A. Phillips; Rachael Alderman; Mary-Anne Lea; Mark A. Hindell
Climate change, fisheries and invasive species represent three pervasive threats to seabirds, globally. Understanding the relative influence and compounding nature of marine and terrestrial threats on the demography of seabird communities is vital for evidence-based conservation. Using 20 years of capture-mark-recapture data from four sympatric species of albatross (black-browed Thalassarche melanophris
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Validation of Oil Trajectory and Fate Modeling of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-02-02 Deborah P. French-McCay; Malcolm L. Spaulding; Deborah Crowley; Daniel Mendelsohn; Jeremy Fontenault; Matthew Horn
Trajectory and fate modeling of the oil released during the Deepwater Horizon blowout was performed for April to September of 2010 using a variety of input data sets, including combinations of seven hydrodynamic and four wind models, to determine the inputs leading to the best agreement with observations and to evaluate their reliability for quantifying exposure of marine resources to floating and
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High Resolution Spatial Distribution for the Hexactinellid Sponges Asconema setubalense and Pheronema carpenteri in the Central Cantabrian Sea Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-02-02 Augusto Rodríguez-Basalo; Elena Prado; Francisco Sánchez; Pilar Ríos; María Gómez-Ballesteros; Javier Cristobo
In the present work we focus on the distribution of two species of sponges. One of these is Asconema setubalense, a sponge found in rocky substrate that was sampled with a photogrammetric vehicle through georeferenced images. The other is Pheronema carpenteri, which inhabits soft bottoms and was sampled by beam trawl. For the spatial distribution modeling of both sponges, the geomorphological variables
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Ten Commandments for Sustainable, Safe, and W/Healthy Sandy Coasts Facing Global Change Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-02-01 Rodolfo Silva; Hocine Oumeraci; M. Luisa Martínez; Valeria Chávez; Debora Lithgow; Brigitta I. van Tussenbroek; Helena F. M. W. van Rijswick; Tjeerd J. Bouma
Sandy coasts represent about one-third of the global coastline and are among the most valuable and most vulnerable areas for humans and many other species. Socio-economic development and climate change impacts, together with traditional engineering for shore protection, have pervasively resulted in coastal squeeze, thereby threatening coastal life and economic activities, and the very survival of coastal
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Multi-Model Approach on Growth Estimation and Association With Life History Trait for Elasmobranchs Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-27 Kwang-Ming Liu; Chiao-Bin Wu; Shoou-Jeng Joung; Wen-Pei Tsai; Kuan-Yu Su
Age and growth information is essential for stock assessment of fish, and growth model selection may influence the accuracy of stock assessment and subsequent fishery management decision making. Previous descriptions of the age and growth of elasmobranchs relied mainly on the von Bertalanffy growth model (VBGM). However, it has been noted that sharks, skates and rays exhibit significant variety in
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Diatoms Biotechnology: Various Industrial Applications for a Greener Tomorrow Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-26 Nikunj Sharma; Daris Pazhukkunnel Simon; Aracely Maribel Diaz-Garza; Elisa Fantino; Anis Messaabi; Fatma Meddeb-Mouelhi; Hugo Germain; Isabel Desgagné-Penix
The benefits of the complex microscopic and industrially important group of microalgae such as diatoms is not hidden and have lately surprised the scientific community with their industrial potential. The ability to survive in harsh conditions and the presence of different pore structures and defined cell walls have made diatoms ideal cell machinery to produce a variety of industrial products. The
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Genetic Conservation Management of Marine Resources and Ecosystems of Patagonian Fjords Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-26 Anna Maria Addamo; Serena Zaccara; Günter Försterra; Juan Höfer; Ricardo García-Jiménez; Giuseppe Crosa; Annie Machordom
The Chilean fjord region includes many remote and poorly known areas where management plans for the marine living resources and conservation strategies are urgently needed. Few data are available about the spatial distribution of its marine invertebrate fauna, prevalently influenced by complex interactions between biotic and abiotic factors, animal behavior and human activities. Patagonian fjords are
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Northern Shortfin Squid (Illex illecebrosus) Fishery Footprint on the Northeast US Continental Shelf Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-21 Brooke A. Lowman; Andrew W. Jones; Jeffrey P. Pessutti; Anna M. Mercer; John P. Manderson; Benjamin Galuardi
Northern shortfin squid (Illex illecebrosus) have presented a challenge for US fishery management because of their life history traits and broad population distribution. They are characterized by a short semelparous lifespan and high interannual variability in recruitment. Much of the stock resides outside of the boundaries of existing US fisheries surveys and US fishing effort. Based on the annual
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Countering Avoidance Strategies Used by Fishers to Avoid Detection During Illegal Fishing Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-20 Adrian Arias; Brock J. Bergseth; Damian Weekers; Chris Wilcox
Non-compliers typically avoid detection by authorities, benefiting from increased catch and income. While detection-avoidance strategies (e.g., secret compartments to hide illegal catch) are commonly used in the nature conservation context, they remain largely unstudied. We address this knowledge gap in three sections. First, we introduce and hypothesize the likelihood of non-compliers adopting detection-avoidance
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Accelerometry of Seabream in a Sea-Cage: Is Acceleration a Good Proxy for Activity? Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-02-04 Arjan P. Palstra; Pablo Arechavala-Lopez; Yuanxu Xue; Ana Roque
Activity assessment of individual fish in a sea-cage could provide valuable insights into the behavior, but also physiological well-being and resilience, of the fish population in the cage. Acceleration can be monitored continuously with internal acoustic transmitter tags and is generally applied as a real-time proxy for activity. The objective of this study was to investigate the activity patterns
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End-to-End Modeling Reveals Species-Specific Effects of Large-Scale Coastal Restoration on Living Resources Facing Climate Change Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-26 Kim de Mutsert; Kristy A. Lewis; Eric D. White; Joe Buszowski
Coastal erosion and wetland loss are affecting Louisiana to such an extent that the loss of land between 1932 and 2016 was close to 5,000 km2. To mitigate this decline, coastal protection and restoration projects are being planned and implemented by the State of Louisiana, United States. The Louisiana Coastal Master Plan (CMP) is an adaptive management approach that provides a suite of projects that
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Conceptual Design of a Modular Floating Multi-Purpose Island Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-21 Ingo Drummen; Gerrit Olbert
The design of a modular floating multi-purpose island inherently involves interaction within a group with a large range of backgrounds such as engineering, architecture, sociology, climate modeling, and more. A heuristic design approach was adopted for future island developers to make a first conceptual design. Four major design considerations were distinguished to discretize the design space: module
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Abundance of Environmental Data vs. Low Public Interest in Climate and Ocean Issues. Where Is the Missing Link? Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-13 Tymon Zielinski; Ezio Bolzacchini; Karen Evans; Luca Ferrero; Klaudia Gregorczyk; Tomasz Kijewski; Izabela Kotynska-Zielinska; Patrycja Mrowiec; Barbara Oleszczuk; Paulina Pakszys; Ewa Piechowska; Joanna Piwowarczyk; Jan Sobieszczanski; Marcin Wichorowski
Climate change and associated modification of the ocean is a fact, however, it seems to be the most undervalued and little understood “pandemic” challenge of this century. We live in a world where environmental data is increasingly being amassed and models are generating finer scale and increasingly dense numbers of outputs, resulting in the production of high level scientific information on climate
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Risk Assessment of Cadmium, Lead, and Mercury on Human Health in Relation to the Consumption of Farmed Sea Bass in Italy: A Meta-Analytical Approach Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-12 Calogero Di Bella; Antonino Calagna; Gaetano Cammilleri; Pietro Schembri; Daniela Lo Monaco; Valentina Ciprì; Luisa Battaglia; Giuseppe Barbera; Vincenzo Ferrantelli; Saloua Sadok; Ines Tliba; Gianluigi Maria Lo Dico; Rosalinda Allegro
A risk assessment, related to the consumption of farmed sea bass, was carried out by meta-analysis, taking into account the concentration of trace metals (Cd, Pb, Hg) reported in the literature, the estimated weekly intake (EWI), the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI), and the target hazard quotient (THQ). The concentrations of Cd, Pb, and Hg in farmed sea bass marketed in Sicily (Southern
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Feeding Hotspots and Distribution of Fin and Humpback Whales in the Norwegian Sea From 2013 to 2018 Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-05 Sunniva Løviknes; Knut H. Jensen; Bjørn A. Krafft; Valantine Anthonypillai; Leif Nøttestad
Fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) and humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) are commonly found in the Norwegian Sea during the summer months. Records from around 1995 to 2004 show that their distribution patterns were mainly associated with those of macro-zooplankton. More recent studies conducted from 2009 to 2012 demonstrate marked shifts, with fin whale distribution related to pelagic fish distribution
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On the Impact of the Caribbean Counter Current in the Guajira Upwelling System Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-02-02 Alejandro Orfila; Claudia P. Urbano-Latorre; Juan M. Sayol; Stephanie Gonzalez-Montes; Alejandro Caceres-Euse; Ismael Hernández-Carrasco; Ángel G. Muñoz
The variability of La Guajira upwelling system, in the south-central Caribbean Sea, is strongly influenced by the intensity and location of the atmospheric Caribbean Low-Level Jet (CLLJ), a near-surface branch of the easterlies, as well as by the regional ocean circulation. During favorable conditions (i.e., strong easterlies blowing almost parallel to the coast), upwelling is enhanced and a large
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Impact of Plastic Debris on the Gut Microbiota of Caretta caretta From Northwestern Adriatic Sea Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-02-01 Elena Biagi; Margherita Musella; Giorgia Palladino; Valeria Angelini; Sauro Pari; Chiara Roncari; Daniel Scicchitano; Simone Rampelli; Silvia Franzellitti; Marco Candela
Plastic pollution is nowadays a relevant threat for the ecological balance in marine ecosystems. Small plastic debris (PD) can enter food webs through various marine organisms, with possible consequences on their physiology and health. The loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta), widespread across the whole Mediterranean Sea, is a “flagship species,” useful as indicator of the general pollution level
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Marine Bacteria Community in a 150-m Depth Tachai Island, the Southeast Andaman Sea of Thailand Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-02-01 Donlaporn Sripan; Alisa Wilantho; Khunnalack Khitmoh; Doonyapong Wongsawaeng; Jamal Ouazzani; Suchana Chavanich; Sissades Tongsima; Naraporn Somboonna
The southeast Andaman Sea 52-m off the west coast of Phang Nga province, Thailand, is located in the Indian Ocean, representing a hotspot for marine biodiversity of the world. This study utilized metagenomics combined 16S rRNA gene (V3–V4) sequencing, and firstly revealed the microbiota and their metabolism potentials of this site at an epipelagic depth (150-m depth, TC150M), including comparison with
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Environmental Awareness Gained During a Citizen Science Project in Touristic Resorts Is Maintained After 3 Years Since Participation Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-25 Marta Meschini; Francesca Prati; Ginevra A. Simoncini; Valentina Airi; Erik Caroselli; Fiorella Prada; Chiara Marchini; Mariana Machado Toffolo; Simone Branchini; Viviana Brambilla; Claudia Covi; Stefano Goffredo
Tourism is one of the largest economic sectors in the world. It has a positive effect on the economy of many countries, but it can also lead to negative impacts on local ecosystems. Informal environmental education through Citizen Science (CS) projects can be effective in increasing citizen environmental knowledge and awareness in the short-term. A change of awareness could bring to a behavioral change
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A Coupled Lagrangian-Earth System Model for Predicting Oil Photooxidation Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-11 Ana C. Vaz; Robin Faillettaz; Claire B. Paris
During the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) blowout, photooxidation of surface oil led to the formation of persistent photooxidized compounds, still found in shoreline sediments a decade later. Studies demonstrated that photooxidation modified both biodegradation rates of the surface oil and the effectiveness of aerial dispersant applications. Despite the significant consequences of this weathering pathway
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Observations of Breaking Internal Tides on the Australian North West Shelf Edge Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-02-02 Gustavo Lauton; Charitha Bandula Pattiaratchi; Carlos A. D. Lentini
A comprehensive observational data set was used to examine shoreward propagating semidiurnal internal tides as they shoal, break and run-up as turbulent boluses across the edge of the Australian North West Shelf (NWS), offshore Dampier, during late winter 2013. The measured waveforms and wavefields supported the grouping of events into two distinct categories: (1) pre-; and, (2) post- wave breaking
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Whole Community Metatranscriptomes and Lipidomes Reveal Diverse Responses Among Antarctic Phytoplankton to Changing Ice Conditions Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-29 Jeff S. Bowman; Benjamin A. S. Van Mooy; Daniel P. Lowenstein; Helen F. Fredricks; Colleen M. Hansel; Rebecca Gast; James R. Collins; Nicole Couto; Hugh W. Ducklow
The transition from winter to spring represents a major shift in the basal energy source for the Antarctic marine ecosystem from lipids and other sources of stored energy to sunlight. Because sea ice imposes a strong control on the transmission of sunlight into the water column during the polar spring, we hypothesized that the timing of the sea ice retreat influences the timing of the transition from
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Warming Iron-Limited Oceans Enhance Nitrogen Fixation and Drive Biogeographic Specialization of the Globally Important Cyanobacterium Crocosphaera Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-29 Nina Yang; Carlin A. Merkel; Yu-An Lin; Naomi M. Levine; Nicholas J. Hawco; Hai-Bo Jiang; Ping-Ping Qu; Michelle A. DeMers; Eric A. Webb; Fei-Xue Fu; David A. Hutchins
Primary productivity in the nutrient-poor subtropical ocean gyres depends on new nitrogen inputs from nitrogen fixers that convert inert dinitrogen gas into bioavailable forms. Temperature and iron (Fe) availability constrain marine nitrogen fixation, and both are changing due to anthropogenic ocean warming. We examined the physiological responses of the globally important marine nitrogen fixer, Crocosphaera
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Accounting for Seasonal Growth in Per-Recruit Analyses: A Case Study of Four Commercial Fish in Coastal China Seas Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-28 Yiwen Liu; Chongliang Zhang; Binduo Xu; Ying Xue; Yiping Ren; Yong Chen
Biological reference points (BRPs) derived from per-recruit analyses are commonly used in inferring stock status and serve as the target or threshold in fisheries management. However, the estimation of BRPs may be impacted by the variability in life history processes, and particularly, individual growth rates often display substantial seasonal oscillations but are seldomly considered in per-recruit
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Minding the Data-Gap Trap: Exploring Dynamics of Abundant Dolphin Populations Under Uncertainty Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-27 Erin Ashe; Rob Williams; Christopher Clark; Christine Erbe; Leah R. Gerber; Ailsa J. Hall; Philip S. Hammond; Robert C. Lacy; Randall Reeves; Nicole L. Vollmer
Preventing declines in common species is key to sustaining the structure and function of marine ecosystems. Yet for many common marine mammals, including oceanic dolphins, statistical power to detect declines remains low due to patchy distribution and large variability in group sizes. In this study, population viability analyses (PVA) were used to model the dynamics of four oceanic dolphin populations
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A de novo Transcriptome Assembly of the European Flounder (Platichthys flesus): The Preselection of Transcripts Encoding Active Forms of Enzymes Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-26 Konrad Pomianowski; Artur Burzyński; Ewa Kulczykowska
The RNA sequencing data sets available for different fish species show a potentially high variety of forms of enzymes just in teleosts. This is primarily considered an effect of the first round of whole-genome duplication with mutations in duplicated genes (isozymes) and alternative splicing of mRNA (isoforms). However, the abundance of the mRNA transcript variants is not necessarily reflected in the
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Bioluminescence in Polynoid Scale Worms (Annelida: Polynoidae) Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-25 Gabriela V. Moraes; Mary Colleen Hannon; Douglas M. M. Soares; Cassius V. Stevani; Anja Schulze; Anderson G. Oliveira
Bioluminescence is widespread throughout the phylum Annelida and occurs in terrestrial and marine lineages. Among marine taxa, bioluminescence has been documented in eight families and anecdotally reported in six additional families. Although new bioluminescent systems have been recently described in annelids, there are still many other families whose light emission mechanisms have not been sufficiently
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Equitable Allocations in Northern Fisheries: Bridging the Divide for Labrador Inuit Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-25 Melina Kourantidou; Porter Hoagland; Aaron Dale; Megan Bailey
Canada has undertaken commitments to recognize the rights of Indigenous Peoples in fisheries through policies and agreements, including Integrated Fishery Management Plans, the Reconciliation Strategy, and Land Claim Agreements (LCAs). In addition to recognizing rights, these commitments were intended to respect geographic adjacency principles, to enhance the economic viability of Indigenous communities
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Crab Diets Differ Between Adjacent Estuaries and Habitats Within a Sheltered Marine Embayment Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-19 Theo I. Campbell; James R. Tweedley; Danielle J. Johnston; Neil R. Loneragan
Portunid crabs contribute to significant commercial and recreational fisheries globally and are commonly fished in estuaries and/or marine embayments, which are amongst the most degraded of all aquatic ecosystems. Portunus armatus were collected seasonally between April and February from five locations across three systems in temperate south-western Australia. The dietary composition of crabs was quantified
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Variance Component Decomposition for Growth Traits of the Bay Scallop (Argopecten irradians irradians) Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-19 Hengde Li; Yangfan Wang; Qiang Xing; Qifan Zeng; Liang Zhao; Yaqun Zhang; Xiaoli Hu; Zhenmin Bao
The bay scallop (Argopecten irradians irradians) is one of the most important shellfish species in China. Since their introduction into China, only mass selection has been used in bay scallop breeding. With its gradual expansion and shortage of mate selection, population homozygosity increased, and fitness decreased. To investigate the effects of inbreeding and provide reference for improving breeding
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Asymmetric Ocean Response to Atmospheric Forcing in an Island Wake: A 35-Year High-Resolution Study Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-13 José M. R. Alves; Ricardo Tomé; Rui M. A. Caldeira; Pedro M. A. Miranda
The present study assesses the thermal variability of the regional ocean around Madeira Island, in intraseasonal and interdecadal time scales, using a 35-year (1983–2017), 3-km horizontal resolution ocean simulation forced by a co-located atmospheric simulation, with SODA and ERA5 boundary and initial conditions, respectively. Atmosphere–ocean interactions in this region are found to be driven by the
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Stressful Conditions Give Rise to a Novel and Cryptic Filamentous Form of Caulerpa cylindracea Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-11 Jorge Santamaría; Raül Golo; Emma Cebrian; María García; Alba Vergés
Morphological plasticity can enable algae to adapt to environmental change and increase their invasibility when introduced into new habitats. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of knowledge on how such plasticity can affect the invasion process of an invasive species. In this context, the high plasticity in the genus Caulerpa is well documented. However, after an extremely hot summer, a previously
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Slow Community Development Enhances Abiotic Limitation of Benthic Community Structure in a High Arctic Kelp Bed Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-07 Christina Bonsell; Kenneth H. Dunton
We examined the patterns of propagule recruitment to assess the timescale and trajectory of succession and the possible roles of physical factors in controlling benthic community structure in a shallow High Arctic kelp bed in the Beaufort Sea, Alaska. Spatial differences in established epilithic assemblages were evaluated against static habitat attributes (depth, distance from river inputs) and environmental
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Changes in Rocky Intertidal Community Structure During a Marine Heatwave in the Northern Gulf of Alaska Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-28 Benjamin Weitzman; Brenda Konar; Katrin Iken; Heather Coletti; Daniel Monson; Robert Suryan; Thomas Dean; Dominic Hondolero; Mandy Lindeberg
Marine heatwaves are global phenomena that can have major impacts on the structure and function of coastal ecosystems. By mid-2014, the Pacific Marine Heatwave (PMH) was evident in intertidal waters of the northern Gulf of Alaska and persisted for multiple years. While offshore marine ecosystems are known to respond to these warmer waters, the response of rocky intertidal ecosystems to this warming
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Temporal Variability of Planktonic Ciliates in a Coastal Oligotrophic Environment: Mixotrophy, Size Classes and Vertical Distribution Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-28 Filomena Romano; Katerina Symiakaki; Paraskevi Pitta
The temporal variability of planktonic ciliates was studied in an extreme oligotrophic environment with special focus on trophic modes and size classes. Abundance, biomass, size classes, mixotrophy vs. heterotrophy, and species composition of planktonic ciliates were investigated focusing on temporal (samples collected on a monthly basis during 2019) and vertical (7 depth layers in the euphotic zone
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Dolphin-Watching Boats Affect Whistle Frequency Modulation in Bottlenose Dolphins Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-26 Betzi Perez-Ortega; Rebecca Daw; Brennan Paradee; Emma Gimbrere; Laura J. May-Collado
Bottlenose dolphins’ whistles are key in social communication, conveying information about conspecifics and the environment. Therefore, their study can help to infer habitat use and identify areas of concern due to human activities. Here we studied the whistles of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in two sites of the archipelago of Bocas del Toro, Panama, that contrast in boat traffic. Almirante
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Whale-Watching Management: Assessment of Sustainable Governance in Uramba Bahía Málaga National Natural Park, Valle del Cauca Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-15 Laura V. Soto-Cortés; Andrea Luna-Acosta; Diana Lucía Maya
As the growth of the whale-watching activity increases rapidly around the world, the challenge of responsible management and sustainability also rises. Without suitable management, operators may try to maximize their own profits by breaking the rules, which may negatively affect cetaceans. In this paper, the applicability of conditions for sustainability governance in humpback whale-watching was evaluated
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A Matter of Scale: Population Genomic Structure and Connectivity of Fisheries At-Risk Common Dolphins (Delphinus delphis) From Australasia Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-14 Andrea Barceló; Jonathan Sandoval-Castillo; Karen A. Stockin; Kerstin Bilgmann; Catherine M. Attard; Nikki Zanardo; Guido J. Parra; Krista Hupman; Isabella M. Reeves; Emma L. Betty; Gabriela Tezanos-Pinto; Luciano B. Beheregaray; Luciana M. Möller
An understanding of population structure and connectivity at multiple spatial scales is required to assist wildlife conservation and management. This is particularly critical for widely distributed and highly mobile marine mammals subject to fisheries by-catch. Here, we present a population genomic assessment of a near-top predator, the common dolphin (Delphinus delphis), which is incidentally caught
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Increasing Knowledge of Biodiversity on the Orphan Seamount: A New Species of Tedania (Tedaniopsis) Dendy, 1924 Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-14 Pilar Ríos; Javier Cristobo; Emily Baker; Lindsay Beazley; Timothy Culwick; Ellen Kenchington
A new Tedania species (Porifera) was collect using remotely operated vehicles during the Canadian mission HUD2010-029 and the British RRS Discovery Cruise DY081, on the Orphan Seamount near the Orphan Knoll, northwest Atlantic, between 2999.88 and 3450.4 m depth. Orphan Knoll is an isolated, drowned continental fragment 550 km northeast Newfoundland in the Labrador Sea. This region is biologically
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Progress of Studies on Circulation Dynamics in the East China Sea: The Kuroshio Exchanges With the Shelf Currents Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-04 Zhiqiang Liu; Jianping Gan; Jianyu Hu; Hui Wu; Zhongya Cai; Yongfei Deng
This paper reviews recent advances in the circulation dynamics of the Kuroshio and its interaction with shelf currents in the East China Sea (ECS). The annually averaged Kuroshio volume transport varies between 19 and 24 Sv, based on different observations, but there is no consensus on which season its volume transport peaks. The Kuroshio is intensified over the central slope of the ECS from that off
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Pharaoh Cuttlefish, Sepia pharaonis, Genome Reveals Unique Reflectin Camouflage Gene Set Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-26 Weiwei Song; Ronghua Li; Yun Zhao; Herve Migaud; Chunlin Wang; Michaël Bekaert
Sepia pharaonis, the pharaoh cuttlefish, is a commercially valuable cuttlefish species across the southeast coast of China and an important marine resource for the world fisheries. Research efforts to develop linkage mapping, or marker-assisted selection have been hampered by the absence of a high-quality reference genome. To address this need, we produced a hybrid reference genome of S. pharaonis
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Ecological Specialization Within a Carnivorous Fish Family Is Supported by a Herbivorous Microbiome Shaped by a Combination of Gut Traits and Specific Diet Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-25 Arthur Escalas; Jean-Christophe Auguet; Amandine Avouac; Raphaël Seguin; Antoine Gradel; Lucie Borrossi; Sébastien Villéger
Animals have been developing key associations with micro-organisms through evolutionary processes and ecological diversification. Hence, in some host clades, phylogenetic distance between hosts is correlated to dissimilarity in microbiomes, a pattern called phylosymbiosis. Teleost fishes, despite being the most diverse and ancient group of vertebrates, have received little attention from the microbiome
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Breaking All the Rules: The First Recorded Hard Substrate Sessile Benthic Community Far Beneath an Antarctic Ice Shelf Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-18 Huw J. Griffiths; Paul Anker; Katrin Linse; Jamie Maxwell; Alexandra L. Post; Craig Stevens; Slawek Tulaczyk; James A. Smith
The seafloor beneath floating ice shelves accounts roughly a third of the Antarctic’s 5 million km2 of continental shelf. Prior to this study, our knowledge of these habitats and the life they support was restricted to what has been observed from eight boreholes drilled for geological and glaciological studies. The established theory of sub-ice shelf biogeography is that both functional and taxonomic
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Reactive Solute Transport Through Two Contrasting Subterranean Estuary Exit Sites in the Ría de Vigo (NW Iberian Peninsula) Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-25 Elisa Calvo-Martin; Xosé Antón Álvarez-Salgado; Carlos Rocha; J. Severino Pino Ibánhez
Subterranean estuaries (STEs), where continental groundwaters and saltwaters meet, are zones of intense biogeochemical reactivity. As such, STEs significantly modify groundwater-borne nutrient fluxes to the coastal zone. Thus, evaluating their reactive role is crucial to anticipate impacts of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) over coastal ecosystems. Here, we studied the nitrogen biogeochemistry
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Chemical Prevention and Control of the Green Tide and Fouling Organism Ulva: Key Chemicals, Mechanisms, and Applications Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-21 Tao Tang; Kokoette Effiong; Jing Hu; Chao Li; Xi Xiao
The green algae, Ulva spp., have been causing environmental problems worldwide, e.g., green tides and biofoulings. Green tides resulted from bloom floating Ulva have caused substantial economic losses. Ulva foulings increase the maintenance cost of marine facilities and contribute to the biomass of floating algae. Chemical methods are generally very inexpensive and convenient for suppression of Ulva
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Synthetic and Semi-Synthetic Microplastic Ingestion by Mesopelagic Fishes From Tristan da Cunha and St Helena, South Atlantic Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-19 Alexandra R. McGoran; James S. Maclaine; Paul F. Clark; David Morritt
Mesopelagic fishes were sampled around Tristan da Cunha and St Helena in the South Atlantic from the RRS Discovery at depths down to 1000 m. Sampling was part of the Blue Belt Programme, a marine survey of British Overseas Territories funded by the United Kingdom Government. Thirteen species of mesopelagic fishes identified from 30 specimens were compared with two species (two specimens) collected
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Deep-Sea Nematodes of the Mozambique Channel: Evidence of Random Community Assembly Dynamics in Seep Sediments Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-18 Lara Macheriotou; Annelien Rigaux; Karine Olu; Daniela Zeppilli; Sofie Derycke; Ann Vanreusel
Cold seeps occur globally in areas where gases escape from the seafloor, occasionally resulting in the formation of topographic depressions (pockmarks), characterised by unique physicochemical conditions such as anoxic and sulphuric sediments. Free-living marine nematodes tend to dominate the meiofaunal component in such environments, often occurring at extremely high densities and low richness; the
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Improving Regional Model Skills During Typhoon Events: A Case Study for Super Typhoon Lingling Over the Northwest Pacific Ocean Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-11 Delei Li; Joanna Staneva; Jean-Raymond Bidlot; Sebastian Grayek; Yuchao Zhu; Baoshu Yin
The ability of forecasting systems to simulate tropical cyclones is still insufficient, and currently, there is an increased interest in improving model performance for intense tropical cyclones. In this study, the impact of reducing surface drag at high wind speeds on modeling wind and wave conditions during the super Typhoon Lingling event over the northwest Pacific Ocean in 2019 is investigated
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Time-Varying Epipelagic Community Seascapes: Assessing and Predicting Species Composition in the Northeastern Pacific Ocean Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-11 Caren Barceló; Richard D. Brodeur; Lorenzo Ciannelli; Elizabeth A. Daly; Craig M. Risien; Gonzalo S. Saldías; Jameal F. Samhouri
The vast spatial extent of the ocean presents a major challenge for monitoring changes in marine biodiversity and connecting those changes to management practices. Remote-sensing offers promise for overcoming this problem in a cost-effective, tractable way, but requires interdisciplinary expertise to identify robust approaches. In this study, we use generalized additive mixed models to evaluate the
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Impact of Increased Nutrients and Lowered pH on Photosynthesis and Growth of Three Marine Phytoplankton Communities From the Coastal South West Atlantic (Patagonia, Argentina) Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-07 Takako Masuda; Ondřej Prášil; Virginia E. Villafañe; Macarena S. Valiñas; Keisuke Inomura; E. Walter Helbling
Effect of global change variables on the structure and photosynthesis of phytoplankton communities was evaluated in three different sites of the Patagonian coast of Argentina: enclosed bay (Puerto Madryn, PM), estuarine (Playa Unión, PU), and open waters (Isla Escondida, IE). We exposed samples to two contrasting scenarios: Present (nutrients at in situ levels) vs. Future (with lowered pH and higher
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Abiotic and Human Drivers of Reef Habitat Complexity Throughout the Main Hawaiian Islands Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-22 Gregory P. Asner; Nicholas R. Vaughn; Shawna A. Foo; Joseph Heckler; Roberta E. Martin
Reef rugosity, a metric of three-dimensional habitat complexity, is a central determinant of reef condition and multi-trophic occupancy including corals, fishes and invertebrates. As a result, spatially explicit information on reef rugosity is needed for conservation and management activities ranging from fisheries to coral protection and restoration. Across archipelagos comprising islands of varying
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Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems of the Great Barrier Reef Are Understudied and Underexplored Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-20 Gal Eyal; Jack H. Laverick; Pim Bongaerts; Oren Levy; John M. Pandolfi
Mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs) are characterized by the presence of photosynthetically active organisms such as corals and algae, and associated communities at depths ranging from 30 to 150 m in tropical and subtropical regions. Due to the increased awareness of the potential importance of these reefs as an integral part of coral reef ecosystems (i.e., deep reef refuge, specialized biodiversity
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Lateral, Vertical, and Temporal Variability of Seawater Carbonate Chemistry at Hog Reef, Bermuda Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-11 Ariel K. Pezner; Travis A. Courtney; Heather N. Page; Sarah N. Giddings; Cory M. Beatty; Michael D. DeGrandpre; Andreas J. Andersson
Spatial and temporal carbonate chemistry variability on coral reefs is influenced by a combination of seawater hydrodynamics, geomorphology, and biogeochemical processes, though their relative influence varies by site. It is often assumed that the water column above most reefs is well-mixed with small to no gradients outside of the benthic boundary layer. However, few studies to date have explored
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Water- and Base-Extractable Organic Matter in Sediments From Lower Yangtze River–Estuary–East China Sea Continuum: Insight Into Accumulation of Organic Carbon in the River-Dominated Margin Front. Marine Sci. (IF 3.661) Pub Date : 2021-01-11 Lulu Han; Yinghui Wang; Yunping Xu; Yasong Wang; Yiling Zheng; Jianqiang Wu
The burial of organic carbon (OC) in the river-dominated margin plays an important role in global carbon cycle, but its accumulation mechanism is not well understood. Here, we examined the concentration and distribution of water-extractable organic matter (WEOM) and base-extractable organic matter (BEOM) in surface sediments from the lower Yangtze River, estuary, and the East China Sea. Chemical characteristics
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