Can living shorelines survive the rising seas?

Take a sneak preview into our new issue, which publishes this Friday and turns the Spotlight on conservation in marine habitats. The feature includes a Practitioner’s Perspective on designing climate‐resilient living shorelines, which Molly Mitchell and Donna Marie Bilkovic discuss here. Look out for an additional post bringing together all the papers in the Spotlight soon. Living shorelines are a form of shoreline protection that mimics … Continue reading Can living shorelines survive the rising seas?

How to prioritise management when human and natural worlds collide

Udell et al. recently published a new way to prioritise and allocate speed restriction zones that will best protect wildlife from boat collisions. Associate Editor, Jonathan Rhodes explains how this research could be applied to a range of conservation efforts around biodiversity and human movements. Many threats to species of conservation concern arise due to collisions or interactions between species and people or between species … Continue reading How to prioritise management when human and natural worlds collide

Benthos longevity matters …

Long-lived species take longer to recover from the effects of bottom trawling by commercial fisheries according to recent research from Hiddink et al. Watch this video from PROJECT BENTHIS to discover more about the importance of longevity and benthic animal traits. Introduction by Associate Editor, Verena Trenkel. Combining knowledge on the local benthos community and the results of this study, managers will now be able … Continue reading Benthos longevity matters …

Dynamic technology for dynamic ecosystems

When it comes to developing management tools, how do we keep up with constantly changing ecosystems? Associate Editor, Annabel Smith explains the important step forward made by Welch et al’s research into dynamic management tools. Scientists have been very good at developing guidelines for management of natural systems. Streams of conceptual frameworks are published every year, to the point that we now have frameworks for … Continue reading Dynamic technology for dynamic ecosystems

Infographic: Dynamic management tools

Heather Welch et al. provide an operationalization framework for implementing dynamic management tools to tackle a range of disturbance management goals, including minimization of protected species bycatch. See their work presented as an infographic here: Read the full open access article, Practical considerations for operationalizing dynamic management tools in Journal of Applied Ecology. Continue reading Infographic: Dynamic management tools

Reblog: Fishing forecasts can predict marine creature movements

Originally posted by The Conversation. Heather Welch, University of California, Santa Cruz; Elliott Lee Hazen, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Stephanie Brodie, University of California, Santa Cruz Do you check the weather forecast before getting dressed in the morning? If you do, then you’re making a decision in real time, based on dynamic processes that can vary greatly over space and time. Marine animals … Continue reading Reblog: Fishing forecasts can predict marine creature movements

Juvenile natural mortality is a hard parameter to estimate, but it can be done with pop-up archival tags

New research published today (9th May 2018) uses electronic tags to highlight the risk of shark mortality through unintentional capture in fishing gear. Associate Editor, Andre Punt, comments on the new paper by Benson et al., Juvenile survival, competing risks, and spatial variation in mortality risk of a marine apex predator. One of the most influential parameters in any population dynamics model is the rate of … Continue reading Juvenile natural mortality is a hard parameter to estimate, but it can be done with pop-up archival tags

Spotlight: Addressing global fisheries management challenges in a changing world

From ecosystem productivity to economic benefits, issue 55:3 of Journal of Applied Ecology features a Spotlight on Fisheries management. Associate Editor, Stephanie Januchowski-Hartley brings the articles together and discusses the encouraging ways in which this research from temperate and tropical waters can inform management. Globally, hundreds of millions of people depend on marine and freshwater fisheries that are faced with mounting challenges and diverse issues … Continue reading Spotlight: Addressing global fisheries management challenges in a changing world

Evaluating the temporal effectiveness of marine reserves

Assessing the effectiveness of marine reserves and evaluating species recovery after closure to towed mobile fishing gear; Associate Editor, Steph Januchowski-Hartley comments on the article, Recovery linked to life history of sessile epifauna following exclusion of towed mobile fishing gear by Kaiser et. al. Reserves, or protected areas, are frequently used to mitigate impacts from human uses. In marine waters these reserves are often established to afford … Continue reading Evaluating the temporal effectiveness of marine reserves

How important is seagrass for blue carbon?

Seagrass is key for carbon storage but shading from man-made structures is putting seagrass meadows at risk. Associate Editor Nathalie Butt discusses the recent article, Effects of small-scale, shading-induced seagrass loss on blue carbon storage: Implications for management of degraded seagrass ecosystems by Stacey Trevathan-Tackett et al. Carbon storage in the sea Given ever-increasing global emissions, natural systems and organisms that can absorb and store … Continue reading How important is seagrass for blue carbon?