The allocation of carbon resources in marine capture fisheries.

Marine fishery carbon emissions play a significant role in agricultural carbon emissions, making resource allocation a crucial topic for the overall marine ecological protection. This paper evaluates the dynamic iteration method as a research approach with the factors of resource allocation consisting of value assessment, optimization objective, difference between value assessment and objective, and optimization calculation. The paper selects the shadow price from the Super-SBM model as the judgment function for the goal value, aiming for the fairness criterion. From an equity standpoint, the allocation of carbon resources in marine capture fisheries proves to be unreasonable. The fishery model exhibits an excessive supply of carbon resources, resulting in wastage, while the green fishery model faces a relatively limited supply, with a focus on energy conservation and environmental protection. To address this issue, this paper proposes a new method and discusses the corrective results. This result shows that the stabilization point achieved is a short-term equilibrium rather than a long-term one. By rectifying the social contradiction of profit-oriented approaches, this research provides a fresh perspective for economic studies and applications, particularly in industrial layout and resource utilization optimization.

Marine ecosystem health and biological pollution: Reconsidering the paradigm.

Our study re-evaluates a fundamental paradigm in marine invasion ecology - whether introduced species are considered as contaminants, i.e. just present in the system, or whether they are pollutants per se, i.e. they cause biological harm. This re-evaluation includes the concepts of marine ecosystem health and biological pollution using the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) as an example. Hence, we clarify the distinction between "biological contamination" (pertaining to Non-Indigenous Species (NIS) introductions) and "biological pollution" (associated with Invasive Alien Species - IAS). We emphasize the need for comprehensive indicators that consider their ecological, economic, and societal impacts. The MSFD Descriptor D2 NIS is analysed using the "biocontamination-biopollution" gradient to better reflect the complexities of ecosystem health. We discuss limitations in current monitoring and evaluation criteria, such as the absence of unified NIS/IAS monitoring, challenges in interpreting ecological impacts, and context-dependent assessment results. We emphasize the importance of context-specific management measures, considering the origin of pressures, whether endogenic (caused within a management area such a regional sea) or exogenic (with causes from outside a management area). Ultimately, we underscore the importance of a holistic and adaptable approach to address the diverse challenges posed by biocontamination and biopollution, protecting both marine ecosystems and human well-being in an ever-changing environment.

Marine natural products.

Covering: January to the end of December 2022This review covers the literature published in 2022 for marine natural products (MNPs), with 645 citations (633 for the period January to December 2022) referring to compounds isolated from marine microorganisms and phytoplankton, green, brown and red algae, sponges, cnidarians, bryozoans, molluscs, tunicates, echinoderms, the submerged parts of mangroves and other intertidal plants. The emphasis is on new compounds (1417 in 384 papers for 2022), together with the relevant biological activities, source organisms and country of origin. Pertinent reviews, biosynthetic studies, first syntheses, and syntheses that led to the revision of structures or stereochemistries, have been included. An analysis of NP structure class diversity in relation to biota source and biome is discussed.

Mebamamide C, a deoxy analogue of mebamamides in Bryopsis marine green algae and Elysia sacoglossan mollusks.

Kahalalides, originally isolated from the sacoglossan mollusk Elysia rufescens, have been found in various Elysia and Bryopsis species, with over 20 variants identified to date. These compounds are biosynthesized by Candidatus Endobryopsis kahalalidefaciens within Bryopsis species. In this study, we report the isolation and structural determination of a new cyclic depsipeptide, mebamamide C (1), from Bryopsis sp. The planar structure was determined by spectroscopic data analyses, and the absolute configurations were determined using Marfey's method and modified Mosher's method. Additionally, our study explores the chemical relationship between Bryopsis algae and Elysia mollusks. The individual chemical profiles of these marine organisms highlight a fascinating aspect of marine chemical ecology. The distinct, species-specific chemical profiles observed in Elysia species imply the possibility of a symbiotic relationship with the kahalalide-producing bacteria.

The Pelagic Species Trait Database, an open data resource to support trait-based ocean research.

Trait-based frameworks are increasingly used for predicting how ecological communities respond to ongoing global change. As species range shifts result in novel encounters between predators and prey, identifying prey 'guilds', based on a suite of shared traits, can distill complex species interactions, and aid in predicting food web dynamics. To support advances in trait-based research in open-ocean systems, we present the Pelagic Species Trait Database, an extensive resource documenting functional traits of 529 pelagic fish and invertebrate species in a single, open-source repository. We synthesized literature sources and online resources, conducted morphometric analysis of species images, as well as laboratory analyses of trawl-captured specimens to collate traits describing 1) habitat use and behavior, 2) morphology, 3) nutritional quality, and 4) population status information. Species in the dataset primarily inhabit the California Current system and broader NE Pacific Ocean, but also includes pelagic species known to be consumed by top ocean predators from other ocean basins. The aim of this dataset is to enhance the use of trait-based approaches in marine ecosystems and for predator populations worldwide.

Marine ecology: Increased fishing subsidy for seabirds.

Innovative use of light loggers reveals increased nocturnal foraging activity at fishing vessels by pelagic seabirds, illuminating the complex ways in which fisheries and biodiversity interact.

Increased habitat segregation at the dawn of the Phanerozoic revealed by correspondence analysis of bioturbation.

The Agronomic Revolution of the early Cambrian refers to the most significant re-structuration of the benthic marine ecosystem in life history. Using a global compilation of trace-fossil records across the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition, this paper investigates the relationship between the benthos and depositional environments prior to, during, and after the Agronomic Revolution to shed light on habitat segregation via correspondence analysis. The results of this analysis characterize Ediacaran mobile benthic bilaterians as facies-crossing and opportunistic, with low levels of habitat specialization. In contrast, the Terreneuvian and Cambrian Series 2 reveal progressive habitat segregation, parallel to matground environmental restriction. This event was conducive to the establishment of distinct endobenthic communities along the marine depositional profile, showing that the increase in styles of animal-substrate interactions was expressed by both alpha and beta ichnodiversity. Habitat segregation at the dawn of the Phanerozoic may illustrate an early extension of the trophic group amensalism at community scale.

Applying laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and elemental imaging on marine shells for archaeological and environmental research.

Using LIBS for the analysis of archaeological and geological marine mollusc shells is a growing research area that relies on customised instrumentation and specific workflows that can accommodate the variety and precision of the required sampling parameters. However, the increased efficiency offered by LIBS, which enables the study of a larger quantity of shell samples for temperature variation, ecological parameters, and human consumption practices, outweighs the initial efforts required to develop customised instrumentation and workflows. In this work, we present detailed specifications and parameters for the development of a LIBS system capable of generating Mg/Ca images on marine shells that directly correlate with seasonal sea temperatures. Our main objective was to develop specifications that enable easy adaptation of LIBS systems to existing laboratories for studying hard-tissue samples. These specifications were used to develop a customised micro-LIBS system and apply it to a real-world example of an archaeological study to better understand its efficiency on the marine mollusc shells and demonstrate its potential for broader applications in interdisciplinary research. In total 101 shell specimens have been analysed within a time frame of approximately 71 h of machine time, producing 234 images (100 µm resolution: 100 images, 30 µm resolution: 134 images). SEM analysis of the irradiated sections of the shell revealed a primary ablated area of 10-15 µm in diameter, while a secondary affected area of the shell's crystal fabric extended to 30-50 µm after repeated shots. Overall, this new customised system reliably and efficiently analysed marine mollusc specimens without major destructive effects, enabling additional analyses for other proxies to be carried out. This study highlights the potential of the LIBS method for interdisciplinary research, encompassing applications in paleoclimatology, marine ecology, and archaeology.

Polyunsaturated Aldehydes Profile in the Diatom Cyclotella cryptica Is Sensitive to Changes in Its Phycosphere Bacterial Assemblages.

Diatoms are responsible for the fixation of ca. 20% of the global CO2 and live associated with bacteria that utilize the organic substances produced by them. Current research trends in marine microbial ecology show which diatom and bacteria interact mediated through the production and exchange of infochemicals. Polyunsaturated aldehydes (PUA) are organic molecules released by diatoms that are considered to have infochemical properties. In this work, we investigated the possible role of PUA as a mediator in diatom-bacteria interactions. To this end, we compare the PUA profile of a newly isolated oceanic PUA producer diatom, Cyclotella cryptica, co-cultured with and without associated bacteria at two phosphate availability conditions. We found that the PUA profile of C. cryptica cultured axenically was different than its profile when it was co-cultured with autochthonous (naturally associated) and non-autochthonous bacteria (unnaturally inoculated). We also observed that bacterial presence significantly enhanced diatom growth and that C. cryptica modulated the percentage of released PUA in response to the presence of bacteria, also depending on the consortium type. Based on our results, we propose that this diatom could use released PUA as a specific organic matter sign to attract beneficial bacteria for constructing its own phycosphere, for more beneficial growth.

Ecological distribution patterns in Chinese seas and adjacent waters: Marine ecological zones.

To provide a natural foundation and regionalization framework for ecological monitoring, assessment, and mapping to support ecosystem-based management practices of natural resources, three levels of ecological zones were classified in Chinese seas and adjacent waters using top-down and step wise nesting. At the largest spatial scale, the Chinese seas and adjacent waters were classified into three first-level ecological zones according to latitudinal zones and geographic profiles. To incorporate the dimensionalities and mobility of the seas, 22 second-level ecological zones were classified according to changes in water depth and the distribution of large water masses, and 53 third-level ecological zones were further delineated according to the type of geomorphology and the distribution of water masses and currents. This study identifies dominant factors at different spatiotemporal scales and defines the physical geographical patterns and ecological characteristics in Chinese seas and adjacent waters in a readily understood manner and fills the gap in research on ecological zoning in China.

Differentiation-Promoting Effects of Okeaniamides A and B from an Okeania sp. Marine Cyanobacterium on Preadipocytes.

The linear lipopeptides okeaniamide A (1) and okeaniamide B (2) were isolated from an Okeania sp. marine cyanobacterium collected in Okinawa. The structures of these compounds were established by spectroscopic analyses, and the absolute configurations were elucidated based on a combination of chemical degradations, Marfey's analysis, and derivatization reactions. Okeaniamide A (1) and okeaniamide B (2) dose-dependently promoted the differentiation of mouse 3T3-L1 preadipocytes in the presence of insulin.

How many metazoan species live in the world's largest mineral exploration region?

The global surge in demand for metals such as cobalt and nickel has created unprecedented interest in deep-sea habitats with mineral resources. The largest area of activity is a 6 million km2 region known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the central and eastern Pacific, regulated by the International Seabed Authority (ISA). Baseline biodiversity knowledge of the region is crucial to effective management of environmental impact from potential deep-sea mining activities, but until recently this has been almost completely lacking. The rapid growth in taxonomic outputs and data availability for the region over the last decade has allowed us to conduct the first comprehensive synthesis of CCZ benthic metazoan biodiversity for all faunal size classes. Here we present the CCZ Checklist, a biodiversity inventory of benthic metazoa vital to future assessments of environmental impacts. An estimated 92% of species identified from the CCZ are new to science (436 named species from a total of 5,578 recorded). This is likely to be an overestimate owing to synonyms in the data but is supported by analysis of recent taxonomic studies suggesting that 88% of species sampled in the region are undescribed. Species richness estimators place total CCZ metazoan benthic diversity at 6,233 (+/-82 SE) species for Chao1, and 7,620 (+/-132 SE) species for Chao2, most likely representing lower bounds of diversity in the region. Although uncertainty in estimates is high, regional syntheses become increasingly possible as comparable datasets accumulate. These will be vital to understanding ecological processes and risks of biodiversity loss.

Multi-classification deep neural networks for identification of fish species using camera captured images.

Regular monitoring of the number of various fish species in a variety of habitats is essential for marine conservation efforts and marine biology research. To address the shortcomings of existing manual underwater video fish sampling methods, a plethora of computer-based techniques are proposed. However, there is no perfect approach for the automated identification and categorizing of fish species. This is primarily due to the difficulties inherent in capturing underwater videos, such as ambient changes in luminance, fish camouflage, dynamic environments, watercolor, poor resolution, shape variation of moving fish, and tiny differences between certain fish species. This study has proposed a novel Fish Detection Network (FD_Net) for the detection of nine different types of fish species using a camera-captured image that is based on the improved YOLOv7 algorithm by exchanging Darknet53 for MobileNetv3 and depthwise separable convolution for 3 x 3 filter size in the augmented feature extraction network bottleneck attention module (BNAM). The mean average precision (mAP) is 14.29% higher than it was in the initial version of YOLOv7. The network that is utilized in the method for the extraction of features is an improved version of DenseNet-169, and the loss function is an Arcface Loss. Widening the receptive field and improving the capability of feature extraction are achieved by incorporating dilated convolution into the dense block, removing the max-pooling layer from the trunk, and incorporating the BNAM into the dense block of the DenseNet-169 neural network. The results of several experiments comparisons and ablation experiments demonstrate that our proposed FD_Net has a higher detection mAP than YOLOv3, YOLOv3-TL, YOLOv3-BL, YOLOv4, YOLOv5, Faster-RCNN, and the most recent YOLOv7 model, and is more accurate for target fish species detection tasks in complex environments.

Marine natural products.

Covering: January to December 2021This review covers the literature published in 2021 for marine natural products (MNPs), with 736 citations (724 for the period January to December 2021) referring to compounds isolated from marine microorganisms and phytoplankton, green, brown and red algae, sponges, cnidarians, bryozoans, molluscs, tunicates, echinoderms, mangroves and other intertidal plants and microorganisms. The emphasis is on new compounds (1425 in 416 papers for 2021), together with the relevant biological activities, source organisms and country of origin. Pertinent reviews, biosynthetic studies, first syntheses, and syntheses that led to the revision of structures or stereochemistries, have been included. An analysis of the number of authors, their affiliations, domestic and international collection locations, focus of MNP studies, citation metrics and journal choices is discussed.

Construction and influencing factors of an early warning system for marine ranching ecological security: Experience from China's coastal areas.

Marine ranching has been widely considered as a new mode of marine fishery production. Marine ranching ecological security (MRES) is the basis and premise to ensure the sustainable utilization of marine ranching functions. In this study, an MRES early warning system was constructed based on comprehensive marine ranching ecological security index (CMRESI) and system dynamic model to reveal the main factors affecting the development of marine ranching and explore the changes in MRES under different future development scenarios in China's coastal areas from 2011 to 2035. The results showed that (1) the mean CMRESI of China was only 0.3265 and spatial heterogeneity was significant, showing a general security state; (2) coupling and coordination degree of MRES subsystems was high in Jiangsu, Fujian, Shandong, and Guangdong, and resources was a major constraint on the coordinated development of MRES in the study area (63.6%); (3) Under the ecological priority development scenario, the CMRESI will be the highest in 2035; however, 27% of MRES (in Jiangsu, Fujian, and Hainan) will continue to issue serious early warnings. This study could provide a reference for construction planning, management maintenance, and decision-making of marine ranching.

Rhythms and Clocks in Marine Organisms.

The regular movements of waves and tides are obvious representations of the oceans' rhythmicity. But the rhythms of marine life span across ecological niches and timescales, including short (in the range of hours) and long (in the range of days and months) periods. These rhythms regulate the physiology and behavior of individuals, as well as their interactions with each other and with the environment. This review highlights examples of rhythmicity in marine animals and algae that represent important groups of marine life across different habitats. The examples cover ecologically highly relevant species and a growing number of laboratory model systems that are used to disentangle key mechanistic principles. The review introduces fundamental concepts of chronobiology, such as the distinction between rhythmic and endogenous oscillator-driven processes. It also addresses the relevance of studying diverse rhythms and oscillators, as well as their interconnection, for making better predictions of how species will respond to environmental perturbations, including climate change. As the review aims to address scientists from the diverse fields of marine biology, ecology, and molecular chronobiology, all of which have their own scientific terms, we provide definitions of key terms throughout the article.

High polychaete diversity in the Gulf of Guinea (West African continental margin): The influence of local and intermediate scale ecological factors on a background of regional patterns.

The Tropical East Atlantic is one of the least studied areas in the world's oceans, and thus a blank spot on the map of marine studies. Shaped by dynamic currents and shifting water masses, it is a key region in discussions about marine ecology, biodiversity, and zoogeography, while facing numerous, poorly understood, and unmonitored threats associated with climate change, acidification, and pollution. Polychaete diversity was assessed along four transects along the Ghana coast, from shallow to deep bottoms and distributed along the whole upwelling marine ecoregion. Despite high sampling effort, steep species accumulation curves demonstrated the necessity of further sampling in the region. We observed zonation of fauna by depth, and a decrease in species richness from 25 m to 1000 m depth. Polychaete communities were influenced by sediment type, presence of oxygen minimum zones, and local disturbances caused by elevated barium concentrations. Similar evenness along the depth gradient reflected the importance of rare species in the community structure. Differences in phylogenetic diversity, as reflected by taxonomic distinctness, were small, which suggested high ecosystem stability. The highly variable species richness at small scale (meters) showed the importance of ecological factors giving rise to microhabitat diversity, although we also noticed intermediate scale (50-300 km) differences affecting community structure. About 44 % of the species were rare (i.e. recorded only in three or fewer samples), highlighting the level of patchiness, while one fifth was distributed on all transects, therefore along the whole upwelling ecoregion, demonstrating the influence of the regional species pool on local communities at particular stations. Our study yielded 253 species, increasing the number of polychaetes known from this region by at least 50 %. This casts doubt on previous findings regarding Atlantic bioregionalization, biodiversity estimates and endemism, which appear to have been more pronouncedly affected by sampling bias than previously thought.