Directed conservation of the world's reef sharks and rays.

Many shark populations are in decline around the world, with severe ecological and economic consequences. Fisheries management and marine protected areas (MPAs) have both been heralded as solutions. However, the effectiveness of MPAs alone is questionable, particularly for globally threatened sharks and rays ('elasmobranchs'), with little known about how fisheries management and MPAs interact to conserve these species. Here we use a dedicated global survey of coral reef elasmobranchs to assess 66 fully protected areas embedded within a range of fisheries management regimes across 36 countries. We show that conservation benefits were primarily for reef-associated sharks, which were twice as abundant in fully protected areas compared with areas open to fishing. Conservation benefits were greatest in large protected areas that incorporate distinct reefs. However, the same benefits were not evident for rays or wide-ranging sharks that are both economically and ecologically important while also threatened with extinction. We show that conservation benefits from fully protected areas are close to doubled when embedded within areas of effective fisheries management, highlighting the importance of a mixed management approach of both effective fisheries management and well-designed fully protected areas to conserve tropical elasmobranch assemblages globally.

Widespread diversity deficits of coral reef sharks and rays.

A global survey of coral reefs reveals that overfishing is driving resident shark species toward extinction, causing diversity deficits in reef elasmobranch (shark and ray) assemblages. Our species-level analysis revealed global declines of 60 to 73% for five common resident reef shark species and that individual shark species were not detected at 34 to 47% of surveyed reefs. As reefs become more shark-depleted, rays begin to dominate assemblages. Shark-dominated assemblages persist in wealthy nations with strong governance and in highly protected areas, whereas poverty, weak governance, and a lack of shark management are associated with depauperate assemblages mainly composed of rays. Without action to address these diversity deficits, loss of ecological function and ecosystem services will increasingly affect human communities.

Author Correction: Global status and conservation potential of reef sharks.

An Amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Global status and conservation potential of reef sharks.

Decades of overexploitation have devastated shark populations, leaving considerable doubt as to their ecological status1,2. Yet much of what is known about sharks has been inferred from catch records in industrial fisheries, whereas far less information is available about sharks that live in coastal habitats3. Here we address this knowledge gap using data from more than 15,000 standardized baited remote underwater video stations that were deployed on 371 reefs in 58 nations to estimate the conservation status of reef sharks globally. Our results reveal the profound impact that fishing has had on reef shark populations: we observed no sharks on almost 20% of the surveyed reefs. Reef sharks were almost completely absent from reefs in several nations, and shark depletion was strongly related to socio-economic conditions such as the size and proximity of the nearest market, poor governance and the density of the human population. However, opportunities for the conservation of reef sharks remain: shark sanctuaries, closed areas, catch limits and an absence of gillnets and longlines were associated with a substantially higher relative abundance of reef sharks. These results reveal several policy pathways for the restoration and management of reef shark populations, from direct top-down management of fishing to indirect improvement of governance conditions. Reef shark populations will only have a high chance of recovery by engaging key socio-economic aspects of tropical fisheries.

Connectivity between migrating and landlocked populations of a diadromous fish species investigated using otolith microchemistry.

Smelt Osmerus eperlanus has two different life history strategies in The Netherlands. The migrating population inhabits the Wadden Sea and spawns in freshwater areas. After the closure of the Afsluitdijk in 1932, part of the smelt population became landlocked. The fresh water smelt population has been in severe decline since 1990, and has strongly negatively impacted the numbers of piscivorous water birds relying on smelt as their main prey. The lakes that were formed after the dike closure, IJsselmeer and Markermeer have been assigned as Natura 2000 sites, based on their importance for (among others) piscivorous water birds. Because of the declining fresh water smelt population, the question arose whether this population is still supported by the diadromous population. Opportunities for exchange between fresh water and the sea are however limited to discharge sluices. The relationship between the diadromous and landlocked smelt population was analysed by means of otolith microchemistry. Our interpretation of otolith strontium ((88)Sr) patterns from smelt specimens collected in the fresh water area of Lake IJsselmeer and Markermeer, compared to those collected in the nearby marine environment, is that there is currently no evidence for a substantial contribution from the diadromous population to the spawning stock of the landlocked population.

Feasibility study of integral property retrieval for tropospheric aerosol from Raman lidar data using principal component analysis.

A method is introduced to derive integral properties of the aerosol size distribution, e.g., aerosol mass, from tropospheric multiwavelength Raman lidar aerosol extinction and backscatter data, using an adapted form of the principal component analysis (PCA) technique. Since the refractive index of general tropospheric aerosols is variable and aerosol types can vary within one profile, an inversion technique applied in the troposphere should account for varying aerosol refractive indices. Using PCA, if a sufficiently complete set of appropriate refractive index dependent kernels is used, no a priori information about the aerosol type is necessary for the inversion of integral properties. In principle, the refractive index itself can be retrieved, but this quantity is more sensitive to measurement errors than the various integral properties of the aerosol size distribution. Here, the PCA technique adapted for use in the troposphere is introduced, the refractive index information content of the kernel sets is investigated, and error analyses are presented. The technique is then applied to actual tropospheric Raman lidar measurements.

Preliminary insight into the age and origin of the Labeobarbus fish species flock from Lake Tana (Ethiopia) using the mtDNA cytochrome b gene.

The high diversity of Cyprinid fish in Ethiopia's Lake Tana appears to be an example of ecological differentiation and assortative mating leading to rapid sympatric speciation. Lake Tana's Labeobarbus species flock consists of 15 morphological and ecological distinct species. This is the first attempt to determine the age and origin and inter-species relationships of Lake Tana's Labeobarbus species using the mtDNA cytochrome b gene. Analysis of cytchrome b sequences shows that Lake Tana's species flock appears to be young but the present dataset did not unequivocally support monophyly of Lake Tana's species. Additional markers are needed to determine whether Lake Tana's labeobarbs originated from a single or multiple incursion(s) of ancestral L. intermedius in the Lake Tana drainage basin, or the disruption of an ancient continuous riverine population by the emergence of the Tissisat waterfalls. Adaptive radiation and speciation within Lake Tana's Labeobarbus species flock may have occurred in the last 10,000-25,000years, following the desiccation of Lake Tana around 17,000years ago, at the same time as Lake Victoria, however, obtaining more data using other (nuclear) markers is urgently required.