The health of the ocean, central to human well-being, has now reached a critical point. Most fish stocks are overexploited, climate change and increased dissolved carbon dioxide are changing ocean chemistry and disrupting species throughout food webs, and the fundamental capacity of the ocean to regulate the climate has been altered. However, key technical, organizational, and conceptual scientific barriers have prevented the identification of policy levers for sustainability and transformative action. Here, we recommend key strategies to address these challenges, including (1) stronger integration of sciences and (2) ocean-observing systems, (3) improved science-policy interfaces, (4) new partnerships supported by (5) a new ocean-climate finance system, and (6) improved ocean literacy and education to modify social norms and behaviors. Adopting these strategies could help establish ocean science as a key foundation of broader sustainability transformations.
The responsiveness of benthic biological communities to climatic drivers and shifts makes them powerful indicators of biogeochemical and other environmental change in the oceans. In addition, benthic ecosystems have an economic value and are considered a vital marine resource. However deep-sea faunal dynamics and ecosystem functioning is not well defined. This has placed a higher priority in recent years on developing and sustaining long-term, time-series studies of benthic biodiversity, rate processes, and ecosystem change in deep-sea and extreme habitats. A few key long-term time-series sites exist across the global Ocean. Many of these sites are reviewed in this paper. However, much of the existing research is uncoordinated and the data collected are not integrated or standardized. This currently limits the use of these valuable datasets, which could be used for benthic modeling, global model validation and other societal benefits related to more effective and environmentally sustainable governance of human activities in the deep ocean. Furthermore, the time scales that can be studied within existing research frameworks are not currently sufficient to adequately address internationally-identified science priorities. These include assessing regional and global biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and the links between climate, terrestrial and marine ecosystems. In addition, the contribution of deep-sea ecosystems to global biogeochemical cycles and the potential alteration to ecosystem value and services due to anthropogenic activities is largely unknown. In order to maximize the societal benefit, biological time-series, in particular deep-sea sites, urgently require more coordination, integration, sustained funding and infrastructure. This is necessary to unify research methodologies, create synergies in the use of deep-sea technology, develop benthic models, and to stimulate more collaboration between programmes. National and international research organizations may provide a suitable framework within which further advances can be achieved. Only then will we better understand the goods and services provided by deep-sea ecosystems and the potential for environmentally sustainable exploitation of the deep ocean.
Abstract. Hypoxia has become a world-wide phenomenon in the global coastal ocean and causes deterioration of structure and function of ecosystems. Based on the collective contributions of members of SCOR Working Group #128, the present study provides an overview of the major aspects of coastal hypoxia in different biogeochemical provinces, including estuaries, upwelling areas, fjords and semi-enclosed basins, with various external forcings, ecosystem responses, feedbacks and potential impact on the sustainability of the fishery and economics. The obvious external forcings include fresh water runoff and other factors contributing to stratification, organic matter and nutrient loadings, as well as exchange between coastal and open ocean water masses; their different interactions set up mechanisms that drive the system towards hypoxia. However, whether the coastal environment becomes hypoxic or not, under the combination of external forcings, depends also on the nature of the ecosystem, e.g. physical and geographic settings. It is understood that coastal hypoxia has a profound impact on the sustainability of ecosystems, which can be seen, for example, by the change in the food-web structure and system function; other influences can be compression and loss of habitat, as well as change in life cycle and reproduction. In most cases, the ecosystem responds to the low dissolved oxygen in a non-linear way and has pronounced feedbacks to other compartments of the Earth System, hence affecting human society. Our knowledge and previous experiences illustrate that there is a need to develop new observational tools and models to support integrated research of biogeochemical dynamics and ecosystem behaviour that will improve confidence in remediation management strategies for coastal hypoxia.
Early life-history stages of 12 of 17 species of western Central Atlantic Apogon were identified using molecular data. A neighbor-joining tree was constructed from mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase-c subunit I (COl) sequences, and genetic lineages of Apogon in the tree were identified to species based on adults in the lineages. Relevant portions of the tree subsequently were used to identify larvae of Apogon species from Carrie Bow Cay, Belize, and juveniles from Belize and other western Central Atlantic localities. Diagnostic morphological characters of larvae and juveniles were investigated by examining preserved vouchers from which the DNA was extracted and digital color photographs of those specimens taken before preservation. Orange and yellow chromatophore patterns are the easiest and sometimes only means of separating Apogon larvae. Patterns of melanophores and morphometric features are of limited diagnostic value. For juveniles, chromatophore patterns and the developing dark blotches characteristic of adults are the most useful diagnostic features. Larvae were identified for Apogon aurolineatus, A. binotatus, A. maculatus, A. mosavi, A. phenax, A. planifrons, and A. townsendi. Juveniles were identified for those species (except A. planifrons) and for A. pseudomaculatus, A. lachneri, A. pillionatus, A. robbyi, and A. quadrisquamatus. One larval specimen occurs in an unidentified genetic lineage, and five adults occur in another unidentified genetic lineage. Apogon species can be divided into at least four groups based on pigmentation patterns in early life stages. Further investigation is needed to determine if those groups are meaningful in the generic classification of Apogon species.
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