This guide on performance monitoring and evaluation (evaluation) is intended for practitioners responsible for planning and managing marine areas. Practitioners are the managers and stakeholders who are responsible for designing, planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating marine management plans. While its focus is on the performance monitoring and evaluation of MSP, planners and managers should know how to incorporate monitoring and evaluation considerations into the MSP process from its very beginning, and not wait until a plan is completed before thinking about how to measure “success”. Effective performance monitoring and evaluation is only possible when management objectives and expected outcomes are written in a way that is measurable, either quantitatively or qualitatively.
Los arrecifes rocosos son ecológicamente importantes como áreas de forrajeo, refugio y reproducción. Este ecosistema está ampliamente representado en El Salvador y tiene complejas comunidades de gorgonias. Con el fin de actualizar la riqueza de especies de este grupo, se realizó buceo SCUBA en 29 sitios del litoral salvadoreño, recolectando colonias con ayuda de un cincel y martillo, para ser examinadas e identificadas con ayuda de la literatura existente para la región. En total, se encontraron 20 especies de octocorales, de dos familias, 17 de ellas son registros nuevos para El Salvador.
Gelatinous zooplankton are an abundant and diverse group of animals in the pelagic environment. However, knowledge of species diversity and spatial distributions, as well as their ecological role, is scarce. We present information of epi- and mesopelagic gelatinous zooplankton recorded by the ‘DeepSee’ submersible between 2006 and 2012 at Isla del Coco (Cocos Island), Costa Rica, an oceanic island in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. Two species of scyphomedusae, three species of hydromedusae, two genera of siphonophores, and two species of ctenophores were observed in the videos, at depths between 50 and 400 m. None of these species had been previously recorded in the waters around the island. Furthermore, except for the jellyfish Pelagia noctiluca and a siphonophore in the genus Praya, all are new records for Costa Rican waters. This study also includes the first record of the cnidarians Modeeria rotunda, Solmissus sp., Halitrephes maasi and Apolemia spp., and the ctenophore Thalassocalyce inconstans in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. We show that surveys in regions with little information about gelatinous zooplankton may broaden our knowledge of their natural history and may result in new records of gelatinous species.
Aliena parva gen. nov. et sp. nov. is described from Cocos Island, Costa Rica. The species was found at various islets and rocky outcrops north and NW of the island, 20−30 m in depth. The genus is characterised by polyps retracting into low mounds forming thin encrusting mats extending on dead or live substrate. Sclerites are mostly asymmetrical spindles Anthocodial rods are arranged in points, not forming a collaret. Colonies and coenenchymal sclerites are red. Using an integrative taxonomic approach, we found the new genus to be different morphologically and genetically from all other described taxa. The molecular phylogenetic analyses provide strong support for the placement of this new genus in Order Malacalcyonacea, family Pterogorgiidae. Morphologically it is unlike any of the other members of this family, necessitating an amendment to the diagnosis of Pterogorgiidae. Like several other known taxa of octocorals with simple, encrusting growth forms, Aliena gen. nov. appears to have evolved from a gorgonian ancestor by loss of an internal skeletal axis. It is the first member of Pterogorgiidae to be reported from the eastern Pacific, contributing further to the knowledge of marine biodiversity in the eastern tropical Pacific and to the octocoral biodiversity of Cocos Island in particular.
Aliena parvagen. et sp. nov. is described from Cocos Island, Costa Rica. The species was found at various islets and rocky outcrops north and northwest of the island, 20–30 m in depth. The genus is characterised by polyps, retracting into calyces, that form thin encrusting mats extending on dead or live substrates. Sclerites are mostly asymmetrical spindles. Anthocodial rods are arranged in points, not forming a collaret. Colonies and coenenchymal sclerites are red, and polyps are transparent. Using an integrative taxonomic approach, we found the new genus to morphologically and genetically differ from all other described taxa. The molecular phylogenetic analyses provide strong support for the placement of this new genus in the family Pterogorgiidae. Morphologically it is unlike any of the other members of this family, necessitating an amendment to the diagnosis of Pterogorgiidae. Like several other known taxa of octocorals with encrusting growth forms, Alienagen. nov. appears to have evolved from a gorgonian ancestor by loss of an internal skeletal axis. It is the first member of Pterogorgiidae to be reported from the eastern Pacific, contributing further to the knowledge of marine biodiversity in the eastern tropical Pacific and to the octocoral biodiversity of Cocos Island in particular.
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