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Anthropogenic impacts are increasingly affecting the world's oceans. Networks of marine protected areas (MPAs) provide an option for increasing the ecological and economic benefits often provided by single MPAs. It is vital to empirically assess the effects of MPA networks and to prioritize the monitoring data necessary to explain those effects. We summarize the types of MPA networks based on their intended management outcomes and illustrate a framework for evaluating whether a connectivity network is providing an outcome greater than the sum of individual MPA effects. We use an analysis of an MPA network in Hawai'i to compare networked MPAs to non-networked MPAs to demonstrate results consistent with a network effect. We assert that planning processes for MPA networks should identify their intended outcomes while also employing coupled field monitoring-simulation modeling approaches, a powerful way to prioritize the most relevant monitoring data for empirically assessing MPA network performance.

No-take marine reserves can be effective biodiversity conservation and fisheries management tools, but as yet there is little indication of whether rotational management, i.e. alternately closing and opening an area to fishing, might also confer such benefits on coral reef fish stocks. Using data taken from the state of Hawaii's long-term reef monitoring program, we have assessed the effects of more than 2 decades of rotational management on fish stocks at the Waikiki-Diamond Head Fishery Management Area (FMA) on Oahu, Hawaii. Fish biomass tended to increase during the 1 to 2 yr closure periods, but the scale of these increases was insufficient to compensate for declines during open periods. The net effect was that, between 1978 and 2002, total biomass declined by around two-thirds. Coincident with this decline was the virtual disappearance of large fishes (> 40 cm) of fishery-target groups: acanthurids, scarids and mullids. Such fishes, although initially common, were only rarely recorded in surveys after 1990. In 1988, a portion of the FMA was converted into the permanently closed Waikiki Marine Life Conservation District (MLCD). Assessment of the relative effectiveness of permanent and rotational closure is complicated by declines in habitat quality, particularly within the MLCD, caused by overgrowth of much of the reef by the alien algae Gracilaria salicornia, which began in the early 1990s. However, the initial effect of full closure was a reversal of the previous downward trend in fish biomass, and, even in the post habitat-decline period, biomass of target species within the MLCD has been nearly twice as high as in the FMA. Additionally, there have been no declines or even downward trends in maximum size of target families in the MLCD. Overall, rotational management, as implemented at the Waikiki FMA, has not been an effective means of conserving fish stocks or revitalizing public fishing grounds.

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1. Large declines in reef fish populations in Hawai'i have raised concerns about the sustainability of these resources, and the ecosystem as a whole. To help elucidate the reasons behind these declines, a comprehensive examination of reef fish assemblages was conducted across the entire 2500 km Hawaiian Archipelago.2. Twenty-five datasets were compiled, representing >25 000 individual surveys conducted throughout Hawai'i since 2000. To account for overall differences in survey methods, conversion factors were created to standardize among methods.3. Comparisons of major targeted resource species (N = 35) between the densely populated main (MHI) and remote north-western Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) revealed that 40% of these species had biomass in the MHI below 25% of NWHI levels. In total, 54% of the species examined had biomass <50% of NWHI biomass. 4. The moku or district was a basic unit of resource management in pre-contact Hawai'i and was used as a unit of spatial stratification for comparisons within the MHI. Biomass of resource species was negatively correlated with human population density within moku boundaries, with extremely low biomass in areas with highest human population densities. No such relationship was found for species not targeted by fishing. 5. A number of remote areas with small human populations in the MHI still support high standing stock of fished species, and these areas are likely important refugia for maintaining fisheries production and biodiversity functioning.6. These results highlight the large gradient of human impacts on fish assemblages across the Hawaiian Archipelago and the potential in using landscape and seascape units, such as those that are watershed and bio-physically-based, when managing in part based on a framework of traditional ecological knowledge.

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The dopaminergic system, and in particular the dopamine D 2 receptor, has been implicated in reward mechanisms in the brain. Dysfunction of the D 2 dopamine receptors leads to aberrant substance-seeking behaviors (ethanol, drugs, tobacco, and food) and other related behaviors (pathological gambling, Tourette's disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder). This is the first study supporting a strong association between the dopamine D 2 receptor Taq A 1 allele with schizoid/avoidant behavior (SAB). Additionally, an albeit weaker association between the 480-bp VNTR 10/10 allele of the dopamine transporter (DAT 1 ) gene with SAB was similarly found.