10 documents found, page 1 of 1

Trophic-mediated pelagic habitat structuring and partitioning by sympatric elas...

Pelagic elasmobranchs are key elements of oceanic ecosystems and must be preserved if marine trophic networks are to be kept in balance. Yet, they face intense fishing pressure that has been threatening their populations worldwide. Ensuring proper conservation management of these taxa depends on a better understanding of the strategies they use to explore the pelagic realm and their contributions to trophic web...

Diving into the vertical dimension of elasmobranch movement ecology

Knowledge of the three-dimensional movement patterns of elasmobranchs is vital to understand their ecological roles and exposure to anthropogenic pressures. To date, comparative studies among species at global scales have mostly focused on horizontal movements. Our study addresses the knowledge gap of vertical movements by compiling the first global synthesis of vertical habitat use by elasmobranchs from data o...

Reply to: Shark mortality cannot be assessed by fishery overlap alone

The effect of light attractor color in pelagic longline fisheries

Improving the selectivity of the fishing gear is one of the most promising methods to mitigate deleterious impacts of longline fisheries upon bycatch species. Light lures have recently become widespread in epipelagic longline fisheries since they increase the catch rates of valuable target species such as swordfish and tunas. Yet, little is known about their effect upon the incidence of bycatch. Here, we compar...

Population genetics reveals global and regional history of the apex predator Ga...

The knowledge of the population structure of a given species is of great importance for its conservation and for the management of its fishing exploitation, especially for sharks. The tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier Péron&Lesueur, 1822) is an apex predator species that is currently listed as “Near Threatened” on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. In th...

Reply to: Caution over the use of ecological big data for conservation

Ecological features of a rocky intertidal community exposed to sewage effluent

Sewage is among the largest components of coastal pollution, showing a variable scale and size when causing an impact. In this study, temporal and spatial sewage-related gradients were identified using univariate and multivariate methods. Phosphates and nitrogen-based nutrients, except nitrate, were associated to sewage. Abundance and species richness decrease with distance from the sewage outfall while evennes...

Does lack of knowledge lead to misperceptions? Disentangling the factors modula...

Identifying sources of variability in public perceptions and attitudes toward sharks can assist managers and conservationists with developing effective strategies to raise awareness and support for the conservation of threatened shark species. This study examined the effect of several demographic, economic and socioenvironmental factors on the quality of knowledge about and perceptions toward sharks in two cont...

Public support for conservation may decay with increasing residence time in sub...

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are potentially effective conservation and management instruments yet they often produce socioeconomic conflicts which may challenge their success. Knowledge and perceptions about environmental subjects among MPA residents were examined to identify possible effects of conservation policies upon local communities. Sharks were used as a proxy for wildlife given their local relevance ...

Global spatial risk assessment of sharks under the footprint of fisheries

Effective ocean management and conservation of highly migratory species depends on resolving overlap between animal movements and distributions and fishing effort. Yet, this information is lacking at a global scale. Here we show, using a big-data approach combining satellite-tracked movements of pelagic sharks and global fishing fleets, that 24% of the mean monthly space used by sharks falls under the footprint...