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PloS One 2011Networks of marine reserves are increasingly being promoted as a means of conserving marine biodiversity. One consideration in designing systems of marine reserves is...
Networks of marine reserves are increasingly being promoted as a means of conserving marine biodiversity. One consideration in designing systems of marine reserves is the maintenance of connectivity to ensure the long-term persistence and resilience of populations. Knowledge of connectivity, however, is frequently lacking during marine reserve design and establishment. We characterise patterns of genetic connectivity of 3 key species of habitat-forming macroalgae across an established network of temperate marine reserves on the east coast of Australia and the implications for adaptive management and marine reserve design. Connectivity varied greatly among species. Connectivity was high for the subtidal macroalgae Ecklonia radiata and Phyllospora comosa and neither species showed any clear patterns of genetic structuring with geographic distance within or among marine parks. In contrast, connectivity was low for the intertidal, Hormosira banksii, and there was a strong pattern of isolation by distance. Coastal topography and latitude influenced small scale patterns of genetic structure. These results suggest that some species are well served by the current system of marine reserves in place along this temperate coast but it may be warranted to revisit protection of intertidal habitats to ensure the long-term persistence of important habitat-forming macroalgae. Adaptively managing marine reserve design to maintain connectivity may ensure the long-term persistence and resilience of marine habitats and the biodiversity they support.
Topics: Biodiversity; Ecosystem; Marine Biology; New South Wales
PubMed: 21625388
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0020168 -
BMC Biology May 2020One hundred years ago, marine organisms were the dominant systems for the study of developmental biology. The challenges in rearing these organisms outside of a marine...
BACKGROUND
One hundred years ago, marine organisms were the dominant systems for the study of developmental biology. The challenges in rearing these organisms outside of a marine setting ultimately contributed to a shift towards work on a smaller number of so-called model systems. Those animals are typically non-marine organisms with advantages afforded by short life cycles, high fecundity, and relative ease in laboratory culture. However, a full understanding of biodiversity, evolution, and anthropogenic effects on biological systems requires a broader survey of development in the animal kingdom. To this day, marine organisms remain relatively understudied, particularly the members of the Lophotrochozoa (Spiralia), which include well over one third of the metazoan phyla (such as the annelids, mollusks, flatworms) and exhibit a tremendous diversity of body plans and developmental modes. To facilitate studies of this group, we have previously described the development and culture of one lophotrochozoan representative, the slipper snail Crepidula atrasolea, which is easy to rear in recirculating marine aquaria. Lab-based culture and rearing of larger populations of animals remain a general challenge for many marine organisms, particularly for inland laboratories.
RESULTS
Here, we describe the development of an automated marine aquatic rack system for the high-density culture of marine species, which is particularly well suited for rearing filter-feeding animals. Based on existing freshwater recirculating aquatic rack systems, our system is specific to the needs of marine organisms and incorporates robust filtration measures to eliminate wastes, reducing the need for regular water changes. In addition, this system incorporates sensors and associated equipment for automated assessment and adjustment of water quality. An automated feeding system permits precise delivery of liquid food (e.g., phytoplankton) throughout the day, mimicking real-life feeding conditions that contribute to increased growth rates and fecundity.
CONCLUSION
This automated system makes laboratory culture of marine animals feasible for both large and small research groups, significantly reducing the time, labor, and overall costs needed to rear these organisms.
Topics: Animals; Aquaculture; Aquatic Organisms; Marine Biology; Seawater; Snails; Zoology
PubMed: 32366250
DOI: 10.1186/s12915-020-00772-w -
Annual Review of Marine Science 2016In an era of rapid global change, conservation managers urgently need improved tools to track and counter declining ecosystem conditions. This need is particularly acute... (Review)
Review
In an era of rapid global change, conservation managers urgently need improved tools to track and counter declining ecosystem conditions. This need is particularly acute in the marine realm, where threats are out of sight, inadequately mapped, cumulative, and often poorly understood, thereby generating impacts that are inefficiently managed. Recent advances in macroecology, statistical analysis, and the compilation of global data will play a central role in improving conservation outcomes, provided that global, regional, and local data streams can be integrated to produce locally relevant and interpretable outputs. Progress will be assisted by (a) expanded rollout of systematic surveys that quantify species patterns, including some carried out with help from citizen scientists; (b) coordinated experimental research networks that utilize large-scale manipulations to identify mechanisms underlying these patterns;
Topics: Conservation of Natural Resources; Ecology; Ecosystem; Marine Biology; Oceans and Seas
PubMed: 26253270
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-marine-122414-033921 -
PloS One 2023Regular monitoring of the number of various fish species in a variety of habitats is essential for marine conservation efforts and marine biology research. To address...
Regular monitoring of the number of various fish species in a variety of habitats is essential for marine conservation efforts and marine biology research. To address the shortcomings of existing manual underwater video fish sampling methods, a plethora of computer-based techniques are proposed. However, there is no perfect approach for the automated identification and categorizing of fish species. This is primarily due to the difficulties inherent in capturing underwater videos, such as ambient changes in luminance, fish camouflage, dynamic environments, watercolor, poor resolution, shape variation of moving fish, and tiny differences between certain fish species. This study has proposed a novel Fish Detection Network (FD_Net) for the detection of nine different types of fish species using a camera-captured image that is based on the improved YOLOv7 algorithm by exchanging Darknet53 for MobileNetv3 and depthwise separable convolution for 3 x 3 filter size in the augmented feature extraction network bottleneck attention module (BNAM). The mean average precision (mAP) is 14.29% higher than it was in the initial version of YOLOv7. The network that is utilized in the method for the extraction of features is an improved version of DenseNet-169, and the loss function is an Arcface Loss. Widening the receptive field and improving the capability of feature extraction are achieved by incorporating dilated convolution into the dense block, removing the max-pooling layer from the trunk, and incorporating the BNAM into the dense block of the DenseNet-169 neural network. The results of several experiments comparisons and ablation experiments demonstrate that our proposed FD_Net has a higher detection mAP than YOLOv3, YOLOv3-TL, YOLOv3-BL, YOLOv4, YOLOv5, Faster-RCNN, and the most recent YOLOv7 model, and is more accurate for target fish species detection tasks in complex environments.
Topics: Animals; Neural Networks, Computer; Algorithms; Fishes; In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; Marine Biology
PubMed: 37099592
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0284992 -
Journal of Virology Aug 2015Molluscs, comprising one of the most successful phyla, lack clear evidence of adaptive immunity and yet thrive in the oceans, which are rich in viruses. There are... (Review)
Review
Molluscs, comprising one of the most successful phyla, lack clear evidence of adaptive immunity and yet thrive in the oceans, which are rich in viruses. There are thought to be nearly 120,000 species of Mollusca, most living in marine habitats. Despite the extraordinary abundance of viruses in oceans, molluscs often have very long life spans (10 to 100 years). Thus, their innate immunity must be highly effective at countering viral infections. Antiviral compounds are a crucial component of molluscan defenses against viruses and have diverse mechanisms of action against a wide variety of viruses, including many that are human pathogens. Antiviral compounds found in abalone, oyster, mussels, and other cultured molluscs are available in large supply, providing good opportunities for future research and development. However, most members of the phylum Mollusca have not been examined for the presence of antiviral compounds. The enormous diversity and adaptations of molluscs imply a potential source of novel antiviral compounds for future drug discovery.
Topics: Animals; Antiviral Agents; Drug Discovery; Marine Biology; Mollusca
PubMed: 26063420
DOI: 10.1128/JVI.00287-15 -
The Canadian Veterinary Journal = La... Feb 2000A list of the different bacterial and fungal agents isolated from marine mammals in different parts of the world is presented. Importance is given to some of the most... (Review)
Review
A list of the different bacterial and fungal agents isolated from marine mammals in different parts of the world is presented. Importance is given to some of the most recently identified bacterial agents, including Actinobacillus delphinicola, A. scotiae, and Brucella spp. A list, in alphabetical order, of bacteria recovered from different tissues or organs from marine mammals is presented for the integumentary, respiratory, digestive, genitourinary, and reticuloendothelial systems. Infectious bacterial agents associated with abscesses and with cases of septicemia are also listed. Information about the different fungal agents recovered from marine mammals is summarized. A section covering some of the zoonotic infectious agents recovered from marine mammals is included.
Topics: Animal Diseases; Animals; Bacterial Infections; Mammals; Marine Biology; Mycoses; Zoonoses
PubMed: 10723596
DOI: No ID Found -
Marine Drugs Jun 2014Marine microorganisms continue to be a source of structurally and biologically novel compounds with potential use in the biotechnology industry. The unique... (Review)
Review
Marine microorganisms continue to be a source of structurally and biologically novel compounds with potential use in the biotechnology industry. The unique physiochemical properties of the marine environment (such as pH, pressure, temperature, osmolarity) and uncommon functional groups (such as isonitrile, dichloroimine, isocyanate, and halogenated functional groups) are frequently found in marine metabolites. These facts have resulted in the production of bioactive substances with different properties than those found in terrestrial habitats. In fact, the marine environment contains a relatively untapped reservoir of bioactivity. Recent advances in genomics, metagenomics, proteomics, combinatorial biosynthesis, synthetic biology, screening methods, expression systems, bioinformatics, and the ever increasing availability of sequenced genomes provides us with more opportunities than ever in the discovery of novel bioactive compounds and biocatalysts. The combination of these advanced techniques with traditional techniques, together with the use of dereplication strategies to eliminate known compounds, provides a powerful tool in the discovery of novel marine bioactive compounds. This review outlines and discusses the emerging strategies for the biodiscovery of these bioactive compounds.
Topics: Animals; Biocatalysis; Biological Products; Biotechnology; Drug Discovery; Humans; Marine Biology
PubMed: 24918453
DOI: 10.3390/md12063516 -
Proceedings of the National Academy of... Jun 2017Divergent selection may initiate ecological speciation extremely rapidly. How often and at what pace ecological speciation proceeds to yield strong reproductive...
Divergent selection may initiate ecological speciation extremely rapidly. How often and at what pace ecological speciation proceeds to yield strong reproductive isolation is more uncertain. Here, we document a case of extraordinarily rapid speciation associated with ecological selection in the postglacial Baltic Sea. European flounders () in the Baltic exhibit two contrasting reproductive behaviors: pelagic and demersal spawning. Demersal spawning enables flounders to thrive in the low salinity of the Northern Baltic, where eggs cannot achieve neutral buoyancy. We show that demersal and pelagic flounders are a species pair arising from a recent event of speciation. Despite having a parapatric distribution with extensive overlap, the two species are reciprocally monophyletic and show strongly bimodal genotypic clustering and no evidence of contemporary migration, suggesting strong reproductive isolation. Divergence across the genome is weak but shows strong signatures of selection, a pattern suggestive of a recent ecological speciation event. We propose that spawning behavior in Baltic flounders is the trait under ecologically based selection causing reproductive isolation, directly implicating a process of ecological speciation. We evaluated different possible evolutionary scenarios under the approximate Bayesian computation framework and estimate that the speciation process started in allopatry ∼2,400 generations ago, following the colonization of the Baltic by the demersal lineage. This is faster than most known cases of ecological speciation and represents the most rapid event of speciation ever reported for any marine vertebrate.
Topics: Animals; Biological Evolution; Ecology; Ecosystem; Fishes; Flounder; Genetic Speciation; Genome; Genomics; Marine Biology; Selection, Genetic
PubMed: 28533412
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1615109114 -
PloS One 2013With the development of the Human Genome Project, a heated debate emerged on biology becoming 'big science'. However, biology already has a long tradition of...
With the development of the Human Genome Project, a heated debate emerged on biology becoming 'big science'. However, biology already has a long tradition of collaboration, as natural historians were part of the first collective scientific efforts: exploring the variety of life on earth. Such mappings of life still continue today, and if field biology is gradually becoming an important subject of studies into big science, research into life in the world's oceans is not taken into account yet. This paper therefore explores marine biology as big science, presenting the historical development of marine research towards the international 'Census of Marine Life' (CoML) making an inventory of life in the world's oceans. Discussing various aspects of collaboration--including size, internationalisation, research practice, technological developments, application, and public communication--I will ask if CoML still resembles traditional collaborations to collect life. While showing both continuity and change, I will argue that marine biology is a form of natural history: a specific way of working together in biology that has transformed substantially in interaction with recent developments in the life sciences and society. As a result, the paper does not only give an overview of transformations towards large scale research in marine biology, but also shines a new light on big biology, suggesting new ways to deepen the understanding of collaboration in the life sciences by distinguishing between different 'collective ways of knowing'.
Topics: Biological Science Disciplines; Marine Biology
PubMed: 23342119
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0054284 -
PloS One 2017Marine reserve design often considers potential benefits to conservation and/or fisheries but typically ignores potential revenues generated through tourism. Since...
Marine reserve design often considers potential benefits to conservation and/or fisheries but typically ignores potential revenues generated through tourism. Since tourism can be the main source of economic benefits for many marine reserves worldwide, ignoring tourism objectives in the design process might lead to sub-optimal outcomes. To incorporate tourism benefits into marine reserve design, we develop a bioeconomic model that tracks tourism and fisheries revenues through time for different management options and location characteristics. Results from the model show that accounting for tourism benefits will ultimately motivate greater ocean protection. Our findings demonstrate that marine reserves are part of the optimal economic solution even in situations with optimal fisheries management and low tourism value relative to fisheries. The extent of optimal protection depends on specific location characteristics, such as tourism potential and other local amenities, and the species recreational divers care about. Additionally, as tourism value increases, optimal reserve area also increases. Finally, we demonstrate how tradeoffs between the two services depend on location attributes and management of the fishery outside marine reserve borders. Understanding when unavoidable tradeoffs will arise helps identify those situations where communities must choose between competing interests.
Topics: Biodiversity; Conservation of Natural Resources; Ecosystem; Marine Biology; Models, Biological; Travel
PubMed: 29267364
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0190187