Suchergebnisse

14 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, supporting Information http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0137272 ; Frequently, population ecology of marine organisms uses a descriptive approach in which their sizes and densities are plotted over time. This approach has limited usefulness for design strategies in management or modelling different scenarios. Population projection matrix models are among themost widely used tools in ecology. Unfortunately, for the majority of pelagic marine organisms, it is difficult to mark individuals and follow themover time to determine their vital rates and built a population projectionmatrixmodel. Nevertheless, it is possible to get time-series data to calculate size structure and densities of each size, in order to determine the matrix parameters. This approach is known as a "demographic inverse problem" and it is based on quadratic programming methods, but it has rarely been used on aquatic organisms.We used unpublished field data of a population of cubomedusae Carybdea marsupialis to construct a population projection matrix model and compare two different management strategies to lower population to values before year 2008 when there was no significant interaction with bathers. Those strategies were by direct removal of medusae and by reducing prey. Our results showed that removal of jellyfish fromall size classes was more effective than removing only juveniles or adults.When reducing prey, the highest efficiency to lower the C. marsupialis population occurred when prey depletion affected prey of all medusae sizes. Our model fit well with the field data and may serve to design an efficient management strategy or build hypothetical scenarios such as removal of individuals or reducing prey. TThis This sdfsdshis method is applicable to othermarine or terrestrial species, for which density and population structure over time are available ; This research was carried out under contract LIFE 08 NAT ES 0064 (to CB and VLF) cofinanced by the European Commission (www. cubomed.eu), the Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente, the Dirección General del Agua of the Regional Government of Valencia and the Fundación Biodiversidad. This work was also partially supported by Spanish Ministry of Education and Science co-funded by FEDER This research was carried out under contract LIFE 08 NAT ES 0064 (to CB and VLF) cofinanced by the European Commission (www.cubomed.eu), the Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente, the Dirección General del Agua of the Regional Government of Valencia and the Fundación Biodiversidad. This work was also partially supported by Spanish Ministry of Education and Science co-funded by FEDER ; Peer Reviewed

13 pages, 7 figures, 4 tables, supplementary material http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/suppl/10.1175/JTECH-D-17-0090.1 ; The variability of a biogeochemical property in the ocean is the outcome of both nonconservative (such as respiration and photosynthesis) and conservative (mixing of water masses with distinct concentrations at origin) processes. One method to separate both contributions is based on a multiple regression of the biogeochemical property in terms of temperature θ and salinity S as conservative proxies of water masses. This regression delivers the variability related to the conservative fraction and hence allows for identifying the residual as the biogeochemical anomaly. Here, the standard multiple linear regression (MLR) method, which assumes that water masses mix locally and linearly, is compared with a nonlinear polynomial regression (PR) over the entire (θ, S) space. The PR method has two important advantages over MLR: allows for simultaneous nonlinear mixing of all water masses and does not require knowing the end-member water types. Both approaches are applied to data along 7.5°N in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean, and the biogeochemical anomalies are calculated for humic-like fluorescent dissolved organic matter, apparent oxygen utilization, and nitrate—all of them related through in situ remineralization processes. The goodness of both approaches is assessed by analyzing the linear dependence and the coefficient of correlation between the anomalies. The results show that the PR method can be applied over the entire water column and yet retains the local variability associated with nonconservative processes. The potential of the PR approach is also illustrated by calculating the oxygen–nitrate stoichiometric ratio for the entire 7.5°N transatlantic section ; This research was supported by the Spanish government through projects MOC2 (CTM2008-06438-CO2) and VA-DE-RETRO (CTM2014-56987-P). Patricia De La Fuente would like to thank the Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya (AGAUR) for its financial support through an FI-AGAUR fellowship ; Peer Reviewed

Although beaches can be hazardous environments, few studies have identified injuries in broad coastal areas. We performed a retrospective descriptive study of injuries and other services provided by lifeguards during 2012 along the Spanish Mediterranean beaches. The trend in jellyfish stings was also examined for the period 2008–2012 using a standardised Sting Index. Obtaining data relied on voluntary cooperation of local authorities, resulting in data provided from 183 cities out of 234 present in the study area and 760 beach lifeguard stations (LGS) out of about 1200. Lifeguard stations provided an average of 89 days of service per year, from late June to the beginning of September. A total of 176,021 injuries were reported, of which jellyfish stings were the main need for assistance with 59.7% (n = 116,887) of the injuries and 257.0/LGS, followed by wounds (14.4%, 50.9/LGS), and sunburn (3.3%, 15.8/LGS). Apart from attending injuries, beach lifeguard services provided 21,174 other services such as help to disabled people (57.9/LGS), blood pressure measurements (12.7/LGS), rescues at sea (6.5/LGS), lost children (5.7/LGS), and transfers to the hospital (4.6/LGS). Official reported fatalities for all the beaches in 2012 were 24. We proposed a Sting Index (SI) to allow comparisons of the incidence of stings between years and/or localities by standardising jellyfish stings by the total of all injuries. Historical data were consistent enough to calculate SI between 2010 and 2012 and showed an oscillating pattern without a clear trend (2008: 2.4, 2009: 1.3, 2010: 2.4, 2011: 2.0, 2012: 2.6). Estimation of total number of jellyfish stings for all the beaches present in the area would reach 184,558 for 2012. There were very few fatalities in comparison with other coastal regions, probably due to the combination of a calm sea, a low number of high dangerous situations, and a high percentage of lifeguarded beaches during the bathing season. Nevertheless, although Spanish Mediterranean beaches could be described as low risk, we propose measures to facilitate a precautionary management to prevent injuries based on a real-time beach assistance database of injuries to identify high-incidence assistance categories. ; This research was carried out under contract LIFE 08 NAT ES 0064 (to CB and VF) co-financed by the European Commission (www.cubomed.eu), the Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente (Dirección General de Sostenibilidad de la Costa y el Mar) contract 2013/28-5158, the Dirección General del Agua of the Regional Government of Valencia (grant T7588000/512.10) and the Fundación Biodiversidad (grant LIFE Cubomed 2013/2014).

13 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, supplementary material https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00235 ; It is likely that harmful algal blooms have increased in frequency, intensity, and geographic distribution in the last decades in response to anthropogenic activities. The Galápagos Islands are renowned for their exceptional biological diversity; however, marine dinoflagellate communities have not been represented in biodiversity assessments. Therefore, this study aims to provide key information about dinoflagellate diversity and abundances, with special attention to harmful species, during a weak La Niña event in the Galápagos Marine Reserve (GMR). The study was performed during March–April 2017 and four transects were conducted at four Islands (Santa Cruz, Santa Fé, Seymour, and Pinzón) representing the southern region of the GMR. Water net samples were collected at 2, 5, and 10 nautical miles (nm) from the coast, at a total of 48 sampling sites. The presence of toxic species, and their cell abundance was estimated in seven transects at 0, 15, and 30 m of depth. A total of 152 taxa belonging to 7 orders, 22 families, and 38 genera were registered. The number of taxa found is almost three times higher than the maximum observed in previous studies. Dinoflagellate species richness among stations ranged between 53 and 23 taxa and was higher in northern sites. From the applied cluster analysis, five dinoflagellate assemblages were identified as a discrete community structure, one was found only in Santa Fé Island, which is probably related to the presence of the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC). Regarding cell abundance estimations, low abundances were registered throughout the sampling sites and no blooms were detected. Higher abundances were registered in the northern transects coinciding with one of the most productive areas of the archipelago, situated north of Santa Cruz. Among the identified taxa, 19 of them were potentially toxic, including epiphytic species, allowing the possibility of blooms in benthic areas. This study presents the first record of several dinoflagellate species in the area (both non-toxic and harmful species) and thus, emphasizing the need for the implementation of phytoplankton monitoring programs by the government to prevent potential ecological, sanitary and economic impacts in the GMR ; Peer Reviewed

It is likely that harmful algal blooms have increased in frequency, intensity, and geographic distribution in the last decades in response to anthropogenic activities. The Galápagos Islands are renowned for their exceptional biological diversity; however, marine dinoflagellate communities have not been represented in biodiversity assessments. Therefore, this study aims to provide key information about dinoflagellate diversity and abundances, with special attention to harmful species, during a weak La Niña event in the Galápagos Marine Reserve (GMR). The study was performed during March–April 2017 and four transects were conducted at four Islands (Santa Cruz, Santa Fé, Seymour, and Pinzón) representing the southern region of the GMR. Water net samples were collected at 2, 5, and 10 nautical miles (nm) from the coast, at a total of 48 sampling sites. The presence of toxic species, and their cell abundance was estimated in seven transects at 0, 15, and 30 m of depth. A total of 152 taxa belonging to 7 orders, 22 families, and 38 genera were registered. The number of taxa found is almost three times higher than the maximum observed in previous studies. Dinoflagellate species richness among stations ranged between 53 and 23 taxa and was higher in northern sites. From the applied cluster analysis, five dinoflagellate assemblages were identified as a discrete community structure, one was found only in Santa Fé Island, which is probably related to the presence of the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC). Regarding cell abundance estimations, low abundances were registered throughout the sampling sites and no blooms were detected. Higher abundances were registered in the northern transects coinciding with one of the most productive areas of the archipelago, situated north of Santa Cruz. Among the identified taxa, 19 of them were potentially toxic, including epiphytic species, allowing the possibility of blooms in benthic areas. This study presents the first record of several dinoflagellate species in the area (both non-toxic and harmful species) and thus, emphasizing the need for the implementation of phytoplankton monitoring programs by the government to prevent potential ecological, sanitary and economic impacts in the GMR. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

12 páginas, 9 figuras, 2 tablas ; The distributions of humic-like fluorescent dissolved organic matter (at excitation/emission wavelengths of 340 nm/440 nm, F(340/440)) and apparent oxygen utilization (AOU) are determined from water samples taken at 27 stations along 7.5°N, in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean. The relationship between F(340/440) and AOU is evaluated. The influence of water mass mixing is removed through multiple regressions of both F(340/440) and AOU with salinity and temperature for the ocean interior. A general and significant relationship between the residuals of F(340/440) and AOU is found for the entire water column deeper than 200 m (R2=0.79, n=360, p-value <0.001), endorsing the idea that changes in fluorescence intensity are directly related to in situ oxidation of organic matter by microbial activity in the dark equatorial Atlantic Ocean. In addition, we analyse and discuss the relationships between the residuals of F(340/440) and AOU for all individual water masses ; Funding comes from the Spanish government through the MOC2 (CTM2008-06438-CO2), TIC-MOC (CTM2011-28867), and DOREMI (CTM2012-34294) projects of the R+D Spanish research program, and from the ECLIPSE project financed by Total Foundation. P. De La Fuente would like to thank the Agència de Gestió d׳Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya (AGAUR) for their financial support through a FI-AGAUR fellowship. A. Canepa was funded by CONICYT (PFCHA/Doctorado al Extranjero 4a Convocatoria, 72120016). C. Romera-Castillo was funded by a Beatriu de Pinós post-doctoral fellowship from the AGAUR of the Generalitat de Catalunya ; Peer reviewed