Overfishing species on the move may burden seafood provision in the low-latitude Atlantic Ocean

Future climate-induced distribution shifts in a sexually dimorphic key predator of the Southern Ocean

The response to climate change in highly dimorphic species can be hindered by differences between sexes in habitat preferences and movement patterns. The Antarctic fur seal, Arctocephalus gazella, is the most abundant pinniped in the Southern Hemisphere, and one of the main consumers of Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, in the Southern Ocean. However, the populations breeding in the Atlantic Southern Ocean are decreasing, partly due to global warming. Male and female Antarctic fur seals differ greatly in body size and foraging ecology, and little is known about their sex-specific responses to climate change. We used satellite tracking data and Earth System Models to predict changes in habitat suitability for male and female Antarctic fur seals from the Western Antarctic Peninsula under different climate change scenarios. Under the most extreme scenario (SSP5-8.5; global average temperature +4.4°C projected by 2100), suitable habitat patches will shift southward during the non-breeding season, leading to a minor overall habitat loss. The impact will be more pronounced for females than for males. The reduction of winter foraging grounds might decrease the survival of post-weaned females, reducing recruitment and jeopardizing population viability. During the breeding season, when males fast on land, suitable foraging grounds for females off the South Shetland Islands will remain largely unmodified, and new ones will emerge in the Bellingshausen Sea. As Antarctic fur seals are income breeders, the foraging grounds of females should be reasonably close to the breeding colony. As a result, the new suitable foraging grounds will be useful for females only if nearby beaches currently covered by sea ice emerge by the end of the century. Furthermore, the colonization of these new, ice-free breeding locations might be limited by strong female philopatry. These results should be considered when managing the fisheries of Antarctic krill in the Southern Ocean.

Optimal omegas - barriers and novel methods to narrow omega-3 gaps. A narrative review

Dietary intakes of omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (O3LC-PUFAs) such as eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acid are central to development and health across the life course. O3LC-PUFAs have been linked to neurological development, maternal and child health and the etiology of certain non-communicable diseases including age-related cognitive decline, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. However, dietary inadequacies exist in the United Kingdom and on a wider global scale. One predominant dietary source of O3LC-PUFAs is fish and fish oils. However, growing concerns about overfishing, oceanic contaminants such as dioxins and microplastics and the trend towards plant-based diets appear to be acting as cumulative barriers to O3LC-PUFAs from these food sources. Microalgae are an alternative provider of O3LC-PUFA-rich oils. The delivery of these into food systems is gaining interest. The present narrative review aims to discuss the present barriers to obtaining suitable levels of O3LC-PUFAs for health and wellbeing. It then discusses potential ways forward focusing on innovative delivery methods to utilize O3LC-PUFA-rich oils including the use of fortification strategies, bioengineered plants, microencapsulation, and microalgae.

Climate and human stressors on global penguin hotspots: Current assessments for future conservation

As charismatic and iconic species, penguins can act as "ambassadors" or flagship species to promote the conservation of marine habitats in the Southern Hemisphere. Unfortunately, there is a lack of reliable, comprehensive, and systematic analysis aimed at compiling spatially explicit assessments of the multiple impacts that the world's 18 species of penguin are facing. We provide such an assessment by combining the available penguin occurrence information from Global Biodiversity Information Facility (>800,000 occurrences) with three main stressors: climate-driven environmental changes at sea, industrial fisheries, and human disturbances on land. Our analyses provide a quantitative assessment of how these impacts are unevenly distributed spatially within species' distribution ranges. Consequently, contrasting pressures are expected among species, and populations within species. The areas coinciding with the greatest impacts for penguins are the coast of Perú, the Patagonian Shelf, the Benguela upwelling region, and the Australian and New Zealand coasts. When weighting these potential stressors with species-specific vulnerabilities, Humboldt (Spheniscus humboldti), African (Spheniscus demersus), and Chinstrap penguin (Pygoscelis antarcticus) emerge as the species under the most pressure. Our approach explicitly differentiates between climate and human stressors, since the more achievable management of local anthropogenic stressors (e.g., fisheries and land-based threats) may provide a suitable means for facilitating cumulative impacts on penguins, especially where they may remain resilient to global processes such as climate change. Moreover, our study highlights some poorly represented species such as the Northern Rockhopper (Eudyptes moseleyi), Snares (Eudyptes robustus), and Erect-crested penguin (Eudyptes sclateri) that need internationally coordinated efforts for data acquisition and data sharing to understand their spatial distribution properly.