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Schramm KD, Marnane MJ, Elsdon TS, Jones CM, Saunders BJ, Newman SJ, Harvey ES. Fish associations with shallow water subsea pipelines compared to surrounding reef and soft sediment habitats. Sci Rep 2021; 11:6238. [PMID: 33737598 PMCID: PMC7973564 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-85396-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2020] [Accepted: 02/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Offshore decommissioning activities are expected to increase as oil and gas subsea infrastructure becomes obsolete. Decisions on decommissioning alternatives will benefit from quantifying and understanding the marine communities associated with these structures. As a case study, fish assemblages associated with an inshore network of subsea pipelines located on the North West shelf of Western Australia were compared to those in surrounding natural reef and soft sediment habitats using remotely operated vehicles fitted with a stereo-video system (stereo-ROVs). The number of species, the abundance, biomass, feeding guild composition and the economic value of fishes were compared among habitats. The community composition of fish associated with pipelines was distinct from those associated with natural habitats, and was characterised by a greater abundance and/or biomass of fish from higher trophic levels (e.g. piscivores, generalist carnivores and invertivores), including many species considered to be of value to commercial and recreational fishers. Biomass of fish on pipelines was, on average, 20 times greater than soft sediments, and was similar to natural reefs. However, the biomass of species considered important to fisheries recorded on the pipelines was, on average 3.5 times greater than reef and 44.5 times greater than soft sediment habitats. This study demonstrates that fish assemblages on the pipeline infrastructure exhibit high ecological and socioeconomic values.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karl D Schramm
- School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University, Bentley, WA, 6102, Australia
| | - Michael J Marnane
- Chevron Technical Center, 250 St Georges Tce, Perth, WA, 6000, Australia
| | - Travis S Elsdon
- Chevron Technical Center, 250 St Georges Tce, Perth, WA, 6000, Australia
| | | | - Benjamin J Saunders
- School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University, Bentley, WA, 6102, Australia
| | - Stephen J Newman
- School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University, Bentley, WA, 6102, Australia
- Western Australian Fisheries and Marine Research Laboratories, Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Government of Western Australia, P.O. Box 20, North Beach, WA, 6920, Australia
| | - Euan S Harvey
- School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University, Bentley, WA, 6102, Australia.
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Ball JGC, Burgman MA, Goldman ED, Lessmann J. Protecting biodiversity and economic returns in resource-rich tropical forests. CONSERVATION BIOLOGY : THE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR CONSERVATION BIOLOGY 2020; 35:263-273. [PMID: 32390229 DOI: 10.1111/cobi.13534] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2019] [Revised: 03/27/2020] [Accepted: 05/06/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
In pursuit of socioeconomic development, many countries are expanding oil and mineral extraction into tropical forests. These activities seed access to remote, biologically rich areas, thereby endangering global biodiversity. Here we demonstrate that conservation solutions that effectively balance the protection of biodiversity and economic revenues are possible in biologically valuable regions. Using spatial data on oil profits and predicted species and ecosystem extents, we optimise the protection of 741 terrestrial species and 20 ecosystems of the Ecuadorian Amazon, across a range of opportunity costs (i.e. sacrifices of extractive profit). For such an optimisation, giving up 5% of a year's oil profits (US$ 221 million) allows for a protected area network that retains of an average of 65% of the extent of each species/ecosystem. This performance far exceeds that of the network produced by simple land area optimisation which requires a sacrifice of approximately 40% of annual oil profits (US$ 1.7 billion), and uses only marginally less land, to achieve equivalent levels of ecological protection. Applying spatial statistics to remotely sensed, historic deforestation data, we further focus the optimisation to areas most threatened by imminent forest loss. We identify Emergency Conservation Targets: areas that are essential to a cost-effective conservation reserve network and at imminent risk of destruction, thus requiring urgent and effective protection. Governments should employ the methods presented here when considering extractive led development options, to responsibly manage the associated ecological-economic trade-offs and protect natural capital. Article Impact Statement: Governments controlling resource extraction from tropical forests can arrange production and conservation to retain biodiversity and profits. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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Affiliation(s)
- James G C Ball
- Centre for Environmental Policy, Weeks Building, 16-18 Princes Gardens, London, SW7 1NE, UK
- School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Royal Parade, Parkville, Victoria, 3052, Australia
- Current: Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EA, UK
| | - Mark A Burgman
- Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, Weeks Building, 16-18 Princes Gardens, London, SW7 1NE, UK
| | - Elizabeth D Goldman
- World Resources Institute, 10 G St NE #800, Washington, DC 20002, United States
| | - Janeth Lessmann
- Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Santiago, Chile
- Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad, Chile
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First Report of the Coral-Killing Sponge Terpios hoshinota Rützler and Muzik, 1993 in Western Australia: A New Threat to Kimberley Coral Reefs? DIVERSITY 2019. [DOI: 10.3390/d11100184] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The cyanobacteriosponge Terpios hoshinota has been reported throughout the Indo-Pacific including the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. The species encrusts live coral, giant clams, and other benthos and can be a threat to benthic communities on coral reefs. The Kimberley region of Western Australia has some of the least impacted reefs globally. We report for the first time the presence of T. hoshinota in the eastern Indian Ocean on Kimberley inshore coral reefs. Given its invasive potential, reef health surveys should include this species, and monitoring approaches developed to audit the remote Kimberley for this and other invasive species.
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Venegas-Li R, Levin N, Morales-Barquero L, Kaschner K, Garilao C, Kark S. Global assessment of marine biodiversity potentially threatened by offshore hydrocarbon activities. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2019; 25:2009-2020. [PMID: 30854759 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14616] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2018] [Revised: 02/26/2019] [Accepted: 02/27/2019] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Increasing global energy demands have led to the ongoing intensification of hydrocarbon extraction from marine areas. Hydrocarbon extractive activities pose threats to native marine biodiversity, such as noise, light, and chemical pollution, physical changes to the sea floor, invasive species, and greenhouse gas emissions. Here, we assessed at a global scale the spatial overlap between offshore hydrocarbon activities and marine biodiversity (>25,000 species, nine major ecosystems, and marine protected areas), and quantify the changes over time. We discovered that two-thirds of global offshore hydrocarbon activities occur in areas within the top 10% for species richness, range rarity, and proportional range rarity values globally. Thus, while hydrocarbon activities are undertaken in less than one percent of the ocean's area, they overlap with approximately 85% of all assessed species. Of conservation concern, 4% of species with the largest proportion of their range overlapping hydrocarbon activities are range restricted, potentially increasing their vulnerability to localized threats such as oil spills. While hydrocarbon activities have extended to greater depths since the mid-1990s, we found that the largest overlap is with coastal ecosystems, particularly estuaries, saltmarshes and mangroves. Furthermore, in most countries where offshore hydrocarbon exploration licensing blocks have been delineated, they do not overlap with marine protected areas (MPAs). Although this is positive in principle, many countries have far more licensing block areas than protected areas, and in some instances, MPA coverage is minimal. These findings suggest the need for marine spatial prioritization to help limit future spatial overlap between marine conservation priorities and hydrocarbon activities. Such prioritization can be informed by the spatial and quantitative baseline information provided here. In increasingly shared seascapes, prioritizing management actions that set both conservation and development targets could help minimize further declines of biodiversity and environmental changes at a global scale.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rubén Venegas-Li
- The Biodiversity Research Group, Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
- Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
| | - Noam Levin
- Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
- Department of Geography, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Lucía Morales-Barquero
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
| | - Kristin Kaschner
- Department of Biometry and Environmental Systems Analysis, Albert-Ludwigs University, Freiburg i. Br., Germany
| | | | - Salit Kark
- The Biodiversity Research Group, Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
- Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
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Deep-Reef Fish Communities of the Great Barrier Reef Shelf-Break: Trophic Structure and Habitat Associations. DIVERSITY 2019. [DOI: 10.3390/d11020026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
The ecology of habitats along the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) shelf-break has rarely been investigated. Thus, there is little understanding of how associated fishes interact with deeper environments. We examined relationships between deep-reef fish communities and benthic habitat structure. We sampled 48 sites over a large depth gradient (54–260 m) in the central GBR using Baited Remote Underwater Video Stations and multibeam sonar. Fish community composition differed both among multiple shelf-break reefs and habitats within reefs. Epibenthic cover decreased with depth. Deep epibenthic cover included sponges, corals, and macro-algae, with macro-algae present to 194 m. Structural complexity decreased with depth, with more calcified reef, boulders, and bedrock in shallower depths. Deeper sites were flatter and more homogeneous with softer substratum. Habitats were variable within depth strata and were reflected in different fish assemblages among sites and among locations. Overall, fish trophic groups changed with depth and included generalist and benthic carnivores, piscivores, and planktivores while herbivores were rare below 50 m. While depth influenced where trophic groups occurred, site orientation and habitat morphology determined the composition of trophic groups within depths. Future conservation strategies will need to consider the vulnerability of taxa with narrow distributions and habitat requirements in unique shelf-break environments.
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Bonneau M, Sabbadin R, Johnson FA, Stith B. Dynamic minimum set problem for reserve design: Heuristic solutions for large problems. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0193093. [PMID: 29543830 PMCID: PMC5854297 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0193093] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2017] [Accepted: 02/04/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Conversion of wild habitats to human dominated landscape is a major cause of biodiversity loss. An approach to mitigate the impact of habitat loss consists of designating reserves where habitat is preserved and managed. Determining the most valuable areas to preserve in a landscape is called the reserve design problem. There exists several possible formulations of the reserve design problem, depending on the objectives and the constraints. In this article, we considered the dynamic problem of designing a reserve that contains a desired area of several key habitats. The dynamic case implies that the reserve cannot be designed in one time step, due to budget constraints, and that habitats can be lost before they are reserved, due for example to climate change or human development. We proposed two heuristics strategies that can be used to select sites to reserve each year for large reserve design problem. The first heuristic is a combination of the Marxan and site-ordering algorithms and the second heuristic is an augmented version of the common naive myopic heuristic. We evaluated the strategies on several simulated examples and showed that the augmented greedy heuristic is particularly interesting when some of the habitats to protect are particularly threatened and/or the compactness of the network is accounted for.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mathieu Bonneau
- Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, 110 Newins-Ziegler Hall, P.O Box 110430, Gainesville, Florida, 32611-0430, United States of America
- URZ UR143, INRA, 97170, Petit-Bourg (Guadeloupe), France
- * E-mail:
| | - Régis Sabbadin
- Applied Mathematics and Computer Science Unit, INRA-UR875, 24 Chemin de Borde Rouge, Auzeville, CS 5267, 31326 Castanet Tolosan Cedex, France
| | - Fred A. Johnson
- Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey, 7920 NW 71 Street, Gainesville, Florida, 32653, United States of America
| | - Bradley Stith
- Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey, 7920 NW 71 Street, Gainesville, Florida, 32653, United States of America
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DiBattista JD, Travers MJ, Moore GI, Evans RD, Newman SJ, Feng M, Moyle SD, Gorton RJ, Saunders T, Berry O. Seascape genomics reveals fine-scale patterns of dispersal for a reef fish along the ecologically divergent coast of Northwestern Australia. Mol Ecol 2017; 26:6206-6223. [DOI: 10.1111/mec.14352] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2017] [Revised: 08/30/2017] [Accepted: 09/05/2017] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Joseph D. DiBattista
- Department of Environment and Agriculture; Curtin University; Perth WA Australia
- Western Australian Marine Science Institution; Crawley WA Australia
| | - Michael J. Travers
- Western Australian Marine Science Institution; Crawley WA Australia
- Western Australia Fisheries and Marine Research Laboratories; Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development; Government of Western Australia; North Beach WA Australia
| | - Glenn I. Moore
- Western Australian Marine Science Institution; Crawley WA Australia
- Department of Aquatic Zoology; Western Australian Museum; Welshpool WA Australia
| | - Richard D. Evans
- Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions; Perth WA Australia
- School of Biological Sciences and Oceans Institute; University of Western Australia; Crawley WA Australia
| | - Stephen J. Newman
- Western Australia Fisheries and Marine Research Laboratories; Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development; Government of Western Australia; North Beach WA Australia
| | - Ming Feng
- Western Australian Marine Science Institution; Crawley WA Australia
- CSIRO National Collections and Marine Infrastructure; Level 4 - Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre; The University of Western Australia; Crawley WA Australia
| | - Samuel D. Moyle
- Western Australia Fisheries and Marine Research Laboratories; Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development; Government of Western Australia; North Beach WA Australia
| | | | - Thor Saunders
- Northern Territory Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries; Darwin NT Australia
| | - Oliver Berry
- Western Australian Marine Science Institution; Crawley WA Australia
- CSIRO National Collections and Marine Infrastructure; Level 4 - Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre; The University of Western Australia; Crawley WA Australia
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Deep-reef fish assemblages of the Great Barrier Reef shelf-break (Australia). Sci Rep 2017; 7:10886. [PMID: 28883506 PMCID: PMC5589835 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-11452-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2016] [Accepted: 08/24/2017] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Tropical mesophotic and sub-mesophotic fish ecology is poorly understood despite increasing vulnerability of deeper fish assemblages. Worldwide there is greater fishing pressure on continental shelf-breaks and the effects of disturbances on deeper fish species have not yet been assessed. Difficult to access, deeper reefs host undocumented fish diversity and abundance. Baited Remote Underwater Video Stations (BRUVS) with lights were used to sample deeper habitats (54–260 m), in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia. Here we describe fish biodiversity, relative abundance and richness, assessing the prediction that depth would drive assemblage structure in the GBR. Distinct groups of fishes were found with depth whilst overall richness and abundance decreased steeply between 100 and 260 m. Commercially-valuable Lutjanidae species from Pristipomoides and Etelis genera, were absent from shallower depths. Few fish species overlapped between adjacent depth strata, indicating unique assemblages with depth. We also detected new location records and potential new species records. The high biodiversity of fish found in shelf-break environments is poorly appreciated and depth is a strong predictor of assemblage composition. This may pose a challenge for managers of commercial fisheries as distinct depth ranges of taxa may translate to more readily targeted habitats, and therefore, an inherent vulnerability to exploitation.
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Harvey GKA, Nelson TA, Fox CH, Paquet PC. Quantifying marine mammal hotspots in British Columbia, Canada. Ecosphere 2017. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.1884] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Gillian K. A. Harvey
- Department of Geography; University of Victoria; Victoria British Columbia V8P 5C2 Canada
- Raincoast Conservation Foundation; Sidney British Columbia V8L 1Y2 Canada
| | - Trisalyn A. Nelson
- School of Geographical Sciences & Urban Planning; Arizona State University; Tempe Arizona 85218 USA
| | - Caroline H. Fox
- Raincoast Conservation Foundation; Sidney British Columbia V8L 1Y2 Canada
- Department of Oceanography; Dalhousie University; Halifax Nova Scotia B3H 4R2 Canada
| | - Paul C. Paquet
- Department of Geography; University of Victoria; Victoria British Columbia V8P 5C2 Canada
- Raincoast Conservation Foundation; Sidney British Columbia V8L 1Y2 Canada
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