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The ocean crisis is urgent and central to human wellbeing and life on Earth; past and current activities are damaging the planet's main life support system for future generations. We are witnessing an increase in ocean heat, disturbance, acidification, bio‐invasions and nutrients, and reducing oxygen levels. Several of these act like ratchets: once detrimental or negative changes have occurred, they may lock in place and may not be reversible, especially at gross ecological and ocean process scales.Each change may represent a loss to humanity of resources, ecosystem function, oxygen production and species. The longer we pursue unsuitable actions, the more we close the path to recovery and better ocean health and greater benefits for humanity in the future.We stand at a critical juncture and have identified eight priority issues that need to be addressed in unison to help avert a potential ecological disaster in the global ocean. They form a purposely ambitious agenda for global governance and are aimed at informing decision‐makers at a high level. They should also be of interest to the general public.Of all the themes, the highest priority is to rigorously address global warming and limit surface temperature rise to 1.5°C by 2100, as warming is the pre‐eminent factor driving change in the ocean. The other themes are establishing a robust and comprehensive High Seas Treaty, enforcing existing standards for Marine Protected Areas and expanding their coverage, especially in terms of high levels of protection, adopting a precautionary pause on deep‐sea mining, ending overfishing and destructive fishing practices, radically reducing marine pollution, putting in place a financing mechanism for ocean management and protection, and lastly, scaling up science/data gathering and facilitating data sharing.By implementing all eight measures in unison, as a coordinated strategy, we can build resilience to climate change, help sustain fisheries productivity, particularly for low‐income countries dependent on fisheries, protect coasts (e.g. via soft‐engineering/habitat‐based approaches), promote mitigation (e.g. carbon storage) and enable improved adaptation to rapid global change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we present coral Sr/Ca data of biweekly resolution from three modern coral cores drilled from living Porites corals from two different reef settings at Chagos (tropical Indian Ocean). Chagos lies at the eastern margin of the Seychelles‐Chagos thermocline ridge and features open ocean upwelling. In situ temperatures have been recorded by temperature loggers since 2006. High‐resolution satellite temperatures closely track the logger data. Two cores were collected from a patch reef in the lagoon of Peros Banhos, a site characterized by high mean temperatures and low‐temperature variability. An open ocean core was collected at the outer reef slope of Diego Garcia, which experiences larger temperature fluctuations related to open ocean upwelling. The open ocean core shows clear seasonal cycles in Sr/Ca that closely track the satellite temperatures. The Sr/Ca records from the two lagoon corals show good reproducibility. Between 2007 and 2010, Sr/Ca tracks satellite temperatures. However, between 2003 and 2006 the Sr/Ca curves are almost flat and annual coral growth rates are low. During these years, warm sea surface temperatures and coral bleaching have been observed at Chagos. It is likely that the observed reduction in coral growth rates is a response to prolonged warming events, adding to the growing evidence that seemingly healthy and surviving corals are affected by thermal stress. Further, the high correlation between the Sr/Ca records of the two lagoon cores suggests that this effect is not limited to single coral colonies but may affect the entire reef setting. Key Points: Coral Sr/Ca values show that seemingly healthy corals respond to prolonged warming events with reduced growth ratesCorals from sites with small sea surface temperature variability appear more susceptible to thermal stress than corals from sites with more variable temperaturesThermal stress and growth rate reduction signature is reproducible in two coral cores taken from different colonies at the same site [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Aim: Large‐scale variation in species richness results from multiple environmental controls. We proposed to identify the main factors that influence species richness of reef corals to provide insight into natural forces and their implications for future climate impacts. Location: Indian Ocean. Methods: We applied quantile regression (QR) to predict coral species richness and to evaluate the influence of reef area, biogeographical connection – represented by reef area up‐current, geological provinces defined by plate tectonics, latitude, longitude and mainland‐island separation, the physico‐chemical factors of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), salinity and primary productivity and seven properties of sea surface temperature (mean, minimum, maximum, standard deviation, range, kurtosis and skewness) on coral species richness. Predictions at three quantiles (0.50, 0.75 and 0.95) were compared against ordinary least squares regression (OLS) analysis. Results: All four models successfully predicted species richness, with the 95% QR model showing the best fit. According to this model, reef area, number of reefs up‐current and mean‐SST had positive effects while maximum and kurtosis‐SST had negative effects on richness. The distribution of observed richness values in relation to the regression line suggested this model revealed the main limiting factors. High predicted richness sites were located in the region from Western Australia to Central Indian Ocean Islands and southern India, the Mozambique Channel and East Africa and Southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Sites with low predicted richness were Arabian/Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, South Africa and south‐west Madagascar, Gulf of Kutch, Bay of Bengal and the Mascarenes. Conclusions: Temperature properties played a prominent role in influencing species richness mainly as latent energy and stress rather than thermal stability. These thermal properties indicate the conditions needed to promote coral diversity and selecting climate refugia for conservation management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As in the tropical Atlantic, Acropora populations in the southern Persian/Arabian Gulf plummeted within two decades after having been ecosystem engineers on most wave-exposed reefs since the Pleistocene. Since 1996/1998 live coral cover in the Gulf declined by over 90% in many areas, primarily due to bleaching and diseases caused by rising temperatures. In the formerly dominant table-coral species A. downingi, population dynamics corresponding to disturbance regimes was quantified in three transition matrices (lower disturbance pre-1996; moderate disturbance from 1998 to 2010 and 2013 to 2017, disturbed in 1996/1998, 2010/11/12, 2017). Increased disturbance frequency and severity caused progressive reduction in coral size, cover, and population fecundity. Small size-classes were bolstered more by partial colony mortality than sexual recruitment. Some large corals had a size refuge and resisted die-back but were also lost with increasing disturbance. Matrix and biophysical larval flow models suggested one metapopulation. Southern, Arabian, populations could be connected to northern, Iranian, populations but this connectivity was lost under assumptions of pelagic larval duration at rising temperatures shortened to a third. Then, the metapopulation disintegrated into isolated populations. Connectivity required to avoid extinctions increased exponentially with disturbance frequency and correlation of disturbances across the metapopulation. Populations became unsustainable at eight disturbances in 15 years, when even highest theoretical recruitment no longer compensated mortality. This lethal disturbance frequency was 3-fold that of the moderately disturbed monitoring period and 4-fold of the preceding low-disturbance period--suggesting ongoing shortening of the disturbance-free period. Observed population collapse and environmental changes in the Gulf suggest that A. downingi is heading toward at least functional extinction mainly due to increasingly frequent temperature-induced mortality events, clearly linked to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The Aichi Biodiversity Targets were designed to promote and implement the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) by providing a framework for action to save biodiversity and enhance its benefits for people. Specifically, Target 11 aims to protect 10% of all seas by 2020. The percentage of the world's oceans that are protected has increased steadily in recent years, mainly due to very large marine protected areas (MPAs)., The issue of making major gains in achieving protection targets through 'going big' has brought added scrutiny to the subject of MPAs. There is economy in scale, but several people have called into question whether going large will protect representative habitat and result in true protection, or whether it is merely a politically expedient way for some nations to attain targets by creating paper parks, while avoiding tough conservation decisions., The recent creation of large MPAs has greatly enhanced the chance of achieving global protection targets. Large areas typically contain several ecosystems and habitats that interact ecologically, and allow for more holistic conservation. The interactions between ecosystems in large MPAs occur without many of the problems associated with networks of smaller MPAs, where the connectivity between sites is often affected by human activities., The disadvantages of large MPAs include difficulties of surveillance, enforcement and monitoring of vast offshore areas, as well as high total costs. While the cost per unit area may be lower for large MPAs, conducting surveillance and monitoring in such vast areas requires much more expensive technologies., Large MPAs complement and add to existing management and conservation measures. Decision makers should consider designating them as one of a suite of possible protection measures. Besides greatly enhancing the chance of reaching agreed biodiversity targets, large MPAs improve the quality of conservation., Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The size structure and taxonomic composition of coral communities in the inner (Granitic) Seychelles were studied 10 years after a thermal stress-induced mass mortality event., A survey of the abundance, population size structure and community composition of hard corals across 21 sites from three different geomorphological reef types on the Seychelles Bank provided high resolution data for discriminating coral communities based on diversity, taxonomic composition, colony abundance, surface area and size frequency distributions., Results emphasize the severely impoverished and depauperate nature of inner Seychelles hard coral communities, which had lower generic diversity (40 genera recorded), and lower abundance (3.3 colonies m−2) of hard corals (excluding juveniles) than other coral reef regions of the Indian Ocean for which comparable data are currently available., Analysis of coral communities indicated that management had no appreciable effect on juvenile or adult coral abundance at this point in time, and that low juvenile density (9.9 colonies m−2) may severely limit recovery of many individual reefs in the inner Seychelles., While some sites were found to have appreciable coral cover (>20%), others, including long-standing protected areas with no fishing, are now in an advanced state of erosion and framework collapse with very low juvenile coral replenishment and negligible available hard substratum suitable for coral settlement., Some of these reefs may have passed the threshold of viable recovery, now being in a self-reinforcing, non-coral dominated erosional phase., These findings indicate variable coral community condition, with many sites showing little sign of recovery. If persistence of live hard coral is a management goal, the existing protected areas within the Seychelles Bank may require review to ensure protection of sites with high recovery potential, while a suite of other management tools should be implemented in the remaining areas., Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the impact of the reef shark declines in remote atolls on the need for multi-faceted conservation action. It notes that the decline of reef shark in the oceans is a concern from a sustainability perspective and because such species can have important ecological roles. It further stresses that those predatory animals are dangerous to fishing as their life histories are characterized by late age at maturity, large body size, and low fertility.

This article focuses on treatment of drug addiction which has been an episodic problem in the society. Treatment programs have been designed to meet the needs of addicts. Currently, an ideal program offers the applicant alternatives of detoxification with accompanying aftercare services, methadone maintenance with ancillary counseling procedures and/or a community approach. While treatment programs have been designed to meet the addicts' needs, few systematic efforts are reported that delineate specifically what these needs are, especially at a less visible psychological level.

The 13 distant Dependent Territories of the UK are known to be rich in biodiversity but baseline biological and ecological information for most of the Dependencies remains incomplete. Lack of species and ecosystem inventory data currently hinders development of biodiversity conservation strategies which are needed at a time of intense development pressures. Increased support for the implementation of international conservation agreements provides one important mechanism both to develop the biodiversity information base and the conservation policy appropriate for local needs. Voluntary organizations both in the UK and in the Dependencies, coordinated by the UK Dependent Territories Conservation Forum, are providing much of the driving force for biodiversity research and conservation action but are limited in their capacity to undertake research. There is a need for further collaborative research in many subject areas, including those indicated, and for researchers to ensure that their studies are planned to include local consultation and to ensure that their results are made available to local interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coconut crab ( Birgus latro), an endangered marine-dispersed crustacean, is facing severe and probably accelerating population extinction worldwide, but biological information on its conservation remains deficient. In order to reveal the genetic structure of B. latro, 10 microsatellite loci were developed. A high degree of polymorphism was observed with a mean number of alleles per locus of 16.9. The mean expected heterozygosities were also high, ranging from 0.742 to 0.965. The observed heterozygosities ranged from 0.210 to 0.925. Departures from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium were observed at five loci after the Bonferroni correction. These hypervariable markers will be utilized to study the genetic diversity and conservation of B. latro throughout its distribution range in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the comparison of emotion profiles as defined by two additional Minnesota Multiphasial Personality Inventory (MMPI) profile types in male narcotic addicts. Narcotic users identified as paranoid and psychopathic personality types have been shown to possess measurable differences in emotion profiles. Psychopathic patients were differentiated from paranoid patients on three of eight prototypic dimensions. They scored higher on reproduction and lower on exploration and protection. This study extends previous work by examining the emotion profiles of two additional groups of narcotic users defined by MMPI profile patterns.