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Mapping the economic value of the ocean is pivotal to understand how marine ecosystems contribute to human well-being and to support fisheries management. We present a framework to analyse fisheries data and map fishing revenues by linking Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) information to logbooks and observer data. We provide a detailed step-by-step methodology and describe different approaches available to fulfill each step, with special notes for the processing of real-world messy data. The framework consists of six processing steps: (1) identifying the target fishery and subsetting VMS data, (2) extracting relevant variables, (3) linking observer and VMS data, (4) identifying fishing activity, (5) linking VMS and logbook data, and (6) extracting derived variables and mapping revenue back to the communities that extracted the resources. Building this framework opens a broad range of applications including marine spatial planning, rapid response analyses, high-resolution stock assessments, and spatially explicit-socioeconomic analyses. We demonstrate the framework in the reef fishery of the Gulf of Mexico, where spatial planning for aquaculture is currently underway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Conservation Biology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the search for protecting biodiversity, enhancing sustainable resource use, and minimizing conflict among users, spatial planning is now ubiquitous around the globe. Acquiring maps of fishing activity is critical to account for the interests of fishers, but fisheries are generally underrepresented in spatial plans. We conducted a quantitative systematic literature review on how fisheries data have been included in spatial planning. 145 research articles were reviewed. Most studies (99%) assessed marine ecosystems. A kaleidoscope of data sources has been used to map fisheries, from vessel tracking data (11%) to surrogates (17%). Most articles (43%) have focused on mapping fishing effort, but other variables might be more relevant for spatial planning. Stakeholder groups are generally aggregated together (84%), but to achieve socially equitable outcomes, differences in relative importance or vulnerability should be included in the analyses. There ought to be a shift in spatial and temporal scale so that the scale in which fishing activity is recorded matches the scales needed for relevant management. At the planning stage, fishing data have been incorporated mostly to avoid conflict (97%). However, when stocks are overfished, ensuring some areas remain open to fishing and including fisheries in alternative ways to "cost" (which incorporates the economic and social impact of spatial closures) might be necessary. The use of inappropriate fisheries data has produced spatial plans that lead to poor management decisions, social conflict, and lack of compliance. Based on these results, we offer a set of suggestions on how to develop fisheries spatial planning research that will promote environmental and social sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has become the greatest threat to the world's ecosystems. Locating and managing areas that contribute to the survival of key species under climate change is critical for the persistence of ecosystems in the future. Here, we identify 'Climate Priority' sites as coral reefs exposed to relatively low levels of climate stress that will be more likely to persist in the future. We present the first analysis of uncertainty in climate change scenarios and models, along with multiple objectives, in a marine spatial planning exercise and offer a comprehensive approach to incorporating uncertainty and trade‐offs in any ecosystem. We first described each site using environmental characteristics that are associated with a higher chance of persistence (larval connectivity, hurricane influence, and acute and chronic temperature conditions in the past and the future). Future temperature increases were assessed using downscaled data under four different climate scenarios (SSP1 2.6, SSP2 4.5, SSP3 7.0 and SSP5 8.5) and 57 model runs. We then prioritized sites for intervention (conservation, improved management or restoration) using robust decision‐making approaches that select sites that will have a benign climate under most climate scenarios and models. The modelling work is novel because it solves two important issues. (1) It considers trade‐offs between multiple planning objectives explicitly through Pareto analyses and (2) It makes use of all the uncertainty around future climate change. Priority intervention sites identified by the model were verified and refined through local stakeholder engagement including assessments of local threats, ecological conditions and government priorities. The workflow is presented for the Insular Caribbean and Florida, and at the national level for Cuba, Jamaica, Dominican Republic and Haiti. Our approach allows managers to consider uncertainty and multiple objectives for climate‐smart spatial management in coral reefs or any ecosystem across the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a widespread need for reliable biodiversity databases for science and conservation. Among the many public databases available, we lack guidance as to how their data quality varies. Here, we compare species distribution data for a well known regional reef fish fauna extracted from five global online databases that supply "as is" data (GBIF, OBIS, IDigBio, FishNet2 and FishBase) and our own curated regional database (STRI, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute) using quantitative criteria, and assess how they affect biogeographical analyses. We first describe the databases and quantify overlap between them. We then describe variation in the geographical distributions of species records and species richness and in the completeness of local species lists. Finally, we assess the consequences of using these different databases in biogeographical analyses by comparing patterns of species turnover (beta diversity) and bioregionalization. The databases vary considerably in size and show high overlap in species lists, but low overlap in georeferenced species records. Levels of completeness of local inventories are spatially heterogeneous and low in most databases. Spatial biases produced artefactual variation in patterns of species turnover and delineation of bioregions in all databases. Although not the largest, STRI database has the most complete geographic coverage of data, showed relatively low turnover and the clearest biogeographic regionality. Incorporating data from a wide range of other sources, curating data to reduce errors, and assessing effects of spatial biases in data is critical to obtaining an accurate picture of the geography of biodiversity and its change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic environmental change has increased coral reef disturbance regimes in recent decades, altering the structure and function of many coral reefs globally. In this study, we used coral community survey data collected from 1996 to 2015 to evaluate reef-scale coral calcification capacity (CCC) dynamics with respect to recorded pulse disturbances for 121 reef sites in the Main Hawaiian Islands and Mo'orea (French Polynesia) in the Pacific and the Florida Keys Reef Tract and St. John (U.S. Virgin Islands) in the western Atlantic. CCC remained relatively high in the Main Hawaiian Islands in the absence of recorded widespread disturbances; declined and subsequently recovered in Mo'orea following a crown-ofthorns sea star outbreak, coral bleaching, and major cyclone; decreased and remained low following coral bleaching in the Florida Keys Reef Tract; and decreased following coral bleaching and disease in St. John. Individual coral taxa have variable calcification rates and susceptibility to disturbances because of their differing life-history strategies. As a result, temporal changes in CCC in this study were driven by shifts in both overall coral cover and coral community composition. Analysis of our results considering coral lifehistory strategies showed that weedy corals generally increased their contributions to CCC over time while the contribution of competitive corals decreased. Shifts in contributions by stress-tolerant and generalist corals to CCC were more variable across regions. The increasing frequency and intensity of disturbances under 21st century global change therefore has the potential to drive lower and more variable CCC because of the increasing dominance of weedy and some stress-tolerant corals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal ecosystems and the livelihoods they support are threatened by stressors acting at global and local scales. Here we used the data produced by the Caribbean Coastal Marine Productivity program (CARICOMP), the longest, largest monitoring program in the wider Caribbean, to evidence local-scale (decreases in water quality) and global-scale (increases in temperature) stressors across the basin. Trend analyses showed that visibility decreased at 42% of the stations, indicating that local-scale chronic stressors are widespread. On the other hand, only 18% of the stations showed increases in water temperature that would be expected from global warming, partially reflecting the limits in detecting trends due to inherent natural variability of temperature data. Decreases in visibility were associated with increased human density. However, this link can be decoupled by environmental factors, with conditions that increase the flush of water, dampening the effects of human influence. Besides documenting environmental stressors throughout the basin, our results can be used to inform future monitoring programs, if the desire is to identify stations that provide early warning signals of anthropogenic impacts. All CARICOMP environmental data are now available, providing an invaluable baseline that can be used to strengthen research, conservation, and management of coastal ecosystems in the Caribbean basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To support fishing communities, reserves should ensure the persistence of meta-populations while boosting fisheries yield. However, so far their design from the onset has rarely considered both objectives simultaneously. Here we overcome this barrier in designing a network of reserves for the Caribbean spiny lobster, a species with long larval duration for which local management is considered pointless because the benefits of protection are believed to be accrued elsewhere. Our reserve design approach uses spatially explicit population models and considers ontogenetic migration, larval and adult movement. We show that yield and persistence are negatively related, but that both objectives can be maximized simultaneously during planning. Importantly, we also show that local efforts to manage spiny lobster, the most economically valuable marine resource in the Caribbean, can result in locally accrued benefits, overcoming a major barrier to investing effort in the appropriate management of this species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Big data, such as vessel monitoring system (VMS) data, can provide valuable information on fishing behaviours. However, conventional methods of detecting behaviours in movement data are challenged when behaviours are briefer than signal resolution. We investigate options for improving detection accuracy for short-set fisheries using 581 648 position records from 181 vessels in the Gulf of Mexico bandit-reel fishery. We first investigate the effects of increasing VMS temporal resolution and find that detection accuracy improves with fishing-set duration. We then assess whether a feature engineering approach—in our case, changing the way pings are labelled when training a classifier—could improve detection accuracy. From a dataset of 12 184 observed sets, we find that the conventional point-labelling method results in only 49% of pings being correctly labelled as ‘fishing’, whereas a novel window-labelling method results in 88% of records being labelled as ‘fishing’. When the labelled data are used to train classifiers, point labelling attains true-positive/balanced-accuracy rates of only 37%/66%, whereas window labelling achieves 68%/83%. Finally, we map fishing distribution using the two methods, and show that point labelling underestimates the extent of fishing grounds by ~33%, highlighting the benefits of window labelling in particular, and feature engineering approaches in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coral reefs are in decline worldwide and monitoring activities are important for assessing the impact of disturbance on reefs and tracking subsequent recovery or decline. Monitoring by field surveys provides accurate data but at highly localised scales and so is not cost-effective for reef scale monitoring at frequent time points. Remote sensing from satellites is an alternative and complementary approach. While remote sensing cannot provide the level of detail and accuracy at a single point than a field survey, the statistical power for inferring large scale patterns benefits in having complete areal coverage. This review considers the state of the art of coral reef remote sensing for the diverse range of objectives relevant for management, ranging from the composition of the reef: physical extent, benthic cover, bathymetry, rugosity; to environmental parameters: sea surface temperature, exposure, light, carbonate chemistry. In addition to updating previous reviews, here we also consider the capability to go beyond basic maps of habitats or environmental variables, to discuss concepts highly relevant to stakeholders, policy makers and public communication: such as biodiversity, environmental threat and ecosystem services. A clear conclusion of the review is that advances in both sensor technology and processing algorithms continue to drive forward remote sensing capability for coral reef mapping, particularly with respect to spatial resolution of maps, and synthesis across multiple data products. Both trends can be expected to continue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under projections of global climate change and other stressors, significant changes in the ecology, structure and function of coral reefs are predicted. Current management strategies tend to look to the past to set goals, focusing on halting declines and restoring baseline conditions. Here, we explore a complementary approach to decision making that is based on the anticipation of future changes in ecosystem state, function and services. Reviewing the existing literature and utilizing a scenario planning approach, we explore how the structure of coral reef communities might change in the future in response to global climate change and overfishing. We incorporate uncertainties in our predictions by considering heterogeneity in reef types in relation to structural complexity and primary productivity. We examine 14 ecosystem services provided by reefs, and rate their sensitivity to a range of future scenarios and management options. Our predictions suggest that the efficacy of management is highly dependent on biophysical characteristics and reef state. Reserves are currently widely used and are predicted to remain effective for reefs with high structural complexity. However, when complexity is lost, maximizing service provision requires a broader portfolio of management approaches, including the provision of artificial complexity, coral restoration, fish aggregation devices and herbivore management. Increased use of such management tools will require capacity building and technique refinement and we therefore conclude that diversification of our management toolbox should be considered urgently to prepare for the challenges of managing reefs into the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dispersal of larvae by ocean currents is likely to represent an increasingly important driver of marine population dynamics across fragmented habitats. A boost in availability of larval dispersal data from biophysical simulations has therefore led to routine calculations of population connectivity metrics that are used for area-based management decision support, including the placement of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). However, connectivity-based decision support for area-based management is often complex, highly uncertain, and the associated conservation impact rarely if ever evaluated. In combination, these challenges risk stakeholder engagement, compliance, and overall management effectiveness. Here we use a case study representing multiple key fishery species on coral reefs in Indonesia to demonstrate that consideration of larval dispersal for MPA placement decision support could be critical to recover both fish populations and fisheries from depletion, thereby mitigating potentially severe impacts on coastal communities. Importantly, we further show that MPA placement decisions can be effective even if based on comparatively simple and empirically measurable dispersal characteristics. Maximizing larval export, expressed as the contribution of larvae from MPA candidate sites to total larval settlement in surrounding areas, for example, was found to be a broadly beneficial MPA placement prioritization approach. Across investigated fish families with diverse life histories, this strategy resulted in MPA network designs that increased catches by a factor of 1.3 ± 0.3 (mean ± SD) and total fish biomass by a factor of 3.2 ± 0.3 (9.7 ± 1.2 in no-fishing areas and 1.4 ± 0.3 in fished areas) compared to conditions without effectively managed or protected areas. Our findings are relevant for both the implementation and impact evaluation of global marine conservation policies, specifically in tropical biodiversity hotspots, such as Indonesia, where coral reefs are often overfished and increasingly threatened but local communities highly dependent on sustainable fisheries. • Connectivity via larval dispersal is a likely driver of marine population dynamics. • Area-based management should consider connectivity to support positive outcomes. • Connectivity metrics need to be simple and measurable to ensure positive impact. • Simply maximizing larval export meets key conservation and fisheries objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reef managers cannot fight global warming through mitigation at local scale, but they can use information on thermal patterns to plan for reserve networks that maximize the probability of persistence of their reef system. Here we assess previous methods for the design of reserves for climate change and present a new approach to prioritize areas for conservation that leverages the most desirable properties of previous approaches. The new method moves the science of reserve design for climate change a step forwards by: (1) recognizing the role of seasonal acclimation in increasing the limits of environmental tolerance of corals and ameliorating the bleaching response; (2) using the best proxy for acclimatization currently available; (3) including information from several bleaching events, which frequency is likely to increase in the future; (4) assessing relevant variability at country scales, where most management plans are carried out. We demonstrate the method in Honduras, where a reassessment of the marine spatial plan is in progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem management frequently aims to manage resilience yet measuring resilience has proven difficult. Here, we quantify the ecological resilience of the largest reef in the Caribbean and map potential benefits of marine reserves under two scenarios of greenhouse gas emissions. Resilience is calculated using spatial ecological models and defined as the probability of a reef remaining in its coral-dominated basin of attraction such that it does not flip into an alternate, algal-dominated attractor. In practice, resilience is the probability that coral populations will maintain the ability to exhibit a recovery trend after acute disturbances such as hurricanes. The inputs required to estimate resilience are a reef's initial state, physical environment, and disturbance regime. One major driver of reef resilience is herbivory by parrotfish and recent action to protect parrotfish in Belize was found to have increased resilience 6-fold. However, the expected benefits of parrotfish protection to future coral cover were relatively modest with only a 2- to 2.6-fold improvement over a business-as-usual scenario, demonstrating how resilience and ecosystem states are decoupled. Global action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions had little impact on average coral state unless it was accompanied by local controls of fishing. However, combined global and local action reduced the rate of reef degradation threefold. Operationalizing resilience explicitly integrates available biophysical data and accommodates the complex interactions among ecological processes and multiple types of disturbance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

K-selected species with low rates of sexual recruitment may utilise storage effects where low adult mortality allows a number of individuals to persist through time until a favourable recruitment period occurs. Alternative methods of recruitment may become increasingly important for such species if the availability of favourable conditions for sexual recruitment decline under rising anthropogenic disturbance and climate change. Here, we test the hypotheses that asexual dispersal is an integral life history strategy not only in branching corals, as previously reported, but also in a columnar, 'K-selected' coral species, and that its prevalence is driven by the frequency of severe hurricane disturbance. Montastraea annularis is a long-lived major frame-work builder of Caribbean coral reefs but its survival is threatened by the consequences of climate induced disturbance, such as bleaching, ocean acidification and increased prevalence of disease. 700 M. annularis samples from 18 reefs within the Caribbean were genotyped using six polymorphic microsatellite loci. We demonstrate that asexual reproduction occurs at varying frequency across the species-range and significantly contributes to the local abundance of M. annularis, with its contribution increasing in areas with greater hurricane frequency. We tested several competing hypotheses that might explain the observed pattern of genotypic diversity. 64% of the variation in genotypic diversity among the sites was explained by hurricane incidence and reef slope, demonstrating that large-scale disturbances combine with local habitat characteristics to shape the balance between sexual and asexual reproduction in populations of M. annularis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearshore marine populations are structured in metapopulations that are connected through larval dispersal across national boundaries. One of the main challenges for effective management of these metapopulations is the need for partnerships between nations that share the same resource. By coupling large‐scale connectivity information to a dynamic population model, we analyzed the patterns of connectivity and population persistence for the Caribbean spiny lobster (Panulirus argus) metapopulation both within and across national boundaries. Although spiny lobster subpopulations are highly connected at the basin scale, several nations located in the northern Caribbean and ecoregional networks could persist independently of the larger basin‐wide metapopulation. Based on these results, we propose transnational neighborhoods for spiny lobster management. Our analysis suggests that the dynamics and management of those subpopulations neighborhoods are not intrinsically dependent on "upstream" connectivity even though current rates of upstream larval supply are very high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]