Management of marine ecosystems often seeks to maintain systems in stable states that are close to their historical pristine state, or a state where pressures and resource extraction does not degrade the system beyond a point of no return. When regime shifts occur these can therefore considered to be failures in management. Regime shifts should be recognisable as the system departs from the status quo or away from a desirable state and transgresses over some definitive reference points. However, Ingrid van Putten* and colleagues from CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) and the University of Tasmania found that there is limited consensus among marine scientists as to what actually constitutes a regime shift. Thus, the authors identified a fundamental ambiguity in a key concept for ecosystem based management.

See full paper:

Ingrid van Putten*, Fabio Boschetti, Scott Ling, and Shane A. Richards (2019) Perceptions of system-identity and regime shift for marine ecosystems. ICES Journal of Marine Science, fsz058 

The idea for this research was first conceptualized at the marine regime shift workshop at the fourth IMBeR IMBIZO meeting: Marine and human systems: Addressing multiple scales and multiple stressors, hosted by the Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia and Geofisica Sperimentale in Trieste, Italy, October 2015. 

*Ingrid van Putten is Chair of the IMBeR Human Dimensions Working Group.

The long Brazilian coast encompasses most of the reef environments of the southwestern Atlantic, and are characterized by unique reef formations and high rates of endemism. Parrotfishes (Labridae: Scarinae) are among the most ubiquitous and dominant reef fish worldwide, and in Brazil, 60% of the group are comprised of six endemic species. It is known that parrotfishes can affect the physical structure and composition of benthic communities through grazing and bioerosion. Despite their ecological importance, parrotfishes have been intensively targeted in many regions of the world. In Brazil, four of the endemic species are now threatened to some degree due to overfishing, including the largest, Scarus trispinosus, which can reach a length of 90 cm. Signs of depletion of these species strengthen our need to inform conservation and management through a better understanding of their patterns of abundance, biomass, habitat preferences, and assemblage structure across different reef types. We assessed abundance and size class distributions of six parrotfishes in northeastern Brazil and identified habitat preferences based on reef attributes. Species’ distributions were variable and related to their respective feeding modes and reef types. Such heterogeneity in habitat use suggests functional complementarity rather than functional redundancy among Brazilian parrotfish assemblages. Outer-shelf reefs sustained larger individuals for most of the species, whereas inner-shelf reefs supported higher abundances of small individuals. Despite being nurseries or developing areas, shallow inshore reefs sustain intense artisanal fishing activities targeting parrotfishes. The ongoing fishing pressure in nursery habitats may be causing significant declines in adult numbers in deeper outer-shelf reefs that are yet to be quantified. Such information may have important implications for management and conservation in the face of increasing fishing pressure. Conservation of Brazilian endemic parrotfishes requires protection of reefs with diverse attributes in order to conserve functional diversity.

The “Experiencing China” series, initiated by the China Scholarship Council (CSC, www.csc.edu.cn), is designed to give its scholarship students the opportunity to explore academic and industrial possibilities, and give insight into the Chinese culture. As a part of the 2019 “Experiencing China” activities, a Doctoral Forum entitled “Dialogue on the Maritime Silk Road” will be hosted by East China Normal University (ECNU, www.ecnu.edu.cn) in Shanghai, China from 10-13 October 2019.

The Forum will cover “Culture and Civilization”, “Estuaries and Coast” and “Economics and Trade” and will consist of three concurrent but interacting sessions. The sessions are: 1) The Maritime Silk Road and cultural exchange across regions, 2) Estuarine and coastal science and technology and sustainable ecosystems, and 3) Building a world of common prosperity through win-win cooperation. The Forum will include keynote lectures, presentations and discussions, as well as a workshop on career planning and a field trip to the Yangshan Deep Water Port or China Maritime Museum. After the Forum, students will be invited to submit a short paper for a special issue of the Journal of East China Normal University (Natural Sciences).

Deadline for applications is 10 September 2019. 

The North Pacific western boundary Kuroshio current, transports large amounts of heat, chemicals, and organisms, but is known to be nutrient-poor. Despite the low-nutrient concentration of Kuroshio water, the Kuroshio is an important spawning and nursery ground for various fish species, and a productive fishing ground. To understand the mechanisms of how this high fisheries productivity results from the oligotrophic conditions, i.e., the Kuroshio Paradox, and to determine how to use the ecosystem services sustainably, the Study of Kuroshio Ecosystem Dynamics for Sustainable Fisheries (SKED) started in October 2011. This ten-year project was funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT). This recently published book is based largely on the results from the SKED project. Physical, chemical, and biological aspects of the Kuroshio are described and compared to those of the Gulf Stream, the western boundary current of the North Atlantic Ocean, to understand the similarity and differences between them.

Volume highlights include:

• New insights into the role of the Kuroshio as a nutrient stream
• The first interdisciplinary examination of the Kuroshio Paradox
• Reflections on the influence of the Kuroshio on Japanese culture
• Research results on both the lower and higher trophic levels in the Kuroshio ecosystem
• Comparisons of nutrient dynamics in the Kuroshio and Gulf Stream
• Predictions of ecosystem responses to future climate variability

Kuroshio Current: Physical, Biogeochemical, and Ecosystem Dynamics, Geophysical Monograph 243, First Edition.
Edited by Takeyoshi Nagai, Hiroaki Saito, Koji Suzuki, and Motomitsu Takahashi.
©2019 American Geophysical Union. Published 2019 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Preview the book that is available in print from Wiley.com or Amazon.com

Global environmental changes are challenging the structure and functioning of ecosystems. However, a mechanistic understanding of how global environmental changes will affect ecosystems is still lacking. The complex and interacting biological and physical processes spanning vast temporal and spatial scales that constitute an ecosystem make this a formidable problem. There is thus the need to combine the study of evolution, together with metabolism and climate change. To study these interactions, a framework based on theoretical ecology that considers fundamental and realized niches, appears to be a promising approach.

This paper arose from the fifth IMBeR IMBIZO meeting: Marine biosphere research for a sustainable ocean: Linking ecosystems, future states and resource management, hosted by the Ocean, Carbon & Biogeochemistry Group at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in October 2017, with a format of three concurrent, interacting workshops. In particular, this work was generated from the working group from Workshop 2: Metabolic diversity and evolution in marine biogeochemical cycling and ocean ecosystem processes.

IMBeR officially launched its latest programme dedicated to students and early career researchers. The Interdisciplinary Marine Early Career Network (IMECaN) provides a networking platform, training programmes, and leadership opportunities for early career marine researchers. The official launch happened at a workshop at the Future Oceans2 Open Science Conference in Brest, France on 16 June 2019. The workshop focused on career development paths for marine researchers, and using infographics in research outputs.

IMECaN has lots of plans for the future, and will be providing training and development in areas not traditionally provided through formal curricula.

IMECaN currently has members in 59 countries and we hope to encourage more people to join up – so help us spread the news. More info about IMECaN and  sign up to receive updates on activities and events organised by IMECaN.