• European Marine Science
• Other research productsclose
• 2019-2023close
• Other ORP type close
• European Marine Science close

Managing marine nonindigenous species (mNIS) is challenging, because marine environments are highly connected, allowing the dispersal of species across large spatial scales, including geopolitical borders. Cross-border inconsistencies in biosecurity management can promote the spread of mNIS across geopolitical borders, and incursions often go unnoticed or unreported. Collaborative surveillance programs can enhance the early detection of mNIS, when response may still be possible, and can foster capacity building around a common threat. Regional or international databases curated for mNIS can inform local monitoring programs and can foster real-time information exchange on mNIS of concern. When combined, local species reference libraries, publicly available mNIS databases, and predictive modeling can facilitate the development of biosecurity programs in regions lacking baseline data. Biosecurity programs should be practical, feasible, cost-effective, mainly focused on prevention and early detection, and be built on the collaboration and coordination of government, nongovernment organizations, stakeholders, and local citizens for a rapid response.

These supplementary teaching resources align to the open textbook, Fish, Fishing, and Conservation which is a 389-page, peer-reviewed publicly-available, openly-licensed textbook intended for undergraduate students who are exploring majors in Fish & Wildlife. It is also relevant to a general audience or for use in courses which explore social and ethical aspects of fish, fishing and conservation. The open textbook, Fish, Fishing, and Conservation, is freely available at https://doi.org/10.21061/fishandconservation Supplementary teaching resources include a sample course syllabus, schedule, and a variety of assignments. Individuals who wish to share their materials relevant to teaching in this subject area are encouraged to join and share their openly-licensed resources via the Fish, Fishing, and Conservation Instructor Group in OERCommons Are you reviewing or adopting Fish, Fishing, and Conservation for a course? Please help us understand your use by completing this form https://bit.ly/fishandconservation_interest VIVA (Virtual Library of Virginia)

Mesopelagic fishes are a crucial component of the world's oceans in terms of their abundance, biomass, and ecosystem function. These fishes are important contributors to the biological carbon pump via their feeding and behaviors, whereby they facilitate the transfer of carbon from shallow waters to the deep sea. Several species undertake diel vertical migration, feeding in shallower waters at night and moving to deeper waters during the day. This process actively expedites the downward flux of carbon. However, carbon budgets and climate models require accurate information regarding the depth distributions and migration patterns of these fishes, and environmental DNA (eDNA) analyses can provide this information. Here, we utilize eDNA approaches, generating taxonomically-informative COI and 12S reference barcodes for 80 species of mesopelagic fishes, which can be used to for species-level identification of eDNA sequences. Using these, along with a publicly available barcode database, we compare results from eDNA analysis with traditional net sampling and explore the ability of eDNA techniques to detect diel vertical migration in fishes from samples collected in Northwest Atlantic Slope Water. We found that eDNA and net samples often resulted in different species identifications, demonstrating that eDNA can detect species that would otherwise be missed with traditional methods. In our eDNA samples, we also detected more species (12) in our shallowest depth category (0–100 m) from nighttime samples than from daytime samples (3). This is consistent with increased diversity in shallow waters at night due to diel vertical migration. Based on the variability observed in sample duplicates, we suggest that future mesopelagic eDNA studies incorporate larger sample volumes and scaled-up sampling efforts. We also note the potential for eDNA analysis to address ecological questions such as predator-prey relationships and identification of foraging hotspots, yielding insights into carbon flow through the ocean's midwaters.

The Workshop is part of a yearly series within the AI/ML-Cluster in Subtopic 2.4 of the research program PoF IV: Changing Earth - Sustaining our Future.

IceBird Winter 2023 is part of a long-term sea ice observation program within the IceBird aircraft campaign series. IceBird was initiated in 2018 with the objective to ensure the long-term availability of a unique data record of direct sea-ice thickness observations to understand the role of the sea ice component for the causes and consequences of Arctic change, but is built on the heritage of airborne sea-ice thickness observations that date back to 2004. Compared to earlier airborne programs, IceBird has been enhanced with an improved sensor setup that also allows measuring snow depth on sea ice, fully collocated with sea-ice thickness and surface roughness at high resolution. The objectives of IceBird Winter 2023 include the continued quantification of trends, the separation of variability and extreme events of sea ice thickness and its snow cover in the Western Seas of the Arctic Ocean. The continuation of airborne sea-ice observation programs fulfils the requirement of consistent and long-term observations of key climate parameters. The data will be used to improve understanding of the response of sea ice and its snow cover to the ongoing warming of the Arctic and to improve snow models. Airborne data of snow and sea-ice thickness are also critically needed for the evaluation of sea-ice remote sensing products as well as for the evolution of algorithms for current and future satellite missions. Surveys from IceBird Winter 2023 will target the validation of sea-ice freeboard and snow depth estimates from CryoSat-2, ICESat-2, Sentinel-3A/B and AltiKa altimeters.

There are several research infrastructures or other data services running in Europe that cover a multitude of marine-related sciences, providing specific datasets coming from observations collected with different methods. These infrastructures constitute a diverse world, each looking at a piece of the big picture, sometimes hindering collaboration and data sharing. Blue-Cloud aims to overcome fragmentation and build a bridge between thematic science clusters - such as marine, climate, food and agriculture sciences - and EOSC, creating a data federation and providing a common access to a so-called thematic EOSC for marine data. By connecting leading marine data management infrastructures with horizontal e-infrastructures, the project aims to maximise the exploitation of data resources available from different sources. The Blue-Cloud framework consists of two major technical components: (1) a Blue-Cloud Data Discovery and Access service, already presented in a previous EOSC in practice story, to serve federated discovery and access to blue data infrastructures, and (2) a Blue-Cloud Virtual Research Environment (VRE) to provide computing platforms and analytical services facilitating the collaboration between researchers, which is detailed hereafter. The Blue-Cloud VRE is powered by the D4Science Infrastructure. [M. Assante et al. (2019) Enacting open science by D4Science. Future Gener. Comput. Syst. 101: 555-563 10.1016/j.future.2019.05.063 ] The full list of EOSC in practice stories is available here

Marine ecosystems are essential to life on Earth, but they constantly face the consequences of human activities. International conventions such as the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic and directives such as the Marine Strategy Framework Directive urge countries to improve monitoring and conservation of ocean health. Bioindicator species can help us assess the health status of ecosystems, and while there are many good candidates among the hundreds of extant shark species, the blue shark (Prionace glauca) stands out as one of the most widely distributed and socioeconomically important shark species in the world. This work highlighted the importance of blue shark in the Portuguese elasmobranch fisheries and the need for better management strategies. Sixty sharks were sampled in the Northeast Atlantic and the results evidenced high contaminant body burdens, with two thirds of the sharks presenting concentrations of Hg and/or Pb in their muscle above safety thresholds for human consumers. Location was the main factor influencing contaminants accumulation, with sharks captured closer to the continental shore presenting higher contamination when compared with sharks from more oceanic locations. A similar pattern was observed in biomarker responses, with the sharks from areas closer to the continental shore (i.e., more contaminated) exhibiting more pronounced responses. Additionally, the amount of damaged DNA in the liver and protective alterations in the gills correlated strongly and positively with contaminants in sharks from the more contaminated area (i.e., As, PCBs, and PBDEs). Ultimately, this thesis validated the potential of blue shark as a bioindicator of pollution in the Atlantic, and the specific biomarkers with potential in marine biomonitoring surveys, whilst contributing useful data for better management and conservation.

The concurrent simulation of ocean circulations and ocean tides is carried out with the Max-Planck Institute Ocean Model (MPIOM/TP6M L40 mpiom-1.6.3.) forced by the full luni-solar tidal potential as an additional body force and by the surface fluxes of momentum, heat and freshwater derived the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis for the period 1981-2012. A tripolar grid with a horizontal resolution of about 0.1 degrees is used. There are total 40 vertical levels in z-coordinates. More details can be find in Li and von Storch (2020). The file name of the data sets is composed as follows. STORMTIDE2_TP6ML40__3d_1hr__.nc There are five 3-dimensional hourly variables: sea_water_potential_temperature (tho), sea_water_salinity (sao), sea_water_x_velocity (u), sea_water_y_velocity (v) and upward_sea_water_velocity (w), for January, April, July and October of 2012. 2012 is the last year of the simulation. Storing four months hourly was doable at the time when the simulation is produced. One run is provided.

Monthly mesoozooplankton samplings started in 1950s, performed by vertical tows of Hensen net (73 cm mouth diameter, 330 µm mesh size) from 35–0 m. Samples were fixed in 2 % formaldehyde solution buffered with borax. No flowmeter was used. From 1950s-1995 mesozooplankton was sampled on approximately monthly basis and data are available from January 1972 to November 1995 (with gaps in 1975) and include the abundances expressed as no.ind.m-3 at group level of the zooplankton groups such as Copepoda, Cladocera, Appendicularia, Chaetognatha, Tunicata, Ostracoda, Polychaeta, Decapoda larvae, various meroplankton larvae, Pisces ova, Pisces larvae and Hydromedusae/Siphonophora. From 1995 the sampling program with Hensen net was interrupted and investigations continued with Nansen net, 125 µm mesh size.

Epibenthos and demersal fish monitoring at long-term monitoring stations Trawl samples were taken within the disposal site and outside the disposal site (close neigbourhood) (classic controle/impact design). Sampling activities were in February-March and in September/October. A 8 meter shrimp beam trawl (22 mm mesh in the cod end) equipped with a bolder chain was used.The net was towed during 30 or 15 minutes at an average speed of 4 knots.