ORCID Profile
0000-0001-6851-2289
Current Organisation
Oregon State University
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Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 18-09-2018
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2016
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 21-06-2023
DOI: 10.1101/2023.06.19.545572
Abstract: Understanding population connectivity and genetic ersity is of fundamental importance to conservation. However, in globally threatened marine megafauna, challenges remain due to their elusive nature and wide-ranging distributions. As overexploitation continues to threaten bio ersity across the globe, such knowledge gaps compromise both the suitability and effectiveness of management actions. Here, we use a comparative framework to investigate genetic differentiation and ersity of manta rays, one of the most iconic yet vulnerable groups of elasmobranchs on the planet. Despite their recent ergence, we show how oceanic manta rays (Mobula birostris) display significantly higher genetic ersity than reef manta rays (Mobula alfredi) and that M. birostris populations display higher connectivity worldwide. Through reconstructing modes of colonisation, we reveal how both contemporary and historical forces have likely influenced these patterns, with important implications for population management. Our findings highlight the potential for fisheries to disrupt population dynamics at both local and global scales and therefore have direct relevance for international marine conservation. Population genomics of manta rays reveals striking differences in differentiation and ersity between two recently erged species.
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 05-2017
DOI: 10.1098/RSOS.161060
Abstract: Mobulid rays have a conservative life history and are caught in direct fisheries and as by-catch. Their subsequent vulnerability to overexploitation has recently been recognized, but fisheries management can be ineffective if it ignores habitat and prey preferences and other trophic interactions of the target species. Here, we assessed the feeding ecology of four mobulids ( Manta birostris , Mobula tarapacana , M. japanica , M. thurstoni ) in the Bohol Sea, Philippines, using stomach contents analysis of fisheries specimens landed between November and May in 2013–2015. We show that the mobulids feed heavily on euphausiid krill while they are in the area for approximately six months of the year. We found almost no trophic separation among the mobulid species, with Euphausia diomedeae as the major prey item for all species, recorded in 81 of 89 total stomachs (91%). Mobula japanica and M. thurstoni almost exclusively had this krill in their stomach, while M. tarapacana had a squid and fish, and Ma. birostris had myctophid fishes and copepods in their stomachs in addition to E. diomedeae . This krill was larger than prey for other planktivorous elasmobranchs elsewhere and contributed a mean of 61 364 kcal per stomach (±105 032 kcal s.e., range = 0–631 167 kcal). Our results show that vertically migrating mesopelagic species can be an important food resource for large filter feeders living in tropical seas with oligotrophic surface waters. Given the conservative life history of mobulid rays, the identification of common foraging grounds that overlap with fishing activity could be used to inform future fishing effort.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-2016
DOI: 10.1002/AQC.2670
Publisher: Inter-Research Science Center
Date: 29-09-2017
DOI: 10.3354/MEPS12304
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-07-2019
DOI: 10.1111/DDI.12962
Location: United States of America
No related grants have been discovered for Joshua Stewart.