ORCID Profile
0000-0002-9428-9882
Current Organisation
James Cook University
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Publisher: Wiley
Date: 1119
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-2021
DOI: 10.1111/CONL.12802
Abstract: Nonnative marine species are increasingly recognized as a threat to the world's oceans, yet are poorly understood relative to their terrestrial and freshwater counterparts. Here, we conducted a systematic review of 2,203 research articles on nonnative marine animals to determine whether the current literature reflects the known ersity of marine invaders, how much we know about these species, and how frequently their impacts are measured. We found that only 39% of nonnative animals listed in the World Register of Introduced Marine Species appeared in the peer‐reviewed English literature. Of those, fewer than half were the subject of more than one study. There is currently little focus on the consequences of marine introductions: only 9.9% of studies quantified the impact of nonnative species. Finally, our knowledge of nonnative marine species is heavily limited by strong taxonomic biases consistent across all phyla, resulting in one or two disproportionately well‐studied representatives for each phylum, which we refer to as the “poster children” of invasion. These gaps in the literature make it difficult to effectively triage the most detrimental invasive species for management and illustrate the challenges in achieving the global bio ersity goals of preventing and managing the introduction and establishment of invasive species.
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 12-02-2021
Abstract: We used a novel approach to estimate the spatial contraction of sawfish populations and guide recovery efforts.
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 10-1995
DOI: 10.1021/MA00126A033
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 17-05-2023
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2019
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 26-03-2023
Abstract: Under current trajectories, it is unlikely that the coral reefs of the future will resemble those of the past. As multiple stressors, such as climate change and coastal development, continue to impact coral reefs, understanding the changes in ecosystem functioning is imperative to protect key ecosystem services. We used a 26‐year dataset of benthic reef fishes (including cryptobenthic fishes) to identify multi‐decadal trends in fish biomass production on a degraded coral reef. We converted fish abundances into estimates of community productivity to track the long‐term trend of fish biomass production through time. Following the first mass coral bleaching event in 1998, the abundance, standing biomass and productivity of fish communities remained remarkably constant through time, despite the occurrence of multiple stressors, including extreme sedimentation, cyclones and mass coral bleaching events. Species richness declined following the 1998 bleaching event, but rebounded to prebleaching levels and also remained relatively stable. Although the species composition of the communities changed over time, these new community configurations still maintain a steady level of fish biomass production. While these highly dynamic and increasingly degraded systems can still provide some critical ecosystem functions, it is unclear whether these patterns will remain stable over future decades. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 17-01-2023
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-022-35091-X
Abstract: Sharks and rays are key functional components of coral reef ecosystems, yet many populations of a few species exhibit signs of depletion and local extinctions. The question is whether these declines forewarn of a global extinction crisis. We use IUCN Red List to quantify the status, trajectory, and threats to all coral reef sharks and rays worldwide. Here, we show that nearly two-thirds (59%) of the 134 coral-reef associated shark and ray species are threatened with extinction. Alongside marine mammals, sharks and rays are among the most threatened groups found on coral reefs. Overfishing is the main cause of elevated extinction risk, compounded by climate change and habitat degradation. Risk is greatest for species that are larger-bodied (less resilient and higher trophic level), widely distributed across several national jurisdictions (subject to a patchwork of management), and in nations with greater fishing pressure and weaker governance. Population declines have occurred over more than half a century, with greatest declines prior to 2005. Immediate action through local protections, combined with broad-scale fisheries management and Marine Protected Areas, is required to avoid extinctions and the loss of critical ecosystem function condemning reefs to a loss of shark and ray bio ersity and ecosystem services, limiting livelihoods and food security.
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 23-01-2023
Abstract: Overfishing is the most significant threat facing sharks and rays. Given the growth in consumption of seafood, combined with the compounding effects of habitat loss, climate change, and pollution, there is a need to identify recovery paths, particularly in poorly managed and poorly monitored fisheries. Here, we document conservation through fisheries management success for 11 coastal sharks in US waters by comparing population trends through a Bayesian state-space model before and after the implementation of the 1993 Fisheries Management Plan for Sharks. We took advantage of the spatial and temporal gradients in fishing exposure and fisheries management in the Western Atlantic to analyze the effect on the Red List status of all 26 wide-ranging coastal sharks and rays. We show that extinction risk was greater where fishing pressure was higher, but this was offset by the strength of management engagement (indicated by strength of National and Regional Plan of Action for sharks and rays). The regional Red List Index (which tracks changes in extinction risk through time) declined in all regions until the 1980s but then improved in the North and Central Atlantic such that the average extinction risk is currently half that in the Southwest. Many sharks and rays are wide ranging, and successful fisheries management in one country can be undone by poorly regulated or unregulated fishing elsewhere. Our study underscores that well-enforced, science-based management of carefully monitored fisheries can achieve conservation success, even for slow-growing species.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-1995
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-11-2022
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.13611
Abstract: As anthropogenic stressors on the biosphere intensify, understanding how communities respond to disturbances is critical. Bio ersity is often thought to promote the stability of communities over time and enhance ecosystem functioning. However, results have been inconsistent, and the multifaceted linkages among ersity, stability and functioning under acute disturbances remain poorly understood. We experimentally tested the responses of marine fish communities to disturbance (i.e., acute habitat loss) across a ersity gradient spanning 35 degrees of latitude in the western Atlantic Ocean to assess the ersity–stability relationship and the interplay between ersity, stability, and fish biomass recovery (as a proxy for function) in marine fish communities. Western Atlantic Ocean [Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Florida (USA), Belize and Panama]. 2016–2017. Small, bottom‐dwelling (‘cryptobenthic’) fishes. We experimentally tested the response of marine fish communities to disturbance across a ersity gradient on human‐made dock pilings. We holistically s led cryptobenthic fish communities, then we imposed a severe disturbance by removing all benthic epifauna. We then compared the community stability, defined as the constancy in community composition, on disturbed and undisturbed pilings after one year. Diversity showed a negative effect on community stability at both the regional (across docks) and local (within docks) scales. Similarly, local ersity was negatively correlated with ecosystem function. These effects are exacerbated by the habitat loss imposed via our experimental treatment. Our results suggest that habitat loss may re‐shuffle erse, tropical communities more intensively than species‐poor, temperate communities, which impacts biomass recovery, our proxy of functioning. Contrary to ecological theory, in small‐bodied, benthos‐associated vertebrate communities, bio ersity may neither promote stability nor functioning, suggesting that human disturbances may be particularly impactful in tropical, high‐ ersity ecosystems.
No related grants have been discovered for Helen Yan.