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Community-level resource management efforts are cornerstones in ensuring sustainable use of natural resources. Yet, understanding how community characteristics influence management practices remains contested. With a sample size of ≥725 communities, we assessed the effects of key community (i.e., socioeconomic) characteristics (human population size and density, market integration, and modernization) on the probability of occurrence of fisheries management practices, including gear, species, and spatial restrictions. The study was based in Solomon Islands, a Pacific Island country with a population that is highly dependent on coastal fisheries. People primarily dwell in small communities adjacent to the coastline dispersed across 6 island provinces and numerous smaller islands. We used nationally collected data in binomial logistic regression models to examine the likelihood of management occurrence, given socioeconomic context of communities. In contrast to prevailing views, we identified a positive and statistically significant association between both human population size and market integration and all 3 management practices. Human population density, however, had a statistically significant negative association and modernization a varied and limited association with occurrence of all management practices. Our method offers a way to remotely predict the occurrence of resource management practices based on key socioeconomic characteristics. It could be used to improve understanding of why some communities conduct natural resource management activities when statistical patterns suggest they are not likely to and thus improve understanding of how some communities of people beat the odds despite limited market access and high population density.Los esfuerzos por manejar los recursos a nivel comunitario son pilares para garantizar el uso sustentable de los recursos naturales. Aun así, el conocimiento sobre cómo las características comunitarias influyen sobre las prácticas de manejo todavía está en discusión. Con un tamaño de muestra de ≥725 comunidades, evaluamos los efectos de las características (tamaño y densidad poblacional humana, integración del mercado y modernización) comunitarias (es decir, socioeconómicas) clave sobre la probabilidad de incidencia de las prácticas de manejo de las pesquerías, incluyendo el equipamiento, las especies y las restricciones espaciales. El estudio se ubicó en las Islas Salomón, un país isleño del Pacífico con una población altamente dependiente de las pesquerías costeras. En este país, las personas habitan principalmente en comunidades pequeñas adyacentes a la costa y dispersas en las seis provincias isleñas y en numerosas islas más pequeñas. Usamos datos recolectados en todo el país en unos modelos de regresión logística binomial para examinar la probabilidad de incidencia del manejo, dado el contexto socioeconómico de las comunidades. Contrario a las opiniones predominantes, identificamos una asociación positiva y estadísticamente significativa entre el tamaño poblacional humano y la integración del mercado y entre las tres prácticas de manejo. La densidad poblacional humana, sin embargo, tuvo una asociación negativa estadísticamente significativa y la modernización una asociación variada y limitada con la incidencia de las prácticas de manejo. Nuestro método ofrece una manera para predecir remotamente la incidencia de las prácticas de manejo de recursos con base en características socioeconómicas importantes. El método podría utilizarse para incrementar el conocimiento sobre cómo algunas comunidades llevan a cabo actividades de manejo de recursos naturales cuando los patrones estadísticos sugieren lo contrario y así mejorar el entendimiento de cómo algunas comunidades humanas superan todos los pronósticos a pesar del acceso limitado al mercado y la alta densidad poblacional. Evaluación de Muestras de Gran Tamaño de Pronosticadores Socioeconómicos de la Incidencia del Manejo de Recursos a Nivel Comunitario.社区水平的资源管理工作是确保自然资源可持续利用的基础。然而, 人们对于社区特征如何影响管理实践的认识尚存有争议。本研究利用超过725个社区的样本, 评估了关键社区特征 (即社会经济特征, 包括人口规模与密度、市场一体化水平、现代化水平) 对渔业管理实践 (包括对渔具、物种及空间的限制) 发生概率的影响。我们的研究地点位于所罗门群岛, 这是一个居民高度依赖沿海渔业的太平洋岛国。该地区的人口主要分散在 6个岛屿省及许多较小岛屿上邻近海岸线的小型社区中。我们利用全国数据, 构建了特定社区社会经济背景下的二项式逻辑回归模型, 以检验管理实践的发生概率。不同于主流观点, 我们发现人口规模和市场一体化水平与所有三种管理实践之间均存在统计上显著的正相关关系。然而, 人口密度与管理实践具有统计上显著的负相关关系, 而现代化与三种管理实践之间则存在不一致且有限的相关性。我们的研究方法可作为一种基于关键社会经济特征远程预测资源管理实践发生概率的工具, 有助于更好地理解为什么一些社区会在统计模型表明其不太可能开展自然资源管理活动时仍采取管理实践, 从而深入理解一些社区的人们如何在进入市场的机会有限且人口密度高的情况下战胜不利条件。【翻译:胡怡思; 审校:聂永刚】.

National rates of aquatic food consumption in Pacific Island Countries and Territories are among the highest in the world, yet the region is suffering from extensive levels of diet-related ill health. The aim of this paper is to examine the variation in consumption patterns and in nutrient composition of aquatic foods in the Pacific, to help improve understanding of their contribution to food and nutrition security. For this examination we analysed nutrient composition data and trade data from two novel region-specific databases, as well as consumption data from national and village level surveys for two Melanesian case studies, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands. Results demonstrated that consumption depends on availability and the amount and type of aquatic food consumed, and its contribution to nutrition security varies within different geographic and socio-demographic contexts. More data is needed on locally relevant species and consumption patterns, to better inform dietary guidelines and improve public health both now and into the future. Advice on aquatic food consumption must consider the nutrient composition and quantity of products consumed, as well as accessibility through local food systems, to ensure they contribute to diverse and healthy diets.

Two species of Centrostephanus occur in Australasia, C. rodgersii and C. tenuispinus. Centrostephanus rodgersii is ecologically important in southeastern Australian rocky reefs where its grazing activity results in a mosaic of barrens and macroalgal habitats and because it has extended its range into Tasmania and New Zealand. This has been facilitated by larval transport in the East Australia Current. Despite its ecological similarity to C. rodgersii, C. tenuispinus does not form extensive barres. It is not known if this is due to different characteristics of the two species or of their environment. The creation, persistence and demise of C. rodgersii barrens is a major ecological dynamic in southeastern Australia. Affinity for shelter and nocturnal foraging underlie the mechanism of barrens formation by C. rodgersii. Investigation of the impacts of its range extension has generated major advances in understanding the biology and ecology of C. rodgersii. In Tasmania lobsters and fishes modulate the success of C. rodgersii and creation of barrens habitat. It could be argued that historically, predators in New South Wales played a greater role in regulating sea urchin populations.

Extensive literature describes the importance of food environments (FEs) as a driver of food choices and nutrition outcomes, yet existing FE frameworks do not adequately capture the diversity of FEs relevant to the Pacific Region. This limits identification of opportunities in food systems to reduce the multiple burden of malnutrition. We present a conceptual typology of FEs including six primary FEs relevant in the Pacific, wild, cultivated, kin and community, informal retail, formal retail, and food aid and services. We then apply this typology to food acquisition data from Solomon Islands 2012/13 Household Income and Expenditure Survey and analyse the relationship between FEs and diet quality. The cultivated FE accounts for 60% of the quantity of food acquired nationally, followed by wild (15%), kin and community (9%), and formal and informal retail FEs (8% each), with wide variation between urban and rural households, provinces and wealth groups. Reliance on different FEs is a significant predictor of diet quality and affirms the importance of subsistence fisheries and agriculture, and community and kinship networks. Integration of a FE typology such as the one presented here in commonly conducted household expenditure surveys offers significant opportunity to advance our understanding of food system leverage points to improve nutrition and health.

Interacting social and ecological processes shape productivity and sustainability of island small-scale fisheries (SSF). Understanding limits to productivity through historical catches help frame future expectations and management strategies, but SSF are dispersed and unaccounted, so long-term standardized data are largely absent for such analyses. We analysed 40 years of trade statistics of a SSF product that enter international markets (sea cucumber) from 14 Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICT) against response variables to test predictors of fishery production: (i) scale, (ii) productivity and (iii) socio-economics. Combined production in PICT peaked over 20 years ago, driven by exploitation trends in Melanesia that accounted for 90% of all production since 1971. The size of island fisheries (as measured by total exports), and the duration and magnitude of fishery booms were most influenced by ungovernable environmental variables, in particular land area. The large and high islands of Melanesia sustained larger booms over longer periods than atoll nations. We hypothesize that land area is a proxy for land-based nutrient availability and habitat diversity, and therefore the productivity of the shallow water areas where SSF are operating. PICT need to tailor management based on the intrinsic productivity of shallow inshore habitats: harvests from atoll nations will need to be smaller per unit area than at the high islands. Particularly countries with low productivity fisheries must consider the crucial economic “safety nets” that export SSF make up for dispersed island populations and incorporate them into broader development and island resilience strategies.

Coastal fisheries provide staple food and sources of livelihood in Pacific Island countries, and securing a sustainable supply is recognised as a critical priority for nutrition security. This study sought to better understand the role of fish for Pacific Island communities during disasters and in disaster recovery. To evaluate community impacts and responses after natural disasters, focus group discussions were held with men and women groups at ten sites across Shefa, Tafea, Malampa and Sanma provinces in Vanuatu. The combined impacts of category 5 Tropical Cyclone Pam (TC-Pam) in March 2015 and prolonged El-Nino induced drought have had a profound impact across much of Vanuatu. Terrestrial systems had been disproportionately impacted with substantial shortages in drinking water, garden crops, cash crops and damage to infrastructure. Localized impacts were noted on marine environments from TC-Pam and the drought, along with an earthquake that uplifted reef and destroyed fishing grounds in Malampa province. Communities in Malampa and Shefa provinces also noted a crown-of-thorns outbreak that caused coral mortality. The significant reduction in terrestrial-based food and income generation capacity generally led to increased reliance on marine resources to cope and a shift in diets from local garden food to rice. However, limited market access, lack of fishing skills and technology in many sectors of the community reduced the capacity for marine resources to support recovery. A flexible management approach allowed protected areas and species to be utilized as reservoirs of food and income when temporarily opened to assist recovery. These findings illustrate that fish and fisheries management is at the center of disaster preparedness and relief strategies in remote Pacific Island communities. High physical capital (e.g. infrastructure, water tanks and strong dwellings) is key for disaster preparedness, but supporting community social capital for the purpose of natural resource management and human capital for diverse adaptation skills can also improve community resilience. Recognizing the humanitarian value that well managed fisheries resources and skilled fishers can play to disaster relief adds another dimension to the imperative of improving management of coastal fisheries and aligning policies across sectors.

The coastal zones of Small Island States are hotspots of human habitation and economic endeavour. In the Pacific region, as elsewhere, there are large gaps in understandings of the exposure and vulnerability of people in coastal zones. The 22 Pacific Countries and Territories (PICTs) are poorly represented in global analyses of vulnerability to seaward risks. We combine several data sources to estimate populations to zones 1, 5 and 10 km from the coastline in each of the PICTs. Regional patterns in the proximity of Pacific people to the coast are dominated by Papua New Guinea. Overall, ca. half the population of the Pacific resides within 10 km of the coast but this jumps to 97% when Papua New Guinea is excluded. A quarter of Pacific people live within 1 km of the coast, but without PNG this increases to slightly more than half. Excluding PNG, 90% of Pacific Islanders live within 5 km of the coast. All of the population in the coral atoll nations of Tokelau and Tuvalu live within a km of the ocean. Results using two global datasets, the SEDAC-CIESIN Gridded Population of the World v4 (GPWv4) and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Landscan differed: Landscan under-dispersed population, overestimating numbers in urban centres and underestimating population in rural areas and GPWv4 over-dispersed the population. In addition to errors introduced by the allocation models of the two methods, errors were introduced as artefacts of allocating households to 1 km x 1 km grid cell data (30 arc-seconds) to polygons. The limited utility of LandScan and GPWv4 in advancing this analysis may be overcome with more spatially resolved census data and the inclusion of elevation above sea level as an important dimension of vulnerability.

Compare estimates of the numbers of people living within 1, 5, and 10 km from the coast in Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs). These distances are somewhat arbitrary, but in the absence of generally agreed definitions of the ‘coastal zone’ and of more integrated analyses that include elevation above sea level, livelihood portfolios and other measure of exposure to the ocean, they provide a logical basis for the analyses. Three coastal zones at 1, 5, and 10 km were mapped onto every populated island for each PICT. People residing within 1 km were considered to live on the coast, those within 5 km included those who could still easily walk to the coast and 10 km, those who interact with coastal communities (e.g. in terms of access to markets or other activities) and who would be able to easily get to the coast with some form of transport. The two global datasets used to spatially distribute populations were the SEDAC-CIESIN Gridded Population of the World v4 and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory LandScan™. GPWv4 is a minimally modelled population dataset that uniformly distributes census data from their native enumeration areas. LandScan™ allocates population census data using dasymetric cartographic techniques relying on ancillary data such as land cover, roads, terrain slope, urban extent, and accessibility to model population density at 30 arc-second grid resolution within administrative boundaries. Both global datasets distributed populations within enumeration areas to 30 arc second cells (approximate 1 km2 at the Equator). The following protocol explains the workflow used to calculate the Coastal Population Estimates for PICTs. The protocol involves three main steps: Generation of 1, 5 and 10 km coastal buffers Spatial disaggregation of the census population datasets using one of the three methods based on data availability. This step is not applicable for the global population grids. Overlay the coastal buffer mask on the disaggregated population datasets and sum the population contained within the coastal buffers to calculate the percentage of the country’s population within each of the three coastal zones.

Coastal communities in regions like the Pacific have been impacted by COVID-19 related public health measures that limit the movement of people, trade and access to resources. In disaster-prone countries, like Vanuatu, such measures add to existing pressures on coastal communities’ adaptive capacity. To understand how coastal communities in Vanuatu were impacted in the immediate period after COVID-19 measures were placed, and how people responded to the changing circumstances, a rapid appraisal survey was carried out following a nationally declared state of emergency in March 2020. Results reveal changes in village population, loss of cash income, difficulties in accessing food and shifting pressures on particular resources and habitats. The findings provide insights into the ways local adaptive capacity to satisfy livelihood and food security needs differed among rural contexts. From this we argue that broad quantitative impact assessments are important in guiding strategic and longer term responses and adaptations, but that these are made more useful when complemented with qualitative insights on people and place in the short-term., Highlights • Local context and compounding disruptions determined the severity of early COVID-19 impacts on coastal communities. • Livelihood dependence on cash economy (e.g. inter-island trade) formed a vulnerability under COVID-19 measures. • During disruptions, coastal communities relied primarily on home gardens for food, and on fish as a fall-back food source. • COVID-19 measures led to disproportionately more fishing in inshore zones in some coastal communities.

Global seafood sourcing networks are expanding to meet demand. To describe contemporary fishery expansion patterns, we analyzed the worldwide exploitation of sea cucumber (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea) traded via Hong Kong for consumers in China. In just 15 years (1996–2011), the sea cucumber sourcing network expanded from 35 to 83 countries; sea cucumber fisheries serving the Chinese market now operate within countries cumulatively spanning over 90% of the world's tropical coastlines. The emergence of such fisheries in nations where they were previously absent could not be explained either by their national governance capacity or by their distance from Hong Kong. Surging imports from these new fisheries have compensated for declines in long-standing fisheries elsewhere. The case of commercial sea cucumber trade for the Chinese market exemplifies a new global extraction phenomenon that we call contagious resource exploitation – a fast-moving system resembling a disease epidemic, where long-distance transp...

Successful management of socio-ecological systems not only requires the development and field-testing of robust and measurable indices of vulnerability and resilience but also improved understanding of the contextual factors that influence societal capacity to adapt to change. We present the results of an analysis conducted in three coastal communities in Solomon Islands. An integrated assessment map was used to systematically scan the communities’ multiple dimensions of vulnerability and to identify factors affecting households’ perception about their capacity to cope with shocks (resilience). A multivariate probit approach was used to explore relationships amongst factors. Social processes such as community cohesion, good leadership, and individual support to collective action were critical factors influencing the perception that people had about their community's ability to build resilience and cope with change. The analysis also suggests a growing concern for a combination of local (internal) and more global (external) contingencies and shocks, such as the erosion of social values and fear of climate change.

Fishing communities are often recognised as being amongst the poorest in developing countries, and interventions targeted at improving resource status seen as central in the fight against poverty. A series of field assessments focusing on vulnerability conducted in two communities in Mali and Nigeria revealed some counterintuitive results. Despite fishing being the primary livelihood, vulnerabilities relating directly to the state of the resource were ranked lower than those relating to basic human needs. Those results challenge the conventional view and suggest that non-sectoral interventions can have more effective impacts on the livelihood of those communities than interventions targeting the resources. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Lake Chilwa produces between zero and 24,000 metric tons of fish per year, making it one of the most productive but variable lakes in Africa. The size of the lake varies seasonally and among years, sometimes drying completely. Its surrounding wetland and floodplain provide habitat for a diversity of birds and economically valuable grasses and reeds. When the lake has water, there is considerable activity on its shores and temporary fishing villages spring up. People move in and out of the lake basin in concert with these seasonal and longer term changes. This paper examines the environmental dynamics of Lake Chilwa and its surrounding wetlands, presents an overview of the socio-economic context of the area and discusses threats to this resilient system that might occur as a result of climate change. We conclude that management of Lake Chilwa must place the lake in the wider economic and ecological system in which it is situated. Ultimately, land-use practices within the basin present more of a threat to the resilience of the fishery and people's livelihoods than overfishing or a strict focus on the lake's resources. These perspectives present significant challenges to conventional fisheries governance.

Marine reserves exhibit increases in targeted fish species, but long-term effects on biodiversity are poorly understood. Factors other than reserve status may affect decadal changes, including environmental change. We examined the fish fauna at the iconic Poor Knights Islands over 4 decades (1974–2016) before and after implementation of a no-take marine reserve in 1998. We document a substantial increase in commercially and recreationally targeted Chrysophrys auratus, which was virtually absent before 1994 but by 2016 had reached up to 11 fish per 500m2 (220 per hectare). There were also large changes to the fish community, including the decline of subtropical and coastal wrasses, some species with no change and others that increased significantly. Many declines occurred >20 years before the arrival of abundant C. auratus, suggesting the changes do not represent a trophic cascade. Furthermore, this normally benthic-feeding fish has adopted a mid-water foraging behaviour targeting planktivorous fish. The increase in C. auratus appears to be linked both to reserve status and catch regulations in the wider region. Overall, the data point to long-term environmental fluctuations from the late 1970s having a negative effect on the abundance of more than half the reef fish species at these islands.

Anthropogenic global warming has significantly influenced physical and biological processes at global and regional scales. The observed and anticipated changes in global climate present significant opportunities and challenges for societies and economies. We compare the vulnerability of 132 national economies to potential climate change impacts on their capture fisheries using an indicator-based approach. Countries in Central and Western Africa (e.g. Malawi, Guinea, Senegal, and Uganda), Peru and Colombia in north-western South America, and four tropical Asian countries (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan, and Yemen) were identified as most vulnerable. This vulnerability was due to the combined effect of predicted warming, the relative importance of fisheries to national economies and diets, and limited societal capacity to adapt to potential impacts and opportunities. Many vulnerable countries were also among the world’s least developed countries whose inhabitants are among the world’s poorest and twice as reliant on fish, which provides 27% of dietary protein compared to 13% in less vulnerable countries. These countries also produce 20% of the world’s fish exports and are in greatest need of adaptation planning to maintain or enhance the contribution that fisheries can make to poverty reduction. Although the precise impacts and direction of climate-driven change for particular fish stocks and fisheries are uncertain, our analysis suggests they are likely to lead to either increased economic hardship or missed opportunities for development in countries that depend upon fisheries but lack the capacity to adapt.

Predicting the dynamics of ecosystems requires an understanding of how trophic interactions respond to environmental change. In Antarctic marine ecosystems, food web dynamics are inextricably linked to sea ice conditions that affect the nature and magnitude of primary food sources available to higher trophic levels. Recent attention on the changing sea ice conditions in polar seas highlights the need to better understand how marine food webs respond to changes in such broad-scale environmental drivers. This study investigated the importance of sea ice and advected primary food sources to the structure of benthic food webs in coastal Antarctica. We compared the isotopic composition of several seafloor taxa (including primary producers and invertebrates with a variety of feeding modes) that are widely distributed in the Antarctic. We assessed shifts in the trophic role of numerically dominant benthic omnivores at five coastal Ross Sea locations. These locations vary in primary productivity and food availability, due to their different levels of sea ice cover, and proximity to polynyas and advected primary production. The delta15N signatures and isotope mixing model results for the bivalves Laternula elliptica and Adamussium colbecki and the urchin Sterechinus neumeyeri indicate a shift from consumption of a higher proportion of detritus at locations with more permanent sea ice in the south to more freshly produced algal material associated with proximity to ice-free water in the north and east. The detrital pathways utilized by many benthic species may act to dampen the impacts of large seasonal fluctuations in the availability of primary production. The limiting relationship between sea ice distribution and in situ primary productivity emphasizes the role of connectivity and spatial subsidies of organic matter in fueling the food web. Our results begin to provide a basis for predicting how benthic ecosystems will respond to changes in sea ice persistence and extent along environmental gradients in the high Antarctic.

Photosynthetic characteristics of the red macroalgae Phyllophora antarctica and Phymatolithon foecundum collected from under sea ice at Cape Evans, McMurdo Sound (Ross Sea) were determined using in situ fluorometric and lab-based oxygen exchange techniques. Only 0.16% of incident irradiance penetrated the 2.5 m thick ice cover and photosynthetic parameters for both taxa were characteristic of highly shade-adapted plants. Saturation onset parameter (E k) did not exceed 13 μmol photons m-2 s-1 in either taxon. For Phyllophora antarctica the light saturated photosynthetic rate at –1°C was 10 μmol O2 g-1 FW h-1 and respiration averaged 3.3 μmol O2 g-1 FW h-1 between sampled depths of 10 and 25 m. A light meter deployed at 15 m depth for a year recorded a marked increase in underwater irradiance on the last day of January 2002 coinciding with ice-breakout, and a maximum value for irradiance of 120 μmol photons m-2 s-1 on 9 February 2002. The 2-month ice-free period was the only time when irradiance consistently exceeded compensation (photosynthesis=respiration) and enabled Phyllophora antarctica to accumulate sufficient carbon to result in a measurable increase in thallus area equivalent to a biomass increment of 1.87 mg (DW) per frond. Near the southern global limit for marine macroalgae, conditions that dictate the availability of underwater irradiance are extremely variable from year to year. Low respiration rates enhance longevity of the Phyllophora antarctica thallus, enabling it to not only survive the winter darkness, but also to retain photosynthetic capacity and thus take advantage of windows of higher irradiance.

Fish aggregating devices, or FADs, are used widely in developing countries to concentrate pelagic fish, making them easier to catch. Nearshore FADs anchored close to the coast allow access for rural communities, but despite their popularity among policy makers, there is a dearth of empirical analysis of their contributions to the supply of fish and to fisheries management. In this paper we demonstrate that nearshore FADs increased the supply of fish to four communities in Solomon Islands. Estimated total annual fish catch ranged from 4300 to 12,000 kg across the study villages, with nearshore FADs contributing up to 45% of the catch. While it is clear that FADs increased the supply of fish, FAD catch rates were not consistently higher than other fishing grounds. Villages with limited access to diverse or productive fishing grounds seemingly utilized FADs to better effect. Villagers believed FADs increased household income and nutrition, as well as providing a source of fish for community events. FADs were also perceived to increase intra-household conflict and reduce fishers' participation in community activities. FADs need to be placed within a broader rural development context and treated as another component in the diversified livelihoods of rural people; as with other livelihood options they bring trade-offs and risks.

Centrostephanus rodgersii is ecologically important on southeastern Australian rocky reefs, where its grazing activity results in a mosaic of barrens and macroalgal habitats. The creation, persistence and demise of C. rodgersii barrens is a major ecological dynamic in this region. Affinity for shelter and nocturnal foraging underlie the mechanism of barrens formation by C. rodgersii. Centrostephanus rodgersii has undergone a range extension into Tasmania facilitated by larval transport in the Eastern Australia Current. Investigation of the impacts of this extension has generated major advances in understanding the biology and ecology of C. rodgersii. In Tasmania lobsters and fishes modulate the success of C. rodgersii and creation of barrens habitat. It could be argued that historically, predators in New South Wales played a greater role in regulating sea urchin populations but this hypothesis remains untested.

© 2012 Elsevier Ltd. The Asia-Pacific's Coral Triangle is defined by its extremely high marine biodiversity. Over one hundred million people living in its coastal zones use this biodiversity to support their livelihoods. Hundreds of millions more derive nutritious food directly from the region's marine resources and through local, regional and global trade. Biodiversity and its values to society are threatened by demographic and habitat change, rising demand, intensive harvesting and climate change. In partnership with international conservation organisations and development funders, the governments of the region's six countries have come together to develop the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security. The CTI has explicit goals and defined targets for marine biodiversity conservation, but not for the food security of the region's marine-resource dependent people, despite this being the wider aim used to justify conservation action. This article suggests how the food security aim of the CTI could be made more explicit. It outlines the complex pathways linking marine biodiversity with food security and argues that improved social science analysis, inter-sectoral policy and management interactions are necessary if conserving marine biodiversity is to contribute towards meeting food security challenges in the region.

In this paper we examine ways Sahelian floodplain fishers have adapted to the strong environmental variations that have affected the region in the last two decades. We analyse their vulnerability and adaptive capacity in the face of expected changes in rainfall combined with the predicted effects of dam construction. Data from the Inner Niger Delta in Mali were used to show that fishers were highly sensitive to past and recent variations in the hydro-climatic conditions. Moreover, it appears their traditional livelihood strategies, although diversified, sophisticated and well suited to historical conditions, offer a limited set of options to adapt to increased environmental constraints. For fish-dependent households that have adopted a mixed set of activities through farming, the high seasonality and constraints characterizing both their main activities (fishing and farming) does not allow switching between activities. For those households that undertake seasonal fishing migrations, there is little opportunity to modify migration routes or find new settlements sites inside the delta because of the high population density in this area. In sum, although the adoption of diversified and spatially discrete patterns in livelihood activities is often presented as a strategy to reduce vulnerability, such a strategy does not appear sufficient to allow fishers of the delta to successfully face the increasing constraints associated with the changes in hydro-climatic conditions. In such a context, fishing communities will be driven towards more drastic strategies of adaptation and/or coping such as switching to new activities based on agricultural innovations or emigration from the delta. Both strategies present many hazards, particularly in the absence of supportive public policy.

This chapter examines the multiple dimensions of poverty and related 'state of being' such as vulnerability and social exclusion, with reference to several important aspects of vulnerability, including gender, climate change, HIV/AIDS and child labour.

This chapter discusses the collection of data on small-scale fisheries in developing countries, the limitations of national data systems and progress in synthesizing collected data.

The sea urchin Centrostephanus rodgersii is important in determining biogenic habitat structure on rocky reefs in New South Wales. Individual C. rodgersii, in common with other diadematids, are found in shelters during the day, from which they emerge to forage at night and maintain patches of barrens habitat. The effect of availability of shelter on the foraging behavior of C. rodgersii, and on the abundance of benthic invertebrates and algae, was investigated by a field experiment. Physical heterogeneity in the form of large boulders were translocated between the barrens and Ecklonia forest habitats and arranged so as to either maximize or minimize shelter. The fauna and flora on translocated boulders became progressively similar to that found in the surrounding habitat. Most obvious of these changes were reductions in the density of foliose algae on boulders moved from Ecklonia forest to barrens and reductions in the density of limpets in the reverse translocation. C. rodgersii recruited to all treatments irrespective of where the boulders came from, where they were moved to, and the amount of shelter provided. The availability of shelter was clearly a sufficient condition for the creation of areas of barrens habitat. The reliance on shelter by these sea urchins makes their local distribution and, therefore, that of the barrens habitat, more predictable than in other temperate regions.

Shallow subtidal areas of rocky reefs in central and southern New South Wales may best be described as a mosaic of habitats, the distributions of which are seemingly related to depth, wave exposure and a number of biological processes, particularly herbivory. The Fringe habitat is generally found only in the most shallow waters. Forests of the laminarian alga Ecklonia radiata are often found at intermediate depths. In deeper, or more sheltered water, sponges, ascidians and red algae are more abundant and the abundances of sea urchins and other invertebrate grazers decline. Overlying this broad-brush pattern are patches of crustose coralline algae (the Barrens habitat), the distributions of which are not clearly related to depth. Invertebrate herbivores, and sea urchins in particular, are abundant in the Barrens habitat. The Barrens habitat was most represented at the more southern locations. At the two most northern locations, reefs were shorter in length and dominated by ascidians (Pyura species).

Early ecological research in McMurdo Sound revealed local spatial gradients in community structure associated with variations in anchor ice disturbance, fast ice and snow cover, and the effects of predators. Research contrasting the east and west sides of McMurdo Sound has shown major differences in benthic communities, which have been attributed to oceanographic influences on the advection of water-column productivity and the frequency of fast ice break-out. Despite these regional and local differences, coastal benthic communities in McMurdo Sound show a high level of stability, and contain a variety of large and potentially very long-lived species. In Terra Nova Bay, about half way along the Victoria Land Coast of the western Ross Sea, the coastal benthic communities provide some insightful contrasts with those in McMurdo Sound. For example, the abundance and depth distribution of dominant species such as Sterechinus neumayeri and Adamussium colbecki are markedly different from McMurdo Sound. In both locations communities dominated by large sponges are most prolific in regions that are free from iceberg disturbance of the seabed. A recent assessment of northern Victoria Land coastal benthic communities, in conjunction with multibeam imagery of the seafloor, further highlights the importance of iceberg disturbance in structuring Antarctic benthic communities. A comparative synthesis of these coastal ecological studies enables us to generate hypotheses concerning the relative importance of different environmental drivers in structuring benthic communities. Overlain on the regular latitudinal shifts in physical factors such as light regime, are regional fluctuations that are controlled by atmospheric and oceanographic circulation patterns and coastal topography/bathymetry. Change in diversity along the western coast of the Ross Sea is predicted to be influenced by three main factors (1) ice disturbance (e.g., via anchor ice and advection of supercooled water or icebergs), (2) photosynthetically available radiation (affected by ice and snow cover and water clarity), (3) the locations of polynyas and advection of planktonic production and larvae. Interactions between these factors are expected to result in non-linear changes along the latitudinal gradient. While predictions generated from these hypotheses remain to be rigorously tested, they provide indications of how benthic communities may respond to changes in production, disturbance and the stability of coastal sea ice.

World production of sea urchins peaked in 1995, when 120 306 t were landed. Chile dominates world production, producing more than half the world's total landings of 90 257 t in 1998. Other important fisheries are found in Japan, Maine, British Columbia, California, South Korea, New Brunswick, Russia, Mexico, Alaska, Nova Scotia, and in a number of countries that produced less than 1000 t in 1998. Aside from the Chilean fishery for Loxechinus albus, most harvest is of Strongylocentrotus spp., particularly S. intermedius, S. franciscanus, and S. droebachiensis. Only a small minority of fisheries have been formally assessed and in the absence of such assessments it is difficult to determine whether fisheries are overfished or whether the large declines observed in many represent the "fish down" of accumulated biomass. Nevertheless, those in Chile, Japan, Maine, California and Washington and a number of smaller fisheries, have declined considerably since their peaks and are likely to be overfished. Fisheries in Japan, South Korea and the Philippines have been enhanced by reseeding hatchery-reared juveniles and by modifying reefs to increase their structural complexity and to promote the growth of algae. Sea urchin fisheries have potentially large ecological effects, usually mediated through increases in the abundance and biomass of large brown algae. Although such effects may have important consequences for management of these and related fisheries, only in Nova Scotia, South Korea and Japan is ecological knowledge incorporated into management.

In this paper we describe the construction of an online GIS database system, hosted by WorldFish, which stores bio-physical, ecological and socio-economic data for the ‘Coral Triangle Area’ in South-east Asia and the Pacific. The database has been built in partnership with all six (Timor-Leste, Malaysia, Indonesia, The Philippines, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea) of the Coral Triangle countries, and represents a valuable source of information for natural resource managers at the regional scale. Its utility is demonstrated using biophysical data, data summarising marine habitats, and data describing the extent of marine protected areas in the region.

This chapter presents an overview of the ecology of Centrostephanus rodgersii that exerts a profound influence on the ecology of the shallow subtidal in New South Wales. At its northern limit in Australia, Centrostephanus co-occurs with corals at the Solitary Islands in northern New South Wales and at its southern limit, along the Tasman Peninsula in Tasmania. They are widely found with coldwater algae such as Macrocystis pyrifera and Durvillaea potatorum. This chapter also focuses on the two species of Centrostephanus in Australasia—that is, the Centrostephanus rodgersii and Centrostephanus tenuispinus. The chapter also presents a photograph of Green Cape, New South Wales, where the darker margin of the reef is Fringe habitat and expansive areas of pale gray are Barrens habitat. Within the Fringe, Centrostephanus may be abundant and maintain patches free of large brown algae, but more often occurs in crevices and depressions. Centrostephanus is most abundant between 2 and 20 m where it forms extensive areas of Barrens habitat.

Aerial photography was used to estimate the representation of shallow subtidal habitats in New South Wales. Sixty sites, each between 4 and 5 hectares, were mapped with Geographical Information Systems software using ortho-rectified images digitized from 1:8000-scale photographs and ‘ground truthed’ in the field by divers. Barrens habitat covered an estimated 50% (s.e. = 3.9) of nearshore reefs between Port Stephens and Disaster Bay. Coverage of barrens habitat was greatest in Disaster Bay (68%, s.e. = 6.7) and least south of Disaster Bay (1%, s.e. = 0.3). There were clear differences among localities in the area of reef within the mapped sites; those at Cape Howe, Nadgee, and Turingal were significantly smaller in area than all others. There was no clear latitudinal trend in these differences but there was evidence of sand inundation at a site at Nadgee, where the reef was small. Differences in the densities and size-structure of the sea urchin Centrostephanus rodgersiiat 27 of the mapped sites provide a basis for testing relationships between the demography of this species and the persistence of the barrens habitat. The extensive coverage of the barrens habitat in New South Wales is likely to limit the productivity of the abalone industry. The development of a sea urchin fishery may have large impacts on habitat representation on nearshore reefs.