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Marine spatial management is an important step in regulating the sustainable use of marine resources and preserving habitats and species. The systematic conservation planning software "Marxan" was used to analyse the effect of different conservation objectives and targets on the design of a network of marine protected areas around two islands of the Azores archipelago, Northeast Atlantic. The analyses integrated spatial patterns of the abundance and reproductive potential of multispecies, the vulnerability of fish to fishing, habitat type, algae biotopes, and socio-economic costs and benefits (including fishing effort and recreational activities). Three scenarios focused on fisheries-related objectives ("fisheries scenarios", FSs) and three on multiple-use and biodiversity conservation objectives ("biodiversity scenarios", BSs), respectively. Three different protection targets were compared for each set, the existing, minimum, and maximum levels of protection, whereas conservation features were weighted according to their biologically/ecologically functioning. Results provided contrasting solutions for site selection and identified potential gaps in the existing design. The influence of the conservation objective on site selection was most evident when minimum target levels were applied. Otherwise, solutions for FSs and BSs were very similar and mostly shaped by the protection level. More important, BSs that considered opportunity cost and benefits achieved conservation targets more cost-efficiently. The presented systematic approach ensures that targets for habitats with high fish abundance, fecundity, and vulnerability are achieved efficiently. It should be of high applicability for adaptive management processes to improve the effectiveness of existing spatial management practices, in particular when fishing and leisure activities coexist, and suggest that decision-makers should account for multiple users' costs and benefits when designing and implementing marine reserve networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colaço, A., Bettencourt, R., Costa, V., Lino, S., Lopes, H., Martins, I., Pires, L., Prieto, C., and Serrão Santos, R. 2011. LabHorta: a controlled aquarium system for monitoring physiological characteristics of the hydrothermal vent mussel Bathymodiolus azoricus. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68: 349–356.LabHorta is a facility composed of laboratories and retrievable deep-sea cages created to support and expand the capabilities of research cruises. It also enhances the ability to conduct experimental studies with organisms from deep-sea hydrothermal vents and other deep-sea environments, while keeping them under controlled conditions of pressure and water chemistry. This paper presents a case study with the vent mussel Bathymodiolus azoricus (which harbours a dual symbiosis) collected at the Menez Gwen hydrothermal vent field at 840-m depth, transported to experimental aquaria at atmospheric pressure and maintained under four different controlled experimental conditions to study their comparative condition index (CI). Environmental parameters were monitored daily and efforts were made to keep these constant. During the first few months, there were differences between the CI scores of mussels kept under the various conditions. After 6 months, the differences are not so clear but mussels still had sulphur-oxidizing bacteria when fed with sulphide. The methane oxidizer bacteria disappear even in the presence of methane. A range of CI scores appeared as a function of the culture type. The LabHorta facility is a good tool for performing long-term physiological studies of deep-sea organisms, simulating possible changes in the natural environmental where they normally thrive. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Bettencourt, R., Costa, V., Laranjo, M., Rosa, D., Pires, L., Colaço, A., Lopes, H., and Serrão Santos, R. 2011. Out of the deep sea into a land-based aquarium environment: investigating physiological adaptations in the hydrothermal vent mussel Bathymodiolus azoricus. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68: 357–364.Deep-sea hydrothermal vents are considered to be some of the most extreme environments in the world, yet the animals dwelling around the vent sites exhibit high productivity and must therefore deal with unusual levels of heavy metals, pH, temperature, CO2, and sulphides, in addition to environmental microbes. In an attempt to understand the physiological reactions of animals able to endure these extreme conditions, adaptation processes in the mussel Bathymodiolus azoricus maintained for long periods under laboratory conditions were investigated. Even in the absence of the characteristic high hydrostatic pressure found at deep-sea vent sites and without methane and/or sulphide supplementation, vent mussels seem to survive well in aquarium conditions. Therefore, the maintenance of live vent mussels in our laboratory is a key factor in gaining insights into their physiology, as well as into the study of evolutionary conserved molecules commonly found in other marine bivalves. With the aim of finding distinct genetic signatures in the expression of genes such as the metal-binding protein metallothionein (MT), the present work centred on cellular and humoral mechanisms in animals acclimatized to “sea-level” conditions. In addition, we also conducted experiments under hydrostatic pressure, using the hyperbaric chamber IPOCAMP to establish an in vitro experimental system in which the expression of genes that typically respond to heavy metal contaminants and oxidative stress could be studied under controlled hyperbaric pressure. We also analysed the occurrence of glycosylation in mantle and gill tissues from mussels subjected to elevated hyperbaric pressure, as well as the variation in haemocyte total counts as a result of increased pressure. Our results suggest that even after prolonged aquarium maintenance at atmospheric pressure, mussels were still able to induce the MT gene, whether or not they had been subjected to repressurization in the IPOCAMP chamber. Taken together, our results suggest that B. azoricus can be used as a model species and is particularly useful for the assessment of expression levels of critical genes, such as MT, in response to experimentally induced hydrostatic pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Amorim, P., Figueiredo, M., Machete, M., Morato, T., Martins, A., and Serrão Santos, R. 2009. Spatial variability of seabird distribution associated with environmental factors: a case study of marine Important Bird Areas in the Azores. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 29–40.The spatial structure and distribution at sea of Cory's shearwaters (Calonectris diomedea borealis), common terns (Sterna hirundo), and roseate terns (Sterna dougallii) were analysed in the Azores for various environmental factors: sea surface temperature, chlorophyll a concentration, distance to fronts, wind, distance to island shore or tern colonies, distance to seamounts, seabed slope, and depth. Data on seabird sightings were collected by observers on board fishing vessels, 2002–2006. Generalized linear modelling (GLM) explained 43 and 11% of the abundance variability for terns (both species pooled) and Cory's shearwaters, respectively. Variability in seabird abundance was mainly explained by month, wind, distance to shore and/or tern colonies, and distance to seamounts. Variogram modelling indicated that species distribution presented a small-scale spatial structure (i.e. low autocorrelation). Cory's shearwater predictive distribution maps showed widespread distribution patterns of abundance, despite occurring at a greater intensity around the islands and around some seamounts, which are areas of fishery interest. Conversely, terns were essentially concentrated near the shore. The establishment of marine important bird areas should be encouraged close to seabird colonies and around some seamount areas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the Azorean rock-pool blenny, sexually active males may adopt alternative reproductive tactics. In the present paper the relationship between the presence of satellite males and the reproductive success of nest-holders was investigated by comparing nests with and without an associated satellite male. Males with an associated satellite male suffered more conspecific intrusions but they did not display a higher frequency of attacks towards conspecifics. Nest-holder males were more aggressive towards other conspecifics than towards satellites and the tolerance of nest-holders towards satellites was inversely correlated with the time spent by the satellites in the breeding territory, which suggests control by the nest-holder male of the satellite investment in shared territorial defence. Nest-holders with an associated satellite male had higher condition factors and received more female visits and more spawnings. These results bear two possible interpretations. (1) Nest-holders benefit from the presence of a satellite male by increased attractiveness of their nests to females; satellite males are mutualists helping to defend the nest-owner's territory and to attract females, which is why they are tolerated. (2) Satellite males associate preferentially with more successful nest-holder males which have higher condition factors, and by doing so have more opportunities to achieve parasitic fertilizations. Only experiments will allow these two hypotheses to be distinguished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]