Search

Electronic Participation (eParticipation) enables citizens to engage in political and decision-making processes using information and communication technologies. As in many other fields, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has recently started to dictate some of the realities of eParticipation. As a result, an increasing number of studies are investigating the use of AI in eParticipation. The aim of this paper is to map current research on the use of AI in eParticipation. Following PRISMA methodology, the authors identified 235 relevant papers in Web of Science and Scopus and selected 46 studies for review. For analysis purposes, an analysis framework was constructed that combined eParticipation elements (namely actors, activities, effects, contextual factors, and evaluation) with AI elements (namely areas, algorithms, and algorithm evaluation). The results suggest that certain eParticipation actors and activities, as well as AI areas and algorithms, have attracted significant attention from researchers. However, many more remain largely unexplored. The findings can be of value to both academics looking for unexplored research fields and practitioners looking for empirical evidence on what works and what does not.

Marine biota are redistributing at a rapid pace in response to climate change and shifting seascapes. While changes in fish populations and community structure threaten the sustainability of fisheries, our capacity to adapt by tracking and projecting marine species remains a challenge due to data discontinuities in biological observations, lack of data availability, and mismatch between data and real species distributions. To assess the extent of this challenge, we review the global status and accessibility of ongoing scientific bottom trawl surveys. In total, we gathered metadata for 283,925 samples from 95 surveys conducted regularly from 2001 to 2019. We identified that 59% of the metadata collected are not publicly available, highlighting that the availability of data is the most important challenge to assess species redistributions under global climate change. Given that the primary purpose of surveys is to provide independent data to inform stock assessment of commercially important populations, we further highlight that single surveys do not cover the full range of the main commercial demersal fish species. An average of 18 surveys is needed to cover at least 50% of species ranges, demonstrating the importance of combining multiple surveys to evaluate species range shifts. We assess the potential for combining surveys to track transboundary species redistributions and show that differences in sampling schemes and inconsistency in sampling can be overcome with spatio-temporal modeling to follow species density redistributions. In light of our global assessment, we establish a framework for improving the management and conservation of transboundary and migrating marine demersal species. We provide directions to improve data availability and encourage countries to share survey data, to assess species vulnerabilities, and to support management adaptation in a time of climate-driven ocean changes.

Abstract Climate change (CC) can alter the configuration of marine ecosystems; however, ecosystem response and resilience to change are usually case‐specific. The effect of CC on the demersal resources of the Aegean Sea (east Mediterranean Sea) was investigated during the past six decades applying a combination of multivariate analysis, non‐additive modeling and the Integrated Resilience Assessment (IRA) framework. We focused on the study of: (i) the biological “system” complex, using proxies of biomass (landings per unit of capacity) for 12 demersal taxa, and (ii) the environmental “stressor” complex, described by 12 abiotic variables. Pronounced changes have occurred in both the environmental and biological system over the studied period. The majority of the environmental stressors exhibited strikingly increasing trends (temperature, salinity, primary production indices) with values started exceeding the global historical means during late 1980s‐early 1990s. It is suggested that the biological system exhibited a discontinuous response to CC, with two apparently climate‐induced regime shifts occurring in the past 25 years. There is evidence for two‐fold bifurcations and four tipping points in the system, forming a folded stability landscape with three basins of attraction. The shape of the stability landscape for the Aegean Sea's biological system suggests that while the initial state (1966–1991) was rather resilient to CC, absorbing two environmental step‐changes, this was not the case for the two subsequent ones (intermediate: 1992–2002; recent: 2003–2016). Given the current trajectory of environmental change, it is highly unlikely that the biological system will ever return to its pre‐1990s state, as it is entering areas of unprecedented climatic conditions and there is some evidence that the system may be even shifting toward a new state. Our approach and findings may be relevant to other marine areas of the Mediterranean and beyond, undergoing climate‐driven regime shifts, and can assist to their adaptive management.

Research question: This paper investigates the impact that specific audit quality dimensions have upon European Union Banks’ income smoothing behavior. Motivation: Although previous studies have investigated the characteristics of audit quality, little is known about the audit quality in the banking sector. Excessive risk taking and business complexity may further impair auditors’ work and an audit’s outcome may be conditioned upon banks’ risk. Idea: We examine whether auditors’ independence influences bank managers’ decision to smooth income and whether this attribute depends on bank risk and systemic importance. We investigate the association between auditors’ industry specialization and auditors’ tenure with the level of Loan Loss Provisions Data: We use a sample of 133 banks from 26 European Union countries for the period 2006-2013. Tools: Similar to previous research, we use ordinary least squares analysis to test the results. Findings: Empirical findings provide evidence that the auditors’ industry expertise limits management’s discretion of high-risk banks to a greater extent relative to low risk banks. In contrast, our results imply that banks that retain the same auditor for a consecutive fiscal year are more likely to engage in income smoothing through LLPs. Furthermore, our study examines whether audit quality dimensions have different outcomes on income smoothing decisions between globally systemically important banks (GSIBs) and the rest of banks. Our results provide evidence that the impact of industry specialization and auditor tenure on EU banks accounting policy decisions differs between GSIBs and non-GSIBs. Contribution: Our analysis contributes in the existing body of research by focusing on the impact of audit quality on managements’ accounting discretion and the influence of banks’ special attributes on the audit process.

The natural mortality rate (M) of a fish stock is typically highly influential on the outcome of age-structured stock assessment models, but at the same time extremely difficult to estimate. In data-limited stock assessments, M usually relies on a range of empirically or theoretically derived M estimates, which can vary vastly. This article aims at evaluating the impact of this variability in M using seven Mediterranean stocks as case studies of statistical catch-at-age assessments for information-limited fisheries. The two main bodies carrying out stock assessments in the Mediterranean and Black Seas are European Union’s Scientific Technical Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) and Food and Agriculture Organization’s General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM). Current advice in terms of fishing mortality levels is based on a single “best” M assumption which is agreed by stock assessment expert working groups, but uncertainty about M is not taken into consideration. Our results demonstrate that not accounting for the uncertainty surrounding M during the assessment process can lead to strong underestimation or overestimation of fishing mortality, potentially biasing the management process. We recommend carrying out relevant sensitivity analyses to improve stock assessment and fisheries management in data-limited areas such as the Mediterranean basin.

There is a growing number of methods to assess data-limited stocks. However, most of these methods require at least some basic data, such as commercial catches and life history information. Meanwhile, there are many commercial stocks with an even higher level of data limitation, for which the inference of stock status and the formulation of advice remain challenging. Here, we present a stepwise approach to achieve the best possible understanding of extremely data-limited stocks and facilitate their management. As a case study we use a stock of the shrimp Plesionika edwardsii (Decapoda, Pandalidae) from the eastern Mediterranean Sea, where the only available data was a sub-optimal sample of length frequencies coming from a small-scale trap fishery. We use a suite of different methods to explore and process the data, estimate the growth parameters, estimate the natural and fishing mortalities, and approximate the reference points, in order to provide a preliminary evaluation of stock status. We implement multiple methods for each step of this process, highlighting the strong and weak points of each one of them. Our approach illustrates the better insights that can be gained by applying ensembles of models, rather than a single ‘best’ model when working with limited data of poor quality. The stepwise approach we propose here is transferable to other extremely data-limited stocks to elucidate their status and inform their management.

A systematic European Union (EU)-wide data framework for the collection of fisheries data in support of the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) was first implemented in 2002. Since that time, EU data collection regulation has undergone 2 revisions in response to evolving policy needs. The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) is responsible for conducting research and providing advice on fisheries management under the CFP, and since 2005 has worked closely with the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF). JRC and STECF have an open data policy, and aggregated data submitted by EU member states in response to data calls issued under the provisions of the data collection regulation are published via the website of the STECF. This paper provides an overview of the fisheries data activities carried out by the JRC in support of and in collaboration with the STECF and discusses some of the benefits and drawbacks of such activities.

Abstract The effect of elevation on bat species richness and activity was investigated in shrublands of central Crete (Greece) using broad-band acoustic surveys. Recordings of echolocation calls were made in 15 transects equally distributed in three distinct elevation zones (500, 1000 and 1500 m a.s.l.) during spring and autumn 2007-2008. Time-expanded calls were subsequently identified with the use of quadratic discriminant functions. Out of 13 species recorded, Hypsugo savii, Pipistrellus kuhlii and Tadarida teniotis were the most common and abundant. Many Rhinolophus hipposideros were also recorded in all elevation zones. Thirteen species were recorded in the lower elevation zone, 7 species in the mid one and 8 species in the 1500 m a.s.l. sites. Species richness, the number of bat passes of the most abundant species, as well as the total number of bat passes were not significantly affected by elevation. In spring both species richness and bat activity were higher than in autumn, although the corresponding difference in temperature was not significant. The high variability in both bat activity and the number of species found per transect in each elevation zone probably depended on the presence of other habitat types in the close vicinity, while roost availability and location might also have played an important role. We suggest that the ability of bats to perform regular movements along the elevational gradient has to be taken in account when assessing elevational patterns in bat diversity and activity. The geology of the study area is also of considerable importance through its effect on foraging and roosting opportunities for bats. Riassunto Ricchezza specifica e attività dei chirotteri lungo un gradiente altitudinale nella macchia mediterranea di Creta L’effetto della quota su ricchezza in specie e attività dei chirotteri è stato investigato in siti di macchia mediterranea mediante rilevatori ultrasonori nella regione centrale dell’isola di Creta (Grecia). In primavera ed autunno 2007 e 2008, abbiamo registrato i segnali di ecolocalizzazione lungo 15 transetti egualmente distribuiti in tre fasce altitudinali (500, 1000 e 1500 m s.l.m.). I segnali registrati in “time expansion” sono stati successivamente identificati mediante funzioni discriminanti quadratiche. Delle 13 specie registrate, Hypsugo savii, Pipistrellus kuhlii e Tadarida teniotis sono risultate le più comuni e abbondanti. Nella fascia altitudinale più bassa abbiamo registrato 13 specie, 7 in quella intermedia e 8 nei siti a 1500 m s.l.m. La ricchezza specifica, il numero di passaggi delle specie più frequenti, così come il numero totale di passaggi non sono risultati significativamente influenzati dalla quota. In primavera, sia la ricchezza specifica sia l’attività sono risultate maggiori che in autunno, sebbene le corrispondenti differenze di temperatura non fossero significative. L’elevata variabilità nell’attività dei chirotteri e nel numero di specie tra siti entro ciascuna fascia altitudinale si spiega probabilmente con la presenza di altri tipi di habitat nelle immediate circostanze dei siti investigati; anche la presenza e la localizzazione di rifugi può avere una influenza su tale variazione. Suggeriamo che la capacità dei chirotteri di spostarsi regolarmente lungo il gradiente altitudinale debba essere considerata negli studi che analizzano l’influenza della quota sulla diversità e abbondanza della chirotterofauna. Anche la natura geologica dell’area di studio, influendo sulla disponibilità di siti di alimentazione e rifugio, può svolgere un ruolo determinante. doi:10.4404/hystrix-21.1-4485

A survey-based assessment of an eastern Mediterranean data-limited black anglerfish ( Lophius budegassa; Spinola, 1807) stock was carried out to elucidate its population and exploitation trends. A catch-based method was also applied to estimate its maximum sustainable yield ( MSY). The effect on the long-term spawning stock biomass and yield of a wide range of exploitation regimes (combinations of F and selectivity) was investigated using an age-structured population model parameterised for Mediterranean anglerfish stocks. The analysis indicated an increasing trend of anglerfish fishing mortality ( F) in the eastern Mediterranean from the mid-1990s onwards, and that recent catches were 41% higher than the median MSY estimate. Catching Mediterranean anglerfish at least three years after they mature at an F = 0.4-1 year−1 would ensure high yields at sustainable levels of stock depletion. Examination of the empirical exploitation regimes in five anglerfish stocks across the Mediterranean Sea illustrates their unfulfilled potential for higher sustainable yields, mainly due to overexploitation of juveniles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological resilience is the capability of an ecosystem to maintain the same structure and function and avoid crossing catastrophic tipping points (i.e. undergoing irreversible regime shifts). While fundamental for management, concrete ways to estimate and interpret resilience in real ecosystems are still lacking. Here, we develop an empirical approach to estimate resilience based on the stochastic cusp model derived from catastrophe theory. The cusp model models tipping points derived from a cusp bifurcation. We extend cusp in order to identify the presence of stable and unstable states in complex natural systems. Our Cusp Resilience Assessment (CUSPRA) has three characteristics: (i) it provides estimates on how likely a system is to cross a tipping point (in the form of a cusp bifurcation) characterized by hysteresis, (ii) it assesses resilience in relation to multiple external drivers and (iii) it produces straightforward results for ecosystem-based management. We validate our approach using simulated data and demonstrate its application using empirical time series of an Atlantic cod population and marine ecosystems in the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. We show that Cusp Resilience Assessment is a powerful method to empirically estimate resilience in support of a sustainable management of our constantly adapting ecosystems under global climate change.

Ecological resilience has become a conceptual cornerstone bridging ecological processes to conservation needs. Global change is increasingly associated with local changes in environmental conditions that can cause abrupt ecosystem reorganizations attending to system-specific resilience fluctuations with time (i.e. resilience dynamics). Here we assess resilience dynamics associated with climate-driven ecosystems transitions, expressed as changes in the relevant contribution of species with different life-history strategies, in two benthopelagic systems. We analysed data from 1994 to 2019 coming from a scientific bottom trawl survey in two environmentally contrasting ecosystems in the Western Mediterranean Sea-Northern Spain and Alboran Sea. Benthopelagic species were categorized according to their life-history strategies (opportunistic, periodic and equilibrium), ecosystem functions and habitats. We implemented an Integrated Resilience Assessment (IRA) to elucidate the response mechanism of the studied ecosystems to several candidate environmental stressors and quantify the ecosystems' resilience. We demonstrate that both ecosystems responded discontinuously to changes in chlorophyll-a concentration more than any other stressor. The response in Northern Spain indicated a more overarching regime shift than in the Alboran Sea. Opportunistic fish were unfavoured in both ecosystems in the recent periods, while invertebrate species of short life cycle were generally favoured, particularly benthic species in the Alboran Sea. The study illustrates that the resilience dynamics of the two ecosystems were mostly associated with fluctuating productivity, but subtle and long-term effects from sea warming and fishing reduction were also discernible. Such dynamics are typical of systems with wide environmental gradient such as the Northern Spain, as well as systems with highly hydrodynamic and of biogeographical complexity such as the Alboran Sea. We stress that management should become more adaptive by utilizing the knowledge on the systems' productivity thresholds and underlying shifts to help anticipate both short-term/less predictable events and long-term/expected effects of climate change., (© 2021 The Authors. Journal of Animal Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society.)

Climate change (CC) can alter the configuration of marine ecosystems; however, ecosystem response and resilience to change are usually case-specific. The effect of CC on the demersal resources of the Aegean Sea (east Mediterranean Sea) was investigated during the past six decades applying a combination of multivariate analysis, non-additive modeling and the Integrated Resilience Assessment (IRA) framework. We focused on the study of: (i) the biological "system" complex, using proxies of biomass (landings per unit of capacity) for 12 demersal taxa, and (ii) the environmental "stressor" complex, described by 12 abiotic variables. Pronounced changes have occurred in both the environmental and biological system over the studied period. The majority of the environmental stressors exhibited strikingly increasing trends (temperature, salinity, primary production indices) with values started exceeding the global historical means during late 1980s-early 1990s. It is suggested that the biological system exhibited a discontinuous response to CC, with two apparently climate-induced regime shifts occurring in the past 25 years. There is evidence for two-fold bifurcations and four tipping points in the system, forming a folded stability landscape with three basins of attraction. The shape of the stability landscape for the Aegean Sea's biological system suggests that while the initial state (1966-1991) was rather resilient to CC, absorbing two environmental step-changes, this was not the case for the two subsequent ones (intermediate: 1992-2002; recent: 2003-2016). Given the current trajectory of environmental change, it is highly unlikely that the biological system will ever return to its pre-1990s state, as it is entering areas of unprecedented climatic conditions and there is some evidence that the system may be even shifting toward a new state. Our approach and findings may be relevant to other marine areas of the Mediterranean and beyond, undergoing climate-driven regime shifts, and can assist to their adaptive management., Competing Interests: None declared., (© 2021 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

An increasing number of studies have been examining the functional configuration of biological communities or ecosystems using biological traits. Here, we investigated the temporal dynamics and resilience of the traits composition in Mediterranean fisheries landings over 31 years (1985-2015). We transcribed the FAO Mediterranean landings dataset for 101 marine species into a dataset of 23 traits related to the life cycle, distribution, ecology and behaviour. Mediterranean mean Sea Surface Temperature (SST) was evaluated as a potential driver of the traits composition. Trait dynamics were evaluated both individually and holistically by developing an Integrated Traits Resilience Assessment (ITRA). ITRA is a variation of the Integrated Resilience Assessment (IRA), a method to infer resilience dynamics and build stability landscapes of complex natural systems. Changes in landings trait dynamics were documented both for individual traits and for the entire traits 'system', and a relevant regime shift was detected in the second half of the 1990s. The traits system switched to higher optimal temperature, more summer spawning, shorter life span, smaller maximum size, shallower optimal depth and planktivorous diet. This shift was found to be a lagged discontinuous response to sea warming, which gradually eroded the resilience of the original state of the traits system, leading it into a new basin of attraction. The inclusion of ecological/response traits (related to environmental preferences) in our analyses indicates potential mechanisms that explain the observed shift, while changes in functional/effect traits indicate potential impacts on ecosystem functioning. Our findings suggest that changes in the Mediterranean ecosystems are evidently larger than previously thought, with profound implications for the management of this highly impacted sea. ​., (© 2021 British Ecological Society.)

Complex natural systems, spanning from individuals and populations to ecosystems and social-ecological systems, often exhibit abrupt reorganizations in response to changing stressors, known as regime shifts or critical transitions. Theory suggests that such systems feature folded stability landscapes with fluctuating resilience, fold-bifurcations, and alternate basins of attraction. However, the implementation of such features to elucidate response mechanisms in an empirical context is scarce, due to the lack of generic approaches to quantify resilience dynamics in individual natural systems. Here, we introduce an Integrated Resilience Assessment (IRA) framework: a three-step analytical process to assess resilience and construct stability landscapes of empirical systems. The proposed framework involves a multivariate analysis to estimate holistic system indicator variables, non-additive modelling to estimate alternate attractors, and a quantitative resilience assessment to scale stability landscapes. We implement this framework to investigate the temporal development of the Mediterranean marine communities in response to sea warming during 1985-2013, using fisheries landings data. Our analysis revealed a nonlinear tropicalisation of the Mediterranean Sea, expressed as abrupt shifts to regimes dominated by thermophilic species. The approach exemplified here for the Mediterranean Sea, revealing previously unknown resilience dynamics driven by climate forcing, can elucidate resilience and shifts in other complex systems.

Complex natural systems with eroded resilience, such as populations, ecosystems and socio-ecological systems, respond to small perturbations with abrupt, discontinuous state shifts, or critical transitions. Theory of critical transitions suggests that such systems exhibit fold bifurcations featuring folded response curves, tipping points and alternate attractors. However, there is little empirical evidence of fold bifurcations occurring in actual complex natural systems impacted by multiple stressors. Moreover, resilience of complex systems to change currently lacks clear operational measures with generic application. Here, we provide empirical evidence for the occurrence of a fold bifurcation in an exploited fish population and introduce a generic measure of ecological resilience based on the observed fold bifurcation attributes. We analyse the multivariate development of Barents Sea cod (Gadus morhua), which is currently the world's largest cod stock, over six decades (1949-2009), and identify a population state shift in 1981. By plotting a multivariate population index against a multivariate stressor index, the shift mechanism was revealed suggesting that the observed population shift was a nonlinear response to the combined effects of overfishing and climate change. Annual resilience values were estimated based on the position of each year in relation to the fitted attractors and assumed tipping points of the fold bifurcation. By interpolating the annual resilience values, a folded stability landscape was fit, which was shaped as predicted by theory. The resilience assessment suggested that the population may be close to another tipping point. This study illustrates how a multivariate analysis, supported by theory of critical transitions and accompanied by a quantitative resilience assessment, can clarify shift mechanisms in data-rich complex natural systems., (© 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

In recent years, fisheries management has succeeded in stabilizing and even improving the state of many global fisheries resources [1-5]. This is particularly evident in areas where stocks are exploited in compliance with scientific advice and strong institutional structures are in place [1, 5]. In Europe, the well-managed northeast (NE) Atlantic fish stocks have been recovering in response to decreasing fishing pressure over the past decade [3-6], albeit with a long way to go for a universal stock rebuild [3, 7]. Meanwhile, little is known about the temporal development of the European Mediterranean stocks, whose management relies on input controls that are often poorly enforced. Here, we perform a meta-analysis of 42 European Mediterranean stocks of nine species in 1990-2010, showing that exploitation rate has been steadily increasing, selectivity (proportional exploitation of juveniles) has been deteriorating, and stocks have been shrinking. We implement species-specific simulation models to quantify changes in exploitation rate and selectivity that would maximize long-term yields and halt stock depletion. We show that stocks would be more resilient to fishing and produce higher long-term yields if harvested a few years after maturation because current selectivity is far from optimal, especially for demersal stocks. The European Common Fisheries Policy that has assisted in improving the state of NE Atlantic fish stocks in the past 10 years has failed to deliver similar results for Mediterranean stocks managed under the same policy. Limiting juvenile exploitation, advancing management plans, and strengthening compliance, control, and enforcement could promote fisheries sustainability in the Mediterranean., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)