Challenges to Marine Ecosystems: Proceedings of the 41st European Marine Biology Symposium (Developments in Hydrobiology (202))

This volume presents a representative sample of contributions to the 41 st European Marine Biology Symposium held in September 2005 in Cork, Ireland. The theme of the symposium was ‘Challenges to Marine Ecosystems’ and this was divided into four sub themes; Genetics, Marine Protected Areas, Global Climate Change and Marine Ecosystems, Sustainable Fisheries and Agriculture. The world’s marine ecosystems face multiple challenges, some natural, but many resulting from humankind’s activities. Global climate change, driven by influences of energy usage and industrial practices, is a reality now accepted by most of the world’s scientists, media and political establishments. Warming seas and rising sea levels are regarded as threats, while visionaries consider deep ocean carbon disposal as a technological opportunity. Exploitation of the seas continues apace, with repeated concerns over the impact of over-fishing, plus reservations about the environmental effects of marine aquaculture. We need to understand how resilient organisms and ecosystems are to these challenges, while responding by protecting biologically-meaningful areas of the oceans. The subthemes of the 41 st European Marine Biology Symposium address all of these matters. Front Matter....Pages i-5 Mixed stock analysis and the power of different classes of molecular markers in discriminating coastal and oceanic Atlantic cod ( Gadus morhua L.) on the Lofoten spawning grounds, Northern Norway....Pages 7-25 Contrasting levels of genetic differentiation among putative neutral microsatellite loci in Atlantic herring Clupea harengus populations and the implications for assessing stock structure....Pages 27-33 Marine reserves: the need for systems....Pages 35-44 The challenge of assessing whether the OSPAR network of marine protected areas is ecologically coherent....Pages 45-53 Individual-based movement behaviour in a simple marine reserve—Fishery system: why predictive models should be handled with care....Pages 55-61 Effect of marine reserve protection on spiny lobster ( Palinurus elephas Fabr., 1787) in a central western Mediterranean area....Pages 63-68 Incorporating ecological functioning into the designation and management of marine protected areas....Pages 69-79 Go with the flow: tidal import and export of larvae from semi-enclosed bays....Pages 81-92 Seabed mapping in the southern Irish Sea: predicting benthic biological communities based on sediment characteristics....Pages 93-103 Alien species in the Mediterranean Sea—which, when, where, why?....Pages 105-116 The effect of high flow events on mussels ( Mytilus edulis ) in the Conwy estuary, North Wales, UK....Pages 117-127 Mobility of metals in salt marsh sediments colonised by Spartina maritima (Tagus estuary, Portugal)....Pages 129-137 Ecological hindcasting of biogeographic responses to climate change in the European intertidal zone....Pages 139-151 Long-term changes in the status of Sevastopol Bay and the Crimean coast: anthropogenic and climatic influences....Pages 153-160 The sea ahead: challenges to marine biology from seafood sustainability....Pages 161-185 Effects of fishing methods on deep water shark species caught as by-catch off southern Portugal....Pages 187-193 Catch me in winter! Seasonal variation in air temperature severely enhances physiological stress and mortality of species subjected to sorting operations and discarded during annual fishing activities....Pages 195-202 Grazing and assimilation rate estimates of hydromedusae from a temperate tidal creek system....Pages 203-211 The world's marine ecosystems face multiple challenges, some natural, but many resulting from humankind's activities. The subthemes of the 41st European Marine Biology Symposium held in September 2005 in Cork, Ireland address all of these matters. This title presents a representative sample of contributions to this symposium