scholarly journals Estimating stock depletion level from patterns of catch history

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shijie Zhou ◽  
André E Punt ◽  
Yimin Ye ◽  
Nick Ellis ◽  
Cathy M Dichmont ◽  
...  

The degree to which a stock is depleted is one of the most important quantities in fisheries management because it is used to quantify the success of management and to inform management responses. However, stock depletion is extremely difficult to estimate, particularly with limited data. Using the RAM Legacy database, we developed a boosted regression tree (BRT) model to correlate depletion with a range of predictors calculated from catch data, making the model usable for many fisheries worldwide. The most important predictors were found to be catch trends obtained from linear regressions of scaled catch on time, including regression coefficients for the whole catch time series, the subseries before and after the maximum catch, and in recent years. Eight predictors explain about 80% of variation in depletion. There is a correlation of .5 between measured levels of depletion and the predictions of the BRT model. Predictions are less biased when the stock is fished down below half of the carrying capacity. The BRT model outperforms comparable existing catch‐based depletion estimators and could be used to provide priors for depletion for data‐poor stock assessment methods, or used more directly to provide estimates of the probability that depletion is below a given threshold value.

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (7) ◽  
pp. e0008824
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Cromwell ◽  
Joshua C. P. Osborne ◽  
Thomas R. Unnasch ◽  
Maria-Gloria Basáñez ◽  
Katherine M. Gass ◽  
...  

Recent evidence suggests that, in some foci, elimination of onchocerciasis from Africa may be feasible with mass drug administration (MDA) of ivermectin. To achieve continental elimination of transmission, mapping surveys will need to be conducted across all implementation units (IUs) for which endemicity status is currently unknown. Using boosted regression tree models with optimised hyperparameter selection, we estimated environmental suitability for onchocerciasis at the 5 × 5-km resolution across Africa. In order to classify IUs that include locations that are environmentally suitable, we used receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis to identify an optimal threshold for suitability concordant with locations where onchocerciasis has been previously detected. This threshold value was then used to classify IUs (more suitable or less suitable) based on the location within the IU with the largest mean prediction. Mean estimates of environmental suitability suggest large areas across West and Central Africa, as well as focal areas of East Africa, are suitable for onchocerciasis transmission, consistent with the presence of current control and elimination of transmission efforts. The ROC analysis identified a mean environmental suitability index of 0·71 as a threshold to classify based on the location with the largest mean prediction within the IU. Of the IUs considered for mapping surveys, 50·2% exceed this threshold for suitability in at least one 5 × 5-km location. The formidable scale of data collection required to map onchocerciasis endemicity across the African continent presents an opportunity to use spatial data to identify areas likely to be suitable for onchocerciasis transmission. National onchocerciasis elimination programmes may wish to consider prioritising these IUs for mapping surveys as human resources, laboratory capacity, and programmatic schedules may constrain survey implementation, and possibly delaying MDA initiation in areas that would ultimately qualify.


2020 ◽  
Vol 638 ◽  
pp. 149-164
Author(s):  
GM Svendsen ◽  
M Ocampo Reinaldo ◽  
MA Romero ◽  
G Williams ◽  
A Magurran ◽  
...  

With the unprecedented rate of biodiversity change in the world today, understanding how diversity gradients are maintained at mesoscales is a key challenge. Drawing on information provided by 3 comprehensive fishery surveys (conducted in different years but in the same season and with the same sampling design), we used boosted regression tree (BRT) models in order to relate spatial patterns of α-diversity in a demersal fish assemblage to environmental variables in the San Matias Gulf (Patagonia, Argentina). We found that, over a 4 yr period, persistent diversity gradients of species richness and probability of an interspecific encounter (PIE) were shaped by 3 main environmental gradients: bottom depth, connectivity with the open ocean, and proximity to a thermal front. The 2 main patterns we observed were: a monotonic increase in PIE with proximity to fronts, which had a stronger effect at greater depths; and an increase in PIE when closer to the open ocean (a ‘bay effect’ pattern). The originality of this work resides on the identification of high-resolution gradients in local, demersal assemblages driven by static and dynamic environmental gradients in a mesoscale seascape. The maintenance of environmental gradients, specifically those associated with shared resources and connectivity with an open system, may be key to understanding community stability.


Author(s):  
Ghalia Gamaleldin ◽  
Haitham Al-Deek ◽  
Adrian Sandt ◽  
John McCombs ◽  
Alan El-Urfali

Safety performance functions (SPFs) are essential tools to help agencies predict crashes and understand influential factors. Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has implemented a context classification system which classifies intersections into eight context categories rather than the three classifications used in the Highway Safety Manual (HSM). Using this system, regional SPFs could be developed for 32 intersection types (unsignalized and signalized 3-leg and 4-leg for each category) rather than the 10 HSM intersection types. In this paper, eight individual intersection group SPFs were developed for the C3R-Suburban Residential and C4-Urban General categories and compared with full SPFs for these categories. These comparisons illustrate the unique and regional insights that agencies can gain by developing these individual SPFs. Poisson, negative binomial, zero-inflated, and boosted regression tree models were developed for each studied group as appropriate, with the best model selected for each group based on model interpretability and five performance measures. Additionally, a linear regression model was built to predict minor roadway traffic volumes for intersections which were missing these volumes. The full C3R and C4 SPFs contained four and six significant variables, respectively, while the individual intersection group SPFs in these categories contained six and nine variables. Factors such as major median, intersection angle, and FDOT District 7 regional variable were absent from the full SPFs. By developing individual intersection group SPFs with regional factors, agencies can better understand the factors and regional differences which affect crashes in their jurisdictions and identify effective treatments.


1987 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 442-447
Author(s):  
Tiberius Cunia

The approach used by Cunia to combine the error from sample plots with the error from volume or biomass tables when Continuous Forest Inventory (CFI) estimates of current values and growth are calculated is extended to the CFI systems using Sampling with Partial Replacement (SPR). The formulae are derived for the case of SPR on two measurement occasions when (i) volume or biomass tables are constructed from linear regressions for which an estimate of the covariance matrix of the regression coefficients is known, and (ii) the sample plots or points are selected by random sampling independently of the given volume or biomass regression functions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 8493
Author(s):  
Paloma Escamilla-Fajardo ◽  
Juan M. Núñez-Pomar ◽  
Ferran Calabuig-Moreno ◽  
Ana M. Gómez-Tafalla

Sports entrepreneurship has been considered an important part of sports organisations when overcoming crisis situations. The aim of this study is to determine the impact of the crisis derived from COVID-19 on sports entrepreneurship and whether there are differences in the prediction of entrepreneurship on service quality in non-profit sports clubs. To this end, 145 sports clubs were analysed before and after the outbreak of the virus in society. Paired sample-t tests were carried out to determine the differences in variables studied before (Time I) and after (Time II) the COVID-19 outbreak, and correlations and hierarchical linear regressions were used to analyse the relationship between the variables studied in the two different stages. The results obtained show that risk-taking and innovation are significantly higher after the appearance of COVID-19, while proactivity has not undergone significant changes. Finally, the relationship between sports entrepreneurship and service quality is positive and significant in both stages but stronger before the crisis.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 1369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alireza Arabameri ◽  
Biswajeet Pradhan ◽  
Hamid Reza Pourghasemi ◽  
Khalil Rezaei ◽  
Norman Kerle

Gully erosion triggers land degradation and restricts the use of land. This study assesses the spatial relationship between gully erosion (GE) and geo-environmental variables (GEVs) using Weights-of-Evidence (WoE) Bayes theory, and then applies three data mining methods—Random Forest (RF), boosted regression tree (BRT), and multivariate adaptive regression spline (MARS)—for gully erosion susceptibility mapping (GESM) in the Shahroud watershed, Iran. Gully locations were identified by extensive field surveys, and a total of 172 GE locations were mapped. Twelve gully-related GEVs: Elevation, slope degree, slope aspect, plan curvature, convergence index, topographic wetness index (TWI), lithology, land use/land cover (LU/LC), distance from rivers, distance from roads, drainage density, and NDVI were selected to model GE. The results of variables importance by RF and BRT models indicated that distance from road, elevation, and lithology had the highest effect on GE occurrence. The area under the curve (AUC) and seed cell area index (SCAI) methods were used to validate the three GE maps. The results showed that AUC for the three models varies from 0.911 to 0.927, whereas the RF model had a prediction accuracy of 0.927 as per SCAI values, when compared to the other models. The findings will be of help for planning and developing the studied region.


1985 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 592-596 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Collins ◽  
J. H. Newman ◽  
N. E. Wickersham ◽  
W. K. Vaughn ◽  
J. R. Snapper ◽  
...  

Our purpose was to see if the postmortem weight ratio of extravascular lung water to blood-free dry lung (blood-free ratio) was related to similar ratios in blood-inclusive lung and in blood. We developed linear regressions of blood-free ratio on ratios for blood-inclusive lung and blood together and for blood-inclusive lung alone for 73 sheep studied under 11 different protocols and for two subgroups of sheep, one with plasma space expansion and the other without expansion. The relation of ratios of blood-free to blood-inclusive lungs was different between the two subgroups. Although all regressions were highly correlated, the fits of the blood-free ratio on ratios for blood-inclusive lung and blood together were better than for blood-inclusive lung alone. The mean error of prediction of extravascular lung water for all sheep was significantly less for the regression of blood-free ratio on ratios for blood and blood-inclusive lung together (11 g) than for blood-inclusive lung alone (18 g). This study shows that weights of lung homogenate and blood samples before and after simple oven drying can be used to provide accurate inexpensive estimates of postmortem extravascular lung water.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nejc Bezak ◽  

<p>Systematic bibliometric investigations are useful to evaluate and compare the scientific impact of journal papers, book chapters and conference proceedings. Such studies allow the detection of emerging research topics, the analyses of cooperation networks, and the collection of in-depth insights into a specific research topic. In the presented work, we carried out a bibliometric study in order to obtain an in-depth knowledge on soil erosion modelling applications worldwide.</p><p>As a starting point, we used the soil erosion modelling meta-analysis data collection generated by the authors of this abstract in a joint community effort. This database contains meta-information of more than 3,000 documents published between 1994 and 2018 that are indexed in the SCOPUS database. The documents were reviewed and database entries verified. The database contains various types of meta-information about the modelling studies (e.g., model used, study area, input data, calibration, etc.). The bibliometric information was also included in the database (e.g., number of citations, type of publication, Scopus category, etc.). We investigated differences among publication types and differences between papers published in journals that are part of various Scopus categories. Moreover, relationships between publication CiteScore, number of authors, and number of citations were analyzed. A boosted regression tree model was used to detect the relative impact of the selected meta-information such as erosion model used, spatial modelling scale, study period, field activity on the total number of citations. Detailed investigation of the most cited papers was also conducted. The VOSviewer software was used to analyze citations, co-citations, bibliographic coupling, and co-authorship networks of the database entries.  </p><p>Our bibliometric investigations demonstrated that journal publications, on average, receive more citations than book series or conference proceedings. There were differences among the erosion models used, and some specific models such as the WaTEM/SEDEM model, on average, receive more citations than other models (e.g., USLE). It should also be noted that self-citation rates in case of most frequently used models were similar. Global studies, on average, receive more citations than studies dealing with plot, regional, or national scales. According to the boosted regression tree model, model calibration, validation, or field activity do not have significant impact on the obtained publication citations. Co-citation investigation revealed some interesting patterns. Our results also indicate that papers about soil erosion modeling also attract citations from different fields and better international cooperation is needed to advance this field of research with regard to its visibility and impact on human societies.    </p>


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shijie Zhou ◽  
André E Punt ◽  
Anthony D. M. Smith ◽  
Yimin Ye ◽  
Malcolm Haddon ◽  
...  

Catch statistics are perhaps the most commonly collected data and are widely available for many fisheries. However, it is currently difficult to provide scientific advice for management purposes using only catch data. This article presents a catch-only method for stock assessment of data-poor fisheries. It uses time series of catches and two priors, one for the intrinsic population growth rate derived from life history parameters, and another for stock depletion based on catch trends. The method applies an optimization algorithm to search the potential parameter space. All computations are model or equation based rather than using predefined rules. The utility of this method is demonstrated by applying it to 13 stocks in Australia that are assessed using Stock Synthesis—an assessment package that can make use of a variety of data sources. The estimated parameters, including carrying capacity, intrinsic population growth rate, maximum sustainable yield, and depletion from the catch-only method are broadly comparable with those from the full assessments. The circumstances in which the method may perform poorly, such as longer-term changes in productivity and episodic recruitment, are highlighted.


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