scholarly journals Sustainable Indigenous Fishing in the Pre-Contact Caribbean: Evidence and Critical Considerations from Carriacou, Grenada

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 9152
Author(s):  
Christina M. Giovas
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Behavioral Ecology ◽  
Anthropogenic Impacts ◽  
Fish Habitat ◽  
Diet Breadth ◽  
Foraging Theory ◽  
Negative Evidence ◽  
Resource Depression ◽  
Marine Habitats ◽  
And Shifts

Multiple studies reveal pre-1492 anthropogenic impacts on Caribbean fisheries that are consistent with overfishing, including changes in targeted prey, shifts in marine habitats exploited, and decreases in the average body size of taxa. At the Indigenous Caribbean village of Sabazan (AD 400–1400) on Carriacou, Lesser Antilles, post-AD 800 declines in fishing, increased mollusk collection, and changes in resource patch emphasis accord with the archaeological correlates of resource depression predicted by foraging theory models from behavioral ecology. Here, I apply foraging theory logic and abundance indices incorporating body size and fish habitat to test the predictions of expanded diet breadth, declining prey body size, and shifts to more distant fishing patches that are typically associated with overfishing. Results uphold a significant decrease in overall fishing, which may be due to habitat change associated with the Medieval Warm Period. Indices of fish size and resource patch use do not meet foraging theory expectations for resource depression, however. Instead, they suggest an absence of resource depression in the Sabazan fishery and at least 600 years of sustainable fishing. I review similar findings for other Caribbean archaeological sites with either negative evidence for fisheries’ declines or quantitatively demonstrated sustainable fishing. These sites collectively serve as a critical reminder of the heterogeneous trajectories of Indigenous social–ecological systems in the pre-contact Caribbean and the need for meta-level analyses of the region’s ancient fisheries. I discuss the application of the sustainability concept in archaeological studies of fishing and conclude that a more critical, explicit approach to defining and measuring sustainability in ancient fisheries is needed.

Prey Body Size and Ranking in Zooarchaeology: Theory, Empirical Evidence, and Applications from the Northern Great Basin

2011 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack M. Broughton ◽  
Michael D. Cannon ◽  
Frank E. Bayham ◽  
David A. Byers
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Great Basin ◽  
Diet Breadth ◽  
Foraging Theory ◽  
Return Rate ◽  
The Body ◽  
Foraging Efficiency ◽  
Large Prey ◽  
Abundance Indices ◽  
Game Hunting

The use of body size as an index of prey rank in zooarchaeology has fostered a widely applied approach to understanding variability in foraging efficiency. This approach has, however, been critiqued—most recently by the suggestion that large prey have high probabilities of failed pursuits. Here, we clarify the logic and history of using body size as a measure of prey rank and summarize empirical data on the body size-return rate relationship. With few exceptions, these data document strong positive relationships between prey size and return rate. We then illustrate, with studies from the Great Basin, the utility of body size-based abundance indices (e.g., the Artiodactyl Index) when used as one component of multidimensional analyses of prehistoric diet breadth. We use foraging theory to derive predictions about Holocene variability in diet breadth and test those predictions using the Artiodactyl Index and over a dozen other archaeological indices. The results indicate close fits between the predictions and the data and thus support the use of body size-based abundance indices as measures of foraging efficiency. These conclusions have implications for reconstructions of Holocene trends in large game hunting in western North America and for zooarchaeological applications of foraging theory in general.

scholarly journals Habitat affinity and density-dependent movement as indicators of fish habitat restoration efficacy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos M. Polivka
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Ecology ◽  
Habitat Restoration ◽  
Pacific Salmon ◽  
Fish Habitat ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Habitat Characteristics ◽  
Density Data ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Effectiveness Studies ◽  
Habitat Affinity

AbstractConceptual and methodological tools from behavioral ecology can inform studies of habitat quality and their potential for evaluating habitat restoration in conservation efforts is explored here. Such approaches provide mechanistic detail in understanding the relationship between organisms and their habitats and are thus more informative than correlations between density and habitat characteristics. Several Pacific salmon species have been the target of habitat restoration efforts for the past 2-3 decades, but most post-restoration effectiveness studies have been limited to correlative data described above. In mark-recapture assays from four different study years, the affinity of sub-yearling Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tschawytscha) and steelhead (O. mykiss) for stream pools restored with or created by engineered log structures was greater than that for pools without restoration, though with high interannual variability. From corresponding distribution and density data, it was clear that habitat affinity data are not always concordant with single observations of density. The same was true of the correlation between either affinity or density and physical characteristics of pools, although depth and current velocity had some explanatory power for both responses in Chinook. Movement into pools by Chinook during the assays indicated that restored pools can support more immigrants at a given density than can unrestored pools; however no such pattern emerged for steelhead. Variation among individuals in body condition has implications for population-wide fitness, and such low variation was correlated with stronger affinity for pools in Chinook regardless of restoration status. This suggests that pools may mediate habitat-related trade-offs and that restoring them might have a positive effect on fitness. Thus affinity, immigration, and condition data give much-needed mechanistic indication of habitat selection for restored habitat via an apparent capacity increase and those potential fitness benefits. This is stronger support for restoration effectiveness than density differences alone because density data 1) may simply indicate redistribution of fish from poor to good habitats and 2) are not adequate to show correlations between restoration and positive change in traits correlated with fitness.

scholarly journals Beyond Depression? A Review of the Optimal Foraging Theory Literature in Zooarchaeology and Archaeobotany

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Lena Jones ◽  
David A. Hurley
Keyword(s):  
Optimal Foraging ◽  
Optimal Foraging Theory ◽  
Foraging Theory ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Resource Depression ◽  
Environmental Interactions ◽  
Prey Populations

The use of optimal foraging theory in archaeology has been criticized for focusing heavily on “negative” human-environmental interactions, particularly anthropogenic resource depression, in which prey populations are reduced by foragers’ own foraging activities. In addition, some researchers have suggested the focus on resource depression is more common in the zooarchaeological literature than in the archaeobotanical literature, indicating fundamental differences in the ways zooarchaeologists and archaeobotanists approach the archaeological record. In this paper, we assess these critiques through a review of the literature between 1997 and 2017. We find that studies identifying resource depression occur at similar rates in the archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological literature. In addition, while earlier archaeological applications of optimal foraging theory did focus heavily on the identification of resource depression, the literature published between 2013 and 2017 shows a wider variety of approaches.

Long-term declines in body size and shifts in run timing of Atlantic salmon in Ireland

2006 ◽  
Vol 68 (6) ◽  
pp. 1713-1730 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. P. Quinn ◽  
P. McGinnity ◽  
T. F. Cross
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Atlantic Salmon ◽  
And Shifts ◽  
Run Timing

scholarly journals Missing links in the study of solute and particle exchange between the sea floor and water column

2020 ◽  
Vol 77 (5) ◽  
pp. 1602-1616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saskia Rühl ◽  
Charlie Thompson ◽  
Ana M Queirós ◽  
Stephen Widdicombe
Keyword(s):  
Water Column ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Anthropogenic Impacts ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Sea Floor ◽  
Marine Habitats ◽  
Exchange Processes ◽  
Ecosystem Level ◽  
Particle Exchange

Abstract Exchanges of solutes and solids between the sea floor and water column are a vital component of ecosystem functioning in marine habitats around the globe. This review explores particle and solute exchange processes, the different mechanisms through which they interact at the ecosystem level, as well as their interdependencies. Solute and particle exchange processes are highly dependent on the characteristics of the environment within which they takes place. Exchange is driven directly by a number of factors, such as currents, granulometry, nutrient, and matter inputs, as well as living organisms. In turn, the occurrence of exchanges can influence adjacent environments and organisms. Major gaps in the present knowledge include the temporal and spatial variation in many of the processes driving benthic/pelagic exchange processes and the variability in the relative importance of individual processes caused by this variation. Furthermore, the accurate assessment of some anthropogenic impacts is deemed questionable due to a lack of baseline data and long-term effects of anthropogenic actions are often unknown. It is suggested that future research should be transdisciplinary and at ecosystem level wherever possible and that baseline surveys should be implemented and long-term observatories established to fill the current knowledge gaps.

In Pursuit of Mobile Prey: Martu Hunting Strategies and Archaeofaunal Interpretation

2009 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas W. Bird ◽  
Rebecca Bliege Bird ◽  
Brian F. Codding
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Behavioral Ecology ◽  
Western Desert ◽  
Faunal Remains ◽  
Dynamic Interactions ◽  
Resource Sustainability ◽  
Hunting Strategies ◽  
Proxy Measure ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
Prey Mobility

By integrating foraging models developed in behavioral ecology with measures of variability in faunal remains, zooarchaeological studies have made important contributions toward understanding prehistoric resource use and the dynamic interactions between humans and their prey. However, where archaeological studies are unable to quantify the costs and benefits associated with prey acquisition, they often rely on proxy measures such as prey body size, assuming it to be positively correlated with return rate. To examine this hypothesis, we analyze the results of 1,347 adult foraging bouts and 649 focal follows of contemporary Martu foragers in Australia's Western Desert. The data show that prey mobility is highly correlated with prey body size and is inversely related to pursuit success—meaning that prey body size is often an inappropriate proxy measure of prey rank. This has broad implications for future studies that rely on taxonomic measures of prey abundance to examine prehistoric human ecology, including but not limited to economic intensification, socioeconomic complexity, resource sustainability, and overexploitation.

Size-related foraging behaviour of the leaf-cutting ant Atta colombica

1991 ◽  
Vol 69 (6) ◽  
pp. 1530-1533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dave Shutler ◽  
Adele Mullie
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Leaf Litter ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Foraging Behaviour ◽  
Foraging Theory ◽  
Costa Rican ◽  
Leaf Cutting ◽  
Foraging Trail ◽  
Atta Colombica ◽  
Load Mass

In a Costa Rican forest adjacent to cattle pasture, larger individuals of the leaf-cutting ant Atta colombica carried heavier loads and foraged farther from the colony, as predicted by foraging theory. Counter to foraging theory, individual ants did not increase their load mass if they foraged farther from the colony. However, the colony avoided this apparent inefficiency by sending larger ants to more distant trees. The colony harvested simultaneously from several individuals of the same tree species, even though distant trees were twice as far from the colony as nearby trees. The reasons for this behaviour require further investigation. In a wide foraging trail, larger ants travelled faster than their smaller counterparts. In addition, ant velocity was reduced when loads were experimentally supplemented, and increased when loads were experimentally reduced. Ants using narrow trails in the leaf litter may all be constrained to travel at the same speed, irrespective of load or body size, simply because they get in each other's way.

The Effects of the Hypsithermal on Prehistoric Foraging Efficiency in Missouri

2005 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Wolverton
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Choice Model ◽  
Prey Availability ◽  
Critical Factor ◽  
Analytical Techniques ◽  
Foraging Theory ◽  
Foraging Efficiency ◽  
Resource Depression ◽  
Human Predation

Archaeological studies of temporal changes in human predation strategy using foraging theory tend to focus on the role of overexploitation of important prey resources and resulting resource depression. An alternative use of the prey-choice model framed under foraging theory is to investigate the influence of environmental changes, such as increases in climate stress, on prey availability. Environmental change can be expected to produce many of the same effects on human predation strategy as resource depression. Here analytical techniques typically used to study the effects of over-predation and resource depression caused by humans are used to monitor their response to fluctuations in prey availability related to climate change during the Holocene in Missouri. Data and interpretations presented here add to the growing body of zooarchaeological foraging theory literature implicating environmental change as a critical factor in human diet.

scholarly journals Diet shifts of Rhizoprionodon terraenovae from the southern Gulf of Mexico: possible scenario by temperature changes

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 406-420
Author(s):  
Javier E. Viana-Morayta ◽  
Yassir E. Torres-Rojas ◽  
Jaime Camalich-Carpizo
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Sea Surface Temperature ◽  
Trophic Level ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Diet Breadth ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Rhizoprionodon Terraenovae ◽  
Southern Gulf Of Mexico

The current study examined the stomach contents of the Atlantic sharpnose shark (Rhizoprionodon terraenovae) in the southern Gulf of Mexico during 2015 to understand the relationship between diet and changes in sea surface temperature (SST). Prey-specific index of relative importance (%PSIRI), diet breadth (Bi), trophic level (TrL), and trophic overlap (PERMANOVA) were calculated between sexes, body size, and climatic seasons (dry, rainy and winter storm). The lowest temperature recorded in the area was during February (23.9°C), and the highest was during August (29.1°C). A total of 124 stomachs were analyzed, with 54.84% containing food. The trophic spectrum was composed of 32 identified prey, with demersal fish (Haemulon plumierii; %PSIRI = 22.82) and pelagic fish (Sardinella aurita; %PSIRI = 12.83) being the most important. According to the diet breadth (Bi = 0.002), Costello's graph, and trophic level (TrL = 4.2), R. terraenovae is a specialist tertiary consumer. PERMANOVA indicated significant trophic differences between sexes (F = 32.22; P < 0.05), body size (F = 13.68; P < 0.05), and among climatic seasons (F = 23.86; P < 0.05). Spearman's correlation indicated a negative relationship between the diversity of prey consumed by R. terraenovae and sea surface temperature (r = -0.75; P < 0.05). Therefore, diet for R. terraenovae is associated with SST, allowing for the development of possible scenarios related to climatic phenomena like climate change.

scholarly journals La etología como herramienta para la conservación de fauna silvestre

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 391
Author(s):  
ALCIDES SAMPEDRO MARÍN
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Behavioral Ecology ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Anthropogenic Impacts ◽  
Adaptive Strategies ◽  
The State ◽  
Effective Size ◽  
Darwinian Theory ◽  
Living Organisms

The origins of ethology as a discipline are explained and is a proof of the Darwinian theory of the action of natural selection leading to the adaptive strategies that allow survival of living organisms. The emergence of behavioral ecology stands out as an important tool for the conservation of biological diversity. Its premises are explained, as well as several examples of behavior that affect the effective size of populations and anthropogenic impacts on various behaviors.Finally, the use of behavioral ecology as an indicator of the state of ecosystems and species and to develop environmental education is exemplified.

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