Judith Bakker

Florida International University | FIU

The coastline of Sub-Saharan Africa hosts highly diverse fish communities of great conservation value, which are also key resources for local livelihoods. However, many costal ecosystems are threatened by overexploitation and their conservation state is frequently unknown due to their vast spatial extent and limited monitoring budgets. Here, we eva...

A project set up to inform and unlock the potential for Scotland to implement environmental DNA (eDNA) methods for biodiversity monitoring and reporting purposes. This Summary Brief highlights the project's key findings, learning opportunities, remaining knowledge gaps, and future perspectives to consider when using eDNA-based approaches for biodiv...

Biodiversity loss is widely recognised as one of the most urgent global challenges to be addressed in the next decade. The Scottish Biodiversity Strategy sets out a clear ambition to be Nature Positive by 2030, and to have restored and regenerated biodiversity across the country by 2045 (Scottish Government 2022). To protect, restore, and regenerat...

The Phase 2 Technical Appendices presented here contains supplementary information, such as additional data analyses that were either not essential or too lengthy to be included in the core deliverable (Phase 2 Main Report) output. This includes extra data that has been analysed and underpins the results/discussion (whether they are fruitful or oth...

Biodiversity loss is widely recognised as one of the most urgent global challenges to be addressed in the next decade. One element of the Global Biodiversity Framework is the 30x30 target, which aims to protect 30% of the planet for nature by 2030. Committed countries are expected to contribute to this global goal through domestic action to increas...

This report represents Phase 1 of the project ‘Developing habitat scale DNA monitoring in support post 2020 biodiversity reporting requirements’ funded by the Scottish Government (Reference: NMP/001/20). The overall project aims to investigate and test the applicability of DNA-based approaches for biodiversity assessment and reporting purposes. In...

The coastline of Sub-Saharan Africa hosts highly diverse fish communities of high conservation value, which are also key resources for local livelihoods. However, many costal ecosystems are threatened by overexploitation and their conservation state is frequently unknown due to limited monitoring budgets and challenges associated with their vast sp...

Natural England (NE) and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) commissioned NatureMetrics to produce a review and protocol for DNA-based marine benthic sampling. This was in the context of DNA metabarcoding and long-term monitoring of benthic species and habitats of conservation importance in UK Marine Protected Areas. For the same benthic...

This publication is an output from EU COST Action DNAqua-Net (CA 15219 - Developing new genetic tools for bioassessment of aquatic ecosystems in Europe) and would not have been possible without the opportunities for international collaboration provided by the network, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). Therefore, ou...

Animal dietary information provides the foundation for understanding trophic relationships, which is essential for ecosystem management. Yet, in marine systems, high-resolution diet reconstruction tools are currently under-developed. This is particularly pertinent for large marine vertebrates, for which direct foraging behaviour is difficult or imp...

Proximity and size of the nearest market (‘market gravity’) have been shown to have strong negative effects on coral reef fish communities that can be mitigated by the establishment of closed areas. However, moray eels are functionally unique predators that are generally not subject to targeted fishing and should therefore not directly be affected...

The integration of eDNA analysis into the population assessment and monitoring of sharks could greatly improve temporal and spatial data used for management purposes. This study aimed to compare eDNA detection against well-established seasonal changes in blacktip shark (Carcharhinus limbatus) abundance in Terra Ceia Bay (FL, USA). We used a species...

Our understanding of marine communities and their functions in an ecosystem relies on the ability to detect and monitor species distributions and abundances. Currently, the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding is increasingly being applied for the rapid assessment and monitoring of aquatic species. Most eDNA metabarcoding studies have eith...

Metabarcoding extra‐organismal DNA from environmental samples is now a key technique in aquatic biomonitoring and ecosystem health assessment. Of critical consideration when designing experiments, and especially so when developing community standards and legislative frameworks, is the choice of genetic marker and primer set. Mitochondrial cytochrom...

In the era of “Anthropocene defaunation,” large species are often no longer detected in habitats where they formerly occurred. However, it is unclear whether this apparent missing, or “dark,” diversity of megafauna results from local species extirpations or from failure to detect elusive remaining individuals. We find that despite two orders of mag...

Sharks are charismatic predators that play a key role in most marine food webs. Their demonstrated vulnerability to exploitation has recently turned them into flagship species in ocean conservation. Yet, the assessment and monitoring of the distribution and abundance of such mobile species in marine environments remain challenging, often invasive a...

A comparison of the community structure of juvenile hermatypic corals of 2 to 37 m depth at the fringing reefs of Curaçao between 1975 and 2005 shows a decline of 54.7% in juvenile coral abundance and a shift in species composition. Agaricia species and Helioseris cucullata, the most common juveniles in 1975, showed the largest decline in juvenile...

Recruitment of the sea urchin Diadema antillarum philippi, 1845 was studied on artificial recruitment panels along the leeward coast of the island of Curaçao, southern Caribbean. Data were compared with historical data from the same coast that were collected before (1982-1983) and after (1984) the Caribbean-wide mass mortality of Diadema in October...