Nicole Crane

One People One Reef and Society for Conservation Biology (Smith Fellows) Cabrillo College

Scientists and managers rely on indicator taxa such as coral and macroalgal cover to evaluate the effects of human disturbance on coral reefs, often assuming a universally positive relationship between local human disturbance and macroalgae. Despite evidence that macroalgae respond to local stressors in diverse ways, there have been few efforts to...

Globally, marine protected area (MPA) objectives have increasingly shifted from a primary focus on maintaining ecosystems through prohibiting extractive activities, to more equitable approaches that address the needs of both people and nature. This has led to MPAs with a diverse array of fisheries restrictions and recent debate on the type of restr...

The IPBES Scoping document for the values assessment highlights the need to assess the types of values of nature that have (or have not) been incorporated into decision-making, the types of valuation approaches incorporated into decision-making, the challenges that have hindered the incorporation of diverse conceptualizations of values of nature in...

In this commentary, Michael Brown of Satya Development International, Beth Allgood of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and a number of co-authors (see the full list at bottom) argue that the Covid-19 pandemic affords an opportunity for conservation to evolve away from underperforming business-as-usual approaches.

The evolution of parental care opens the door for the evolution of brood parasitic strategies that allow individuals to gain the benefits of parental care without paying the costs. Here we provide the first documentation for alloparental care in coral reef fish and we discuss why these patterns may reflect conspecific and interspecific brood parasi...

The current ease of obtaining thousands of molecular markers challenges the notion that full phylogenetic concordance, as proposed by phylogenetic species concepts, is a requirement for defining species delimitations. Indeed, the presence of genomic islands of divergence, which may be the cause, or in some cases the consequence, of speciation, prec...

Estimating population sizes and genetic diversity are key factors to understand and predict population dynamics. Marine species have been a difficult challenge in that respect, due to the difficulty in assessing population sizes and the open nature of such populations. Small, isolated islands with endemic species offer an opportunity to groundtruth...

Density (number per m2) from visual census for Holacanthus limbaughi and Stegastes baldwini by depth. Data shown as box plots by depth, shallow (6–12 m) and deep (20m). (PDF)

Bathymetric map of Clipperton Atoll that shows habitat estimated contours. Pink outline represents the 50 m “shallow” water, blue outline respesents the 100m “deep” water. Numbers on the map represent depths values in fathoms. (PDF)

Picture of a group of Holacanthus limbaughi taken from a submersible dive at 110 m depth in 2016 (Alan Friedlander). (JPG)

Barcode split perl script. (TXT)

Density (number per m2) from visual census for Holacanthus limbaughi and Stegastes baldwini by year. Data shown as box plots by year of census. (PDF)

Quality filtering perl script. (TXT)

Indigenous people, despite their pivotal roles in linking knowledge with contemporary needs and economies, have not always been acknowledged for their input. Professionally trained scientists and conservationists, rather than working with local people as key collaborators and data collectors, often attempt to enlist the support of local people to i...

The dynamic relationship between reefs and the people who utilize them at a subsistence level is poorly understood. This paper characterizes atoll-scale patterns in shallow coral reef habitat and fish community structure, and correlates these with environmental characteristics and anthropogenic factors, critical to conservation efforts for the reef...

Number of benthic quadrats examined for all years and all sites. (DOCX)

Functional group definitions for benthic community structure. (DOCX)

Fish species observed on Ulithi Atoll fish transects 2012–2014 with trophic group designations. (DOCX)

Out of more than 380 species of damselfish, only three lack a pelagic larval phase, Acanthochromis polyacanthus, that ranges from the Philippines to the Great Barrier Reef, and two species in the genus Altrichthys, A. azurelineatus and A. curatus, that are restricted to the Calamian Archipelago (Palawan province) in the Philippines. Therefore in a...

RESEARCH ARTICLE Corallimorph and Montipora Reefs in Ulithi Atoll, Micronesia: documenting unusual reefs Nicole L. Crane, Michelle J. Paddack, Peter A. Nelson, Avigdor Abelson, John Rulmal, Jr. & Giacomo Bernardi Abstract Here we report the presence of two unusual reef types at Ulithi Atoll, Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia: 1. a coral...

2011-2014 Findings from the One People One Reef project: bridging tradition with science for sustainable ocean management in the Yap Outer Islands (Ulithi Atoll - Western Pacific)

An updated checklist of cartilaginous and bony fishes from reefs and nearby areas around Clipperton Atoll (eastern Pacific) is presented. The register was compiled from field surveys between 1997 and 2012, an exhaustive literature review, and consultation of museum collections and databases. Records were then used to assess completeness of the loca...

Working in the Galápagos Islands and surrounding areas, we examined the relationship between population structure, a precursor to allopatric speciation, in species of reef fishes that exhibit different life history traits and three types of distributions in a nested setting: endemic (restricted to the Galápagos Islands), insular (Galápagos and neig...

Biogeographic boundaries are the meeting zone of broadly distributed faunas, or the actual cause of a faunal break. In the latter case, closely related sister species should be found across such a boundary. To achieve such a situation, preliminary stages are expected, where phylogeographic breaks followed by genetic cryptic speciation would be obse...

The damselfish genus Dascyllus comprises nine species of both large- and small-bodied fishes distributed over the entire Indo-West Pacific. Most members of the genus have polygynous mating systems with protogynous sex change, while others are promiscuous with no sex change. Hypotheses linking presumed phylogenetic relationships with body size, sex...

Educators, policymakers, employers and other stakeholders in ocean and other geo-science fields face the continuing challenge of a lack of diversity in these fields. A particular challenge for educators and geo-science professionals promoting ocean sciences is to create programs that have broad access, including access for underrepresented youth. E...

Experiential learning, engaging students in the process of science, can not only teach students important skills and knowledge, it can also help them become connected with the process on a personal level. This study investigates the role that Inquiry-Driven Field-Based (IDFB) experiences (primarily field classes) in ocean science have on undergradu...

Previous studies have shown that the three-spot damselfish species complex [ Dascyllus albisella Gill, D. auripinnis Randall and Randall, D. strasburgi Klausewitz, D. trimaculatus (Ruppell)] is an assemblage of five geographically distinct clades. The one exception was a single D. trimaculatus from French Polynesia, which grouped with "Pacific Rim"...

Coloration patterns of tropical reef fishes is commonly used for taxonomic purposes, yet few studies have focused on the relationship between species boundaries and coloration types. The three-spot damselfish (Dascyllus trimaculatus) species complex comprises four species that vary both in geographical ranges and colour patterns making them an idea...

The National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program is showing their commitment to improving the education of people who work in and are interested in ocean-related occupations through their award to the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center. The MATE Center is located at Monterey Peninsula College in Monte...

The damselfish genus Dascyllus comprises nine species of both large- and small-bodied fishes distributed over the entire Indo-West Pacific. Most members of the genus have polygynous mating systems with protogynous sex change, while others are promiscuous with no sex change. Hypotheses linking presumed phylogenetic relationships with body size, sex...

This paper highlights the major efforts and achievements of the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center since its founding in September 1997. The MATE Center was developed through a multi-year grant (DUE-ATE 9752028) from the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education program. A major goal of the MATE Center is to wor...

The MATE Center is a 5 year project based at Monterey Peninsula College that will coordinate and facilitate the development of a national program for marine technology education. High schools, technical schools, two and four-year colleges and universities will interact with industry and the military as well as non-profit, government and labor organ...

Sound production of gray whales was investigated to determine their acoustic repertoire along the migration route, and to compare sound production in deep and shallow water. Recording was conducted off Monterey Bay and Carmel Bay, California, during the annual migrations of 1988 through 1991. Sounds were analyzed through digital signal processing....

The condition factors and gonadal indices of blue rockfish off central California declined during the 1982-83 and 1992-93 El Niiio events. These periods were characterized by higher-than-normal spring sea-surface temperatures (SST), indicating weak upwelling of cold, nutrient-laden water into the nearshore euphotic zone. Resulting spring primary pr...

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-73) Typescript. Thesis (M.A.)--University of California, Santa Cruz, 2004.