Ruth H Thurstan

• Doctor of Philosophy
• University of Exeter

Seafood markets have become increasingly internationalised over the course of the twentieth century, induced by expanding footprints of fishing fleets, improved communication and transport infrastructure, and trade agreements. We compiled archival UK seafood import data from UK Government, SEAFISH and FAO sources to track the expansion of the UK’s...

Oyster reefs are often referred to as the temperate functional equivalent of coral reefs. Yet evidence for this analogy was lacking for the European native species Ostrea edulis. Historical data provide a unique opportunity to develop a robust definition for this ecosystem type, confirm that O. edulis are large‐scale biogenic reef builders, and ass...

Ocean ecosystems have been subjected to anthropogenic influences for centuries, but the scale of past ecosystem changes is often unknown. For centuries, the European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis), an ecosystem engineer providing biogenic reef habitats, was a culturally and economically significant source of food and trade. These reef habitats are now...

Anthropogenic activities have impacted marine ecosystems at extraordinary scales. Biogenic reef ecosystems built by the European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis) typically declined before scientific monitoring. The past form and extent of these habitats thus remains unknown, with such information potentially providing valuable perspectives for current m...

Marine functional connectivity (MFC) refers to the flows of organic matter, genes, and energy that are caused by the active and passive movements of marine organisms. Occurring at various temporal and spatial scales, MFC is a dynamic, constantly evolving global ecological process, part of overall ecological connectivity, but with its own distinct a...

ABSTRACT: Historical ecology draws on a broad range of information sources and methods to provide insight into ecological and social change, especially over the past ~12,000 years. While its results are often relevant to conservation and restoration, insights from its diverse disciplines, environments, and geographies have frequently remained siloe...

Historical ecology draws on a broad range of information sources and methods to provide insight into ecological and social change, especially over the past ~12,000 yr. While its results are often relevant to conservation and restoration, insights from its diverse disciplines, environments, and geographies have frequently remained siloed or underrep...

Degradation of marine ecosystems by human activities is a global problem, with only recent recognition that exploitation of ecosystems over millennia can result in their functional extinction and loss from human memory. To reconstruct the historical distribution of oyster reefs in China, and the context behind loss, we extracted information from ar...

The giant grouper ( Epinephelus lanceolatus ) is the largest reef fish in the Indo‐Pacific (~2.5 m TL, >400 kg), and it is highly susceptible to overfishing. Despite regional protections and documented population declines, the species is listed by IUCN as Data Deficient due to minimal long‐term population data and a paucity of life history informat...

Ocean ecosystems have been subjected to anthropogenic influences for centuries, but the scale of past ecosystem changes is often unknown. For centuries, the European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis), an ecosystem engineer providing biogenic reef habitats, was a culturally and economically significant source of food and trade. These reef habitats are now...

Oyster reefs are often referred to as the temperate functional equivalent of coral reefs. Yet evidence for this analogy is lacking for the European native species Ostrea edulis and its biogenic habitat. Recently assembled historical data provide a unique opportunity to develop a robust definition for this ecosystem type, confirm that O. edulis are...

Anthropogenic activities have impacted marine ecosystems at extraordinary scales. Biogenic reef ecosystems built by the European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis) typically declined prior to scientific monitoring. Collating >1,600 records published over 350 years, we created a highly resolved (10km2) map of historical oyster reef presence across its biog...

Ocean ecosystems have been subjected to anthropogenic influences for centuries, but the scale of past ecosystem changes is often unknown. For centuries, the European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis), an ecosystem engineer providing biogenic reef habitats, was a culturally and economically significant source of food and trade. These reef habitats are now...

Historical ecology draws on a broad range of information sources and methods to provide insight into ecological and social change, especially over the past ~12,000 years. While its results are often relevant to conservation and restoration, insights from its diverse disciplines, environments, and geographies have frequently remained siloed or under...

Background Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of mortality across the Caribbean and similar regions. Structural determinants include a marked increase in the dependency on food imports, and the proliferation of processed foods, including sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). We focused on Jamaica as a case study and the health chall...

The Amazon River dolphin Inia geoffrensis occurs throughout the basins of the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers and is categorized as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Using satellite tracking data from eight dolphins (one female and seven males) in the Peruvian Amazon, we demonstrate that these dolphins inhabit a variety of habitat types and have core area...

Abstract Developed countries are increasingly dependent on international trade to meet seafood requirements, which has important social, environmental, and economic implications. After becoming an independent coastal state following Brexit, the UK faces increased trade barriers and changes in seafood availability and cost. We compiled a long-term...

The concept of the ‘shifting baseline syndrome’ has assisted researchers in understanding how expectations for the health of the environment deteriorate, despite known, often widespread, and significant impacts from human activities. The concept has been used to demonstrate that more accurate assessment of historical ecosystem decline can be achiev...

Human activities have led to degradation of ecosystems globally. The lost ecosystem functions and services accumulate from the time of disturbance to the full recovery of the ecosystem and can be quantified as a "recovery debt," providing a valuable tool to develop better restoration practices that accelerate recovery and limit losses. Here, we qua...

River cetaceans are particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic impacts due to their constrained ranges in freshwater systems of China, South Asia, and South America. We undertook an exhaustive review of 280 peer-reviewed papers and grey literature reports (1998−2020) to examine the current status of knowledge regarding these cetaceans and their conse...

Recreational fisheries are of global socio-ecological importance and contribute significantly to local economies and fisheries harvests. In some regions of Australia, organized recreational fishing activities have existed for over 150 yr. However, historical understanding of the spatio-temporal development and resource usage of recreational fisheri...

Background Non-communicable diseases are the leading cause of mortality across the Caribbean and similar Low and Middle Income Country regions. Structural determinants include a marked increase in the dependency on food imports and the proliferation of processed and fast foods, including sugar-sweetened beverages. In this project, we emphasised the...

Marine historical ecology emerged in the scholarly literature with the aim of understanding long‐term dynamics in marine ecosystems and the outcomes of past human–ocean interactions. The use of historical sources, which differ in temporal scale and resolution to most scientific monitoring data, present both opportunities and challenges for informin...

Habitat destruction and biodiversity loss from exploitation of ecosystems have led to increased restoration and conservation efforts worldwide. Disturbed ecosystems accumulate a recovery debt - the accumulated loss of ecosystem services - and quantifying this debt presents a valuable tool to develop better ecosystem restoration practices. Here, we...

Recreational fishing in Australia makes important contributions to local economies and fisheries harvests. Historical evaluations of the cumulative effects of exploitation for most recreationally targeted Australian fish stocks remain unexplored, as do the social and cultural contexts of recreational fishing. Historical newspaper articles were used...

Sharks are among the oldest residents of the planet, they possess a unique value as top predators and constitute irreplaceable elements of marine ecosystems. Unfortunately, contemporary narratives widely presented in popular mainstream media have attached an utterly negative connotation to sharks, propagating an unsubstantiated and fabricated image...

As the COVID‐19 pandemic continues to affect societies across the world, the ongoing economic and social disruptions are likely to present fundamental challenges for current and future biodiversity conservation. We review the literature for outcomes of past major societal, political, economic and zoonotic perturbations on biodiversity conservation,...

Case studies in support of Caswell et al. 2020.

Sidney J. Holt (1926–2019) was more than a founding father of quantitative fisheries science, and the man who "helped save the great whales." His accomplishments, over a career spanning seven decades, run deeper: he was a champion of reductionism (i.e. able to identify the factors essential for management) and a systemic thinker who inspired scient...

• Bivalve habitat restoration is growing in geographic extent and scale globally. While addressing the wide‐scale loss of these biogenic habitats is still a key motivation behind restoration efforts, stakeholders and funders are increasingly drawn to shellfish restoration for the many ecosystem services these habitats provide. • There is clear evid...

The freshwater tucuxi (Sotalia flluviatilis) and the Amazon River dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) are endemic to the Amazon-Orinoco river basin. Their conservation is hindered by human disturbance and uncertainty about total population size and distribution. In this study, we used rapid assessment questionnaires to identify threats to river dolphins Per...

The concept of ‘blue growth’, which aims to promote the growth of ocean economies whilst holistically managing marine socio-ecological systems, is emerging within national and international marine policy. The concept is often promoted as being novel, however, we show that, historical analogies exist which can provide insights for contemporary plann...

Oyster reef ecosystems used to form significant components of many temperate and subtropical inshore coastal systems but have suffered declines globally, with a concurrent loss of services. The early timing of many of these changes makes it difficult to determine restoration targets which consider interdecadal timeframes, community values and shift...

of energy fluxes in marine animal forests of the Anthropocene: factors shaping the future seascape. Climate change is already transforming the seascapes of our oceans by changing the energy availability and the metabolic rates of the organisms. Among the ecosystem-engineering species that structure the seascape, marine animal forests (MAFs) are the...

Human population density within 100 km of the sea is approximately three times higher than the global average. People in this zone are concentrated in coastal cities that are hubs for transport and trade – which transform the marine environment. Here, we review the impacts of three interacting drivers of marine urbanization (resource exploitation,...

Human population density within 100 km of the sea is approximately three times higher than the global average. People in this zone are concentrated in coastal cities that are hubs for transport and trade – which transform the marine environment. Here, we review the impacts of three interacting drivers of marine urbanization (resource exploitation,...

Understanding the recruitment variability of the Atlantic herring North Sea stock remains a key objective of stock assessment and management. Although many efforts have been undertaken linking climatic and stock dynamic factors to herring recruitment, no major attempt has been made to estimate recruitment levels before the 20th century. Here, we pr...

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are an increasingly deployed spatial management tool. MPAs are primarily designed for biodiversity conservation, with their success commonly measured using a narrow suite of ecological indicators. However, for MPAs to achieve their biodiversity conservation goals they require community support, which is dependent on wi...

Recreational fishing has taken place for centuries and is a globally popular activity, yet a lack of monitoring data means historical trends in recreational fisheries are often little understood compared to their commercial counterparts. We examined archival sources and conducted fisher interviews to examine changes in the Queensland recreational s...

Global demand for seaweed has increased dramatically over recent decades and the potential for seaweed aquaculture to address issues around food security and climate-change mitigation are being recognised. Australia is a global hotspot for seaweed biodiversity with a rich, diverse Indigenous history dating back 65,000 years, including an extensive...

Increasing the size and number of marine protected areas (MPAs) is widely seen as a way to meet ambitious biodiversity and sustainable development goals. Yet, debate still exists on the effectiveness of MPAs in achieving ecological and societal objectives. Although the literature provides significant evidence of the ecological effects of MPAs withi...

Energy generation sites are increasingly being implemented in coastal and offshore marine spaces, and the rate of implementation is likely to increase in coming decades. In many cases the installation of energy generation structures greatly reduces or entirely prevents other potentially damaging industries, such as fishing and mining, from operatin...

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Over the reporting period 2015–2017, the ICES Working Group on the History of Fish and Fisheries (WGHIST) was chaired by Emily Klein (USA) and Ruth Thurstan (UK). WGHIST is a forum for interdisciplinary research on social-ecological change in marine and fisheries systems over multi-decadal to centennial and even millennial times...

Animal forests form the foundation of many important marine benthic habitats. However, a near ubiquitous lack of long-term scientific data raises significant challenges in assessing how these communities have changed over time in response to human impacts and how they might respond to future perturbations. To address these questions, alternative so...

Despite threats to human wellbeing from ecological degradation, public engagement with this issue remains at low levels. However, studies have shown that crafting messages to resonate with people’s personal experiences can enhance engagement. Recreational fishing is one of the principal ways in which people interact with aquatic environments, but l...

Sources searched for archival material on the Noosa Estuary. (PDF)

Percentage occurrence of species as mentioned in catch records. Percentage of catch records reporting to species that mentioned the occurrence of either whiting, bream, flathead, mulloway, tailor or other species. Decades where <10 records mentioned specific species in their catch are not included. (TIFF)

Results of linear mixed model analyses for temporal trends in fishing club competitions within the Noosa Estuary. (PDF)

Aggregations of individual animals that form for breeding purposes are a critical ecological process for many species, yet these aggregations are inherently vulnerable to exploitation. Studies of the decline of exploited populations that form breeding aggregations tend to focus on catch rate and thus often overlook reductions in geographic range. W...

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The ICES Working Group on the History of Fish and Fisheries (WGHIST) is a forum for interdisciplinary research on social-ecological change in marine and fisheries systems over multi-decadal to centennial timescales. It comprises a diverse group of researchers, including marine biologists, fisheries scientists, historians, and his...

Subtropical reefs provide an important habitat for flora and fauna, and proper monitoring is required for conservation. Monitoring these exposed and submerged reefs is challenging and available resources are limited. Citizen science is increasing in momentum, as an applied research tool and in the variety of monitoring approaches adopted. This pape...

(PDF)

Shifting baselines describes the phenomenon where long-term changes to an environment go unrecognized because what is perceived as natural shifts with succeeding generations of scientists and other observers. This is a particular problem for the oceans because we are rarely able to directly observe the consequences of human activities. In the absen...

In a rapidly changing world, oral history – a recorded dialogue between an interviewer and interviewee – is becoming an increasingly valued method by which to describe past marine environments and to enhance our knowledge of ecological changes. Using case studies from the 1860s to the present day we demonstrate the important role that oral history...

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are an increasingly utilised marine and coastal management tool, with rates of designation rising steeply over the last twenty years. MPAs are most commonly designated for biological conservation objectives and the management is thus focused primarily on meeting conservation goals, with associated monitoring programs g...

Clarke, B.; Thurstan, R.H.; and Yates, K.L, 2016. Stakeholder perceptions of a coastal marine protected area, . In: Vila-Concejo, A.; Bruce, E.; Kennedy, D.M., and McCarroll, R.J. (eds.), Proceedings of the 14th International Coastal Symposium (Sydney, Australia). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue, No. 75, pp. 622626. Coconut Creek (Florid...

As a discipline, marine historical ecology (MHE) has contributed significantly to our understanding of the past state of the marine environment when levels of human impact were often very different from those today. What is less widely known is that insights from MHE have made headway into being applied within the context of present-day and long-te...

The ICES Working Group on the History of Fish and Fisheries (WGHIST, 2015 -2017) is a forum for interdisciplinary research on social-ecological change in marine and fisheries systems over multi-decadal to multi-century timescales. It comprises a diverse group of researchers including marine biologists, fisheries scientists, historians, and historic...

Marine historical research has made progress in bridging the gap between science and policy, but examples in which it has been effectively applied remain few. In particular, its application to aquaculture remains unexplored. Using actual examples of natural resource management in the state of South Australia, we illustrate how historical data of va...

Ecological data sets rarely extend back more than a few decades, limiting our understanding of environmental change and its drivers. Marine historical ecology has played a critical role in filling these data gaps by illuminating the magnitude and rate of ongoing changes in marine ecosystems. Yet despite a growing body of knowledge, historical insig...

Ecological degradation is accelerating, reducing our ability to detect and reverse declines. Resource user accounts have the potential to provide critical information on past change but their reliability can rarely be tested, hence they are often perceived as less valid than other forms of scientific data. We compared individual fishers’ catch reco...

Animal forests form the foundation of many important marine benthic habitats. However, a near ubiquitous lack of long-term scientific data raises significant challenges in assessing how these communities have changed over time in response to human impacts and how they might respond to future perturbations. To address these questions, alternative so...

Historical perspectives are highly relevant to marine conservation, yet rarely integrated into ocean planning efforts. By its nature, marine conservation planning is forward looking—concerned with measures that should be taken in the future. It usually focuses on mitigating anticipated adverse changes caused by current and future human activities,...

Many over-exploited marine ecosystems worldwide have lost their natural populations of large predatory finfish and have become dominated by crustaceans and other invertebrates. Controversially, some of these simplified ecosystems have gone on to support highly successful invertebrate fisheries capable of generating more economic value than the fish...

Snapper (Pagrus auratus) is widely distributed throughout subtropical and temperate southern oceans and forms a significant recreational and commercial fishery in Queensland, Australia. Using data from government reports, media sources, popular publications and a government fisheries survey carried out in 1910, we compiled information on individual...

Fish spawning aggregations (FSAs) support productive and valuable fisheries yet are extremely vulnerable to overexploitation and depletion. Assessment and subsequent management of FSA fisheries requires analysis of long-term spatio-temporal trends in fishery catch and effort to overcome shifting baselines. We compile newspaper archives, fisher know...

Marine inshore communities, including biogenic habitats have undergone dramatic changes as a result of exploitation, pollution, land-use changes and introduced species. The Firth of Forth on the east coast of Scotland was once home to the most important oyster (Ostrea edulis Linnaeus, 1758) beds in Scotland. 19th and early 20th century fisheries sc...

Overfishing is a constant concern. But what is a normal, unfished population? As Ruth Thurstan reveals, concerns about overfishing started early – and can help to quantify the fish that were once in the sea.

Bottom trawling (nets towed along the seabed) spread around the British Isles from the 1820s, yet the collection of national fisheries statistics did not begin until 1886. Consequently, analysis of the impacts of trawling on fish stocks and habitats during this early period is difficult, yet without this information, we risk underestimating the ext...

Descriptive extracts describing Firth of Clyde fisheries. (0.04 MB DOC)

The Firth of Clyde is a large inlet of the sea that extends over 100 km into Scotland's west coast. We compiled detailed fisheries landings data for this area and combined them with historical accounts to build a picture of change due to fishing activity over the last 200 years. In the early 19th century, prior to the onset of industrial fishing, t...

In 2009, the European Commission estimated that 88% of monitored marine fish stocks were overfished, on the basis of data that go back 20 to 40 years and depending on the species investigated. However, commercial sea fishing goes back centuries, calling into question the validity of management conclusions drawn from recent data. We compiled statist...