Steven W.J. Canty- Doctor of Philosophy
- Research Biologist at Smithsonian Institution
Steven W.J. Canty
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Research Biologist at Smithsonian Institution
About
57
Publications
21,909
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931
Citations
Introduction
I am a marine biologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, where I lead the Marine Conservation Program. I am also part of the Working Land and Seascapes initiative. My research supports the management of marine ecosystems and the sustainable use of small-scale fisheries in Latin America and the Caribbean, with a particular focus in the Mesoamerican reef region.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
January 2018 - December 2023
Position
- Seascape Advisor
Description
- Partner with communities, decision-makers, and other national and international actors across the globe to inform game-changing environmental policies and improve conservation practices. We spark ideas, forge partnerships, and share knowledge to tackle today’s biggest conservation and climate challenges on the world’s land and seascapes. We aim to foster healthy, resilient, and productive landscapes and seascapes for the benefit of people and nature
October 2015 - December 2022
Position
- Program Coordinator
Description
- Conduct applied research to promote evidence-based management of marine resources, with a particular in the Mesoamerican reef ecoregion and Caribbean.
July 2014 - August 2014
Centro de Estudios Marinos
Position
- PhD Student
Education
January 2015 - August 2021
August 2005 - July 2007
August 1998 - July 2001
Publications
Publications (57)
Mangrove ecosystems are among the most economically and ecologically valuable marine environments in the world. Mangroves are effective at long-term carbon storage within their sediments and are estimated to hold 12 billion metric tons of carbon worldwide. These ecosystems are therefore vitally important for carbon sequestration and, by extension,...
Conservation interventions are central strategies for achieving sustainable development goals given the inextricable dependence of humanity on nature. Current debate centres on whether interventions such as marine protected areas (MPAs) promote co-benefits or trade-offs among multiple goals such as poverty alleviation, food security and protection...
There is an increasing role of marine protected areas (MPAs) to be the dominant form of marine resource management to protect biodiversity, promote livelihoods, and build food security as part of the sustainable development agenda. However, the effective and equitable achievement of these goals requires understanding women's use, access to, and dep...
Tidal wetlands are hotspots of soil accumulation due to high sedimentation rates and low soil oxygen concentrations that inhibit organic matter decomposition1. Accordingly, tidal wetlands can sequester “blue carbon” at much higher rates than other ecosystems2,3 helping to offset human emissions. Organic carbon burial is tightly linked to the cyclin...
Caribbean coral reefs account for only 7% of the world total coral reef area but play a vital role in the economy of the Caribbean and the livelihoods of millions of people
who depend upon the reefs for income and employment. Coral cover has declined from 50% in the 1970s to less than 20% today, potentially reducing the ability of
the reefs to prov...
Mangroves are among the most productive ecosystems worldwide, providing numerous ecological and socio- economic co-benefits. Though highly adapted to fluctuating environmental conditions, increasing disturbances from climate change and human activities have caused significant losses. With increasing environmental un- certainties, adaptive managemen...
Unpredictable environmental dynamics may be the greatest challenge of our time 1,2 . However, sustainability initiatives are designed with the assumption that people’s access to natural resources is relatively predictable ³ . This assumption is based on the principle that to use resources sustainably users must have the ability to exclude free ride...
Countries are expanding marine protected area (MPA) networks to mitigate fisher- ies declines and support marine biodiversity. However, MPA impact evaluations typically assess total fish biomass. Here, we examine how fish biomass disaggre- gated by adult and juvenile life stages responds to environmental drivers, includ- ing sea surface temperature...
This guide is designed as a starting point to help researchers and practitioners working in mangrove conservation and restoration who want to engage with and include LEK in their projects. This applies
to, but is not limited to, members of the Global Mangrove Alliance, their collaborators, and the broader conservation community
Background
Nature-based interventions (NbIs) for climate change mitigation include a diverse set of interventions aimed at conserving, restoring, and/or managing natural and modified ecosystems to improve their ability to store and sequester carbon and avoid greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Recent projections estimate that terrestrial NbIs can lead...
This study is the first ever to gather local mangrove scientists, forest managers and policy-makers world-wide to identify the future scientific curiosity-driven and managerial need-driven questions to which science, management, and/or governance needs an answer.
The North Atlantic Basin (NAB) has seen an increase in the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones since the 1980s, with record-breaking seasons in 2017 and 2020. However, little is known about how coastal ecosystems, particularly mangroves in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, respond to these new "climate normals" at regional and subregio...
Premise:
The preservation of plant tissues in ethanol is conventionally viewed as problematic. Here, we show that leaf preservation in ethanol combined with proteinase digestion can provide high-quality DNA extracts. Additionally, as a pretreatment, ethanol can facilitate DNA extraction for recalcitrant samples.
Methods:
DNA was isolated from le...
Seagrass beds have historically received little to no management attention, contributing to significant declines in their extent globally. Recently, seagrass beds, and other blue carbon ecosystems, have gained greater management attention due to their potentially critical role in climate mitigation. Therefore, some countries, such as Belize in 2021...
La biodiversidad de los entornos terrestres y marinos viene experimentando un declive vertiginoso en todo el mundo. Por lo tanto, se necesitan acciones de conservación en todas partes del planeta, incluyendo aquellos paisajes terrestres y marinos ricos en biodiversidad y donde las personas viven y trabajan. Los enfoques integradores para la conserv...
The North Atlantic Basin (NAB) is seeing a significant increase in the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones since the 1980s, with record-breaking seasons such as 2017 and 2020. However, little is known about how coastal ecosystems, particularly mangroves in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, are responding to these new climate normals at...
![Figure 2. Data analysis steps. Adapted from [68,69].](profile/Steven-Canty/publication/364239331/figure/fig2/AS:11431281088569634@1665156241141/Data-analysis-steps-Adapted-from-68-69_Q320.jpg)
Nature-based solutions (NbSs) have long recognized the value of coastal and marine ecosystem management and associated ecosystem services as useful tools for climate change mitigation (e.g., blue carbon) and adaptation (e.g., coastal protection against flooding and storm surges). However, NbSs remain poorly acknowledged and mostly absent from coast...
Nature-based solutions (NbSs) have long recognized the value of coastal and marine ecosystem management and associated ecosystem services as useful tools for climate change mitigation (e.g., blue carbon) and adaptation (e.g., coastal protection against flooding and storm surges). However, NbSs remain poorly acknowledged and mostly absent from coast...
Yellowfin tuna, Thunnus albacares, is an important global fishery and of particular importance in the Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO). According to the 2019 Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) assessment, yellowfin tuna within the EPO is a single stock, and is being managed as one stock. However, previous studies indicate site fidelity, or...
Biodiversity is in precipitous decline globally across both terrestrial and marine environments. Therefore, conservation actions are needed everywhere on Earth, including in the biodiversity rich landscapes and seascapes where people live and work that cover much of the planet. Integrative landscape and seascape approaches to conservation fill this...
Land-based nitrogen pollution is a major threat to coastal ecosystems, especially in tropical regions home to high biodiversity habitats such as coral reefs and seagrass beds. The sustained addition of excess nutrients (in the form of nitrates) to these ecosystems, which are adapted to oligotrophic environments, disrupts ecosystem function and the...
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a global blueprint to end extreme poverty, reduce inequality, and protect the planet. Progress toward these goals is falling short. Achieving the SDGs requires coordination among government, private industry, and nongovernmental organizations to align the actions of multiple sectors wi...
Background
Natural climate solutions (NCS)—actions to conserve, restore, and modify natural and modified ecosystems to increase carbon storage or avoid greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—are increasingly regarded as important pathways for climate change mitigation, while contributing to our global conservation efforts, overall planetary resilience, and...
There is an urgent need to halt and reverse loss of mangroves and seagrass to protect and increase the ecosystem services they provide to coastal communities, such as enhancing coastal resilience and contributing to climate stability.1,2 Ambitious targets for their recovery can inspire public and private investment in conservation,3 but the expecte...
Whilst total global fisheries landed catches declined from 1950 to 2016, small‐scale fisheries (SSFs) landed catches increased. Amongst SSFs landed catches, approximately 95% are consumed domestically. Taken together, these highlight the importance of the potential for SSFs to contribute to food security and well‐being of coastal populations, parti...
Mangroves form coastal tropical forests in the intertidal zone and are an important component of shoreline protection. In comparison to other tropical forests, mangrove stands are thought to have relatively low genetic diversity with population genetic structure gradually increasing with distance along a coastline. We conducted genetic analyses of...
The status and potential degradation of an ecosystem is often difficult to identify, quantify, and characterize. Multiple, concurrent drivers of degradation may interact and have cumulative and confounding effects, making mitigation and rehabilitation actions challenging to achieve. Ecosystem status assessments generally emphasize areal change (gai...
Coastal eutrophication is an issue of serious global concern and although nutrient subsidies can enhance primary productivity of coastal wetlands, they can be detrimental to their long-term maintenance. By supplying nutrients to coastal ecosystems at levels comparable to intensive agriculture practices, roosting colonial waterbirds provide a natura...
In this paper, we present the highest-resolution-available (10 m) national map of the mangrove ecosystems of Belize. These important ecosystems are increasingly threatened by human activities and climate change, support both marine and terrestrial biodiversity, and provide critical ecosystem services to coastal communities in Belize and throughout...
Amongst the global decline of coral reefs, hope spots such as Cordelia Bank in Honduras, have been identified. This site contains dense, remnant thickets of the endangered species Acropora cervicornis , which local managers and conservation organizations view as a potential source population for coral restoration projects. The aim of this study was...
Ashtamudy Lake sedimentary islands have found to be submerged for most of the time a day during both low and high tide times. This is a good natural model system to study the consequences of risen sea level on the ecophysiology of mangrove ecosystems. Our results found that these islands lack the characteristic geochemical zonation pattern of mangr...
This strategy is a dynamic instrument agreed upon between multiple stakeholders and sectors, which will contribute to the coordination of management actions, conservation, restoration, and monitoring of the mangrove ecosystem to reduce its vulnerability and that of coastal communities affected by climate change in the MAR ecoregion, engaging the su...
La presente estrategia es un instrumento dinámico y consensuado entre múltiples actores y sectores, que contribuirá a coordinar acciones de manejo, conservación, restauración y monitoreo del ecosistema de manglar para reducir su vulnerabilidad y la de las comunidades costeras ante el cambio climático en la ecoregión del SAM, con la participación y...
Mangrove forests are found along the shorelines of more than 100 countries, and provide a wide range of ecosystem services that support the livelihoods and wellbeing of tens of millions of people. Despite their importance, loss of global mangrove area has been so substantial that twelve years ago academics warned of “a world without mangroves” [1]....
Declining fisheries catches are a global trend, with management failing to keep pace with growth in fishing effort and technological advances. The economic value of Honduras’ catches was estimated within the industrial and artisanal sectors. Catches were found to be 2.9 times greater than the official statistics between 1950 and 2015. The merging o...
Mangrove ecosystems are of great importance due to the numerous ecosystem services they provide, for example; storm protection, erosion mitigation, fisheries and carbon storage. They are a taxonomically diverse group of woody trees and shrubs that inhabit the inhospitable intertidal zone of tropical and subtropical coastlines. Within South Asia, ma...
1. The ability to define the spatial dynamics of fish stocks is critical to fisheries management. Combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and the regulation of area-based management through physical patrols and port side controls are growing areas of management attention. Augmenting the existing approaches to fisheries management with...
Mangroves are declining globally at faster rates than tropical forests and coral reefs, with primary threats in- cluding, aquaculture, agriculture and climate change. Mangroves provide ecosystem services to coastal com- munities of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras, which comprise the Mesoamerican Reef (MAR) ecoregion. Over the past two decade...
This report on the role of wild-caught fisheries in African development focuses on small-scale fisheries in East and West Africa. The report describes the role of wild-caught fisheries in food security, resilience and nutrition and presents opportunities and recommendations for intervening in wild-caught fisheries management to improve the liveliho...
I was part of 4% of applicants flown to Washington, D.C. to conduct research with my Smithsonian Principal Investigator. I worked on the new technique called DNA Barcoding in addition to utilizing RStudio to further conservation efforts concerning the mislabeling of fish products sold in Central America. I also learned skills in botany, paleontolog...
