Vienna R. Saccomanno

• Scientist at The Nature Conservancy

Ecosystems globally have reached critical tipping points because of climate change, urbanization, unsustainable resource consumption, and pollution. In response, international agreements have set targets for conserving 30% of global ecosystems and restoring 30% of degraded lands and waters by 2030 (30×30). In 2021, the United States set a target to...

This guidebook provides an overview of optical remote sensing as it relates to mapping giant kelp and bull kelp. We describe optical remote sensing platforms and sensors pertinent to mapping and monitoring attributes of bull kelp and giant kelp beds - kelp presence/absence, density, species, and health. Recommendations found in this guidebook can a...

Giant kelp and bull kelp forests are increasingly at risk from marine heatwave events, herbivore outbreaks, and the loss or alterations in the behavior of key herbivore predators. The dynamic floating canopy of these kelps is well-suited to study via satellite imagery, which provides high temporal and spatial resolution data of floating kelp canopy...

Humans have been an integral part of California's marine and coastal ecosystems for over 13,000 years. While the region is one of the best studied marine systems in the world, a historical perspective that connects social-ecological dynamics of change across California's diverse cultural periods is lacking. Historical ecology offers a lens through...

Kelp forests are complex underwater habitats that form the foundation of many nearshore marine environments and provide valuable services for coastal communities. Despite their ecological and economic importance, increasingly severe stressors have resulted in declines in kelp abundance in many regions over the past few decades, including the North...

Advances in artificial intelligence for computer vision hold great promise for increasing the scales at which ecological systems can be studied. The distribution and behavior of individuals is central to ecology, and computer vision using deep neural networks can learn to detect individual objects in imagery. However, developing supervised models f...

Giant kelp and bull kelp forests are increasingly at risk from marine heatwave events, herbivore outbreaks, and the loss or alterations in the behavior of key herbivore predators. The dynamic floating canopy of these kelps is well-suited to study via satellite imagery, which provides high temporal and spatial resolution data of floating kelp canopy...

The magnitude of subsidies provided to the fishing sector by governments worldwide is immense—an estimated $35.4 billion USD per year. The majority of these subsidies may be impeding efforts to sustainably manage fisheries by incentivizing overfishing and overcapacity. Recognizing the threat these subsidies pose, the World Trade Organization has se...

Synthetic microfibers have been identified as the most prevalent type of microplastic in samples from aquatic, atmospheric, and terrestrial environments across the globe. Apparel washing has shown to be a major source of microfiber pollution. We used California as a case study to estimate the magnitude and fate of microfiber emissions, and to evalu...

Surface-canopy forming kelps provide the foundation for ecosystems that are ecologically, culturally, and economically important. However, these kelp forests are naturally dynamic systems that are also threatened by a range of global and local pressures. As a result, there is a need for tools that enable managers to reliably track changes in their...

The prevalence of disease-driven mass mortality events is increasing, but our understanding of spatial variation in their magnitude, timing and triggers are often poorly resolved. Here, we use a novel range-wide dataset comprised 48 810 surveys to quantify how sea star wasting disease affected Pycnopodia helianthoides , the sunflower sea star, acro...

Advances in artificial intelligence for image processing hold great promise for increasing the scales at which ecological systems can be studied. The distribution and behavior of individuals is central to ecology, and computer vision using deep neural networks can learn to detect individual objects in imagery. However, developing computer vision fo...

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Commercial, recreational, and indigenous fisheries are critical to coastal economies and communities in the United States. For over three decades, the federal government has formally recognized the impact of fishery disasters via federal declarations. Despite these impacts, national syntheses of the dynamics, impacts, and causes of fishery disaster...

Global kelp forests are biodiverse and productive nearshore ecosystems that provide a wide range of ecosystem services, but they are at risk from both local stressors and global drivers of kelp loss. A structured decision making (SDM) framework can help guide kelp management and restoration decisions and investments toward interventions that are mo...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is in a unique position to deliver on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14.6 by reforming global fisheries subsidies in 2020. Yet, a number of unanswered questions threaten to inhibit WTO delegates from crafting a smart agreement that improves global fisheries health. We combine global data on industrial fishing...

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a well-established conservation strategy, employed around the world to protect important marine species and ecosystems and support the recovery of declining populations. The continental waters of North America contain remarkable biodiversity, but many species face increasing pressure from overexploitation, climate...

Marine protected area (MPA) coverage is commonly used as a metric of progress for the marine conservation movement. Reporting the extent to which governments are contributing to global MPA targets (e.g., the IUCN World Parks Congress recently called for a global target of 30% no-take reserve coverage) provides accountability and frames individual p...

Two alternative hypotheses explain the degradation of organics in the Viking Labeled Release experiment on Mars. Either martian soil contains live indigenous microorganisms or it is sterile but chemically reactive. These two possibilities could be distinguished by the use of pure preparations of glucose isomers. In the laboratory, selected eukaryot...