The Asia region harbors exceptional chondrichthyan (shark, ray, and chimaera) diversity but faces intense fishing pressure. The Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRA) process provides a collaborative, evidence-based framework to identify critical habitats and inform spatial management. We assessed ISRAs across the Bay of Bengal, Southeast Asia, and the Northwest Pacific to characterize their extent, ecological significance, and...

The climate history of the major dryland zones of the world, such as the Saharo–Arabian Desert belt, plays a key role in the dispersal of early humans through these intermittently inhospitable regions. Here, we assess the relative intensity of Late Quaternary humid phases in northern Arabia through lithological, geochemical, palaeoecological and geochronological analysis of three sediment sequences in the Nefud Desert. Two seq...