We evaluated the effects of regional environment and body size on the nutritional traits of five small pelagic species differing in habitat use, feeding behavior, and importance as prey for top predators in the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem (CCLME). Northern anchovy ( Engraulis mordax ), bigfin lanternfish ( Symbolophorus californiensis ), market squid ( Doryteuthis opalescens ), and boreal clubhook squid ( Onychot...

Over recent decades, the eastern North Pacific Ocean (ENP) has undergone significant climate-driven change, characterized by rising sea surface temperatures (SSTs), a northward expansion of the North Pacific Transition Zone (NPTZ), and more frequent marine heatwaves. Juvenile North Pacific loggerhead sea turtles ( Caretta caretta ), a highly mobile species sensitive to environmental variability, have emerged as a sentinel spec...

The North Pacific Transition Zone (NPTZ) is known as a global marine hotspot for many endangered and commercially significant highly mobile marine species. In the last few decades, the region has undergone unprecedented physical and biological transformations in response to climate variability and change. Although it is anticipated that many highly mobile species will need to adapt and shift their distributions, current predic...

The accelerated pace of climate-driven shifts is surpassing the temporal scope of conventional field research, potentially leading to a disconnect between ecosystem changes and scientific data collection. Climate change is producing rapid transformations within dynamic marine ecosystems, with a pronounced effect on high trophic-level species such as loggerhead sea turtles ( Caretta caretta ). We present a new model for data co...

Simplifying complex species interactions can facilitate tracking and predicting functional responses to ecological stressors. This is important for highly migratory pelagic predators, exploiting diverse prey fields as they respond to dynamic environments. We reconstructed the historical resource use of albacore tuna ( Thunnus alalunga ) globally from the 1900s to 2015 and confirmed highly biodiverse diets with 308 prey species...

Turbidity from land-based runoff has been identified as a possible driver of coral bleaching refugia, as particulate matter in turbid habitats may block excessive irradiance and alter the food supply to corals during ocean heatwaves. However, negative effects of turbidity have also been documented worldwide, and high-resolution data across reef regions are required to identify habitats where turbidity is harmful or helpful dur...

The end of the long and winding road towards a milestone new treaty focused on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) is near. The BBNJ treaty has the potential to dramatically transform environmental stewardship in the high seas, making it essential that vigorous support towards a strong treaty continues, without weakening the agreement’s full potential. Historically, t...

Recreational fisheries in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP) have increased in popularity since the 1970s, contributing to the eco‐tourism industries of many Central American economies. However, pelagic gamefish face several direct and indirect threats which can affect population health and sustainability. We use daily catch logs from three recreational fishing lodges in Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama as records of change i...

Seventy five percent of the world's food crops benefit from insect pollination. Hence, there has been increased interest in how global change drivers impact this critical ecosystem service. Because standardized data on crop pollination are rarely available, we are limited in our capacity to understand the variation in pollination benefits to crop yield, as well as to anticipate changes in this service, develop predictions, and...

Small-scale fisheries are critically important for livelihoods around the world, particularly in tropical regions. However, climate variability and anthropogenic climate change may seriously impact small-scale fisheries by altering the abundance and distribution of target species. Social relationships between fishery users, such as fish traders, can determine how each individual responds and is affected by changes in fisheries...

The North Pacific Loggerhead sea turtle ( Caretta caretta ) undergoes one of the greatest of all animal migrations, nesting exclusively in Japan and re-emerging several years later along important foraging grounds in the eastern North Pacific. Yet the mechanisms that connect these disparate habitats during what is known as the “lost years” have remained poorly understood. Here, we develop a new hypothesis regarding a possible...

Fishery improvement projects ( FIP s) are emerging as a popular market‐based means to improve fisheries sustainability and have been employed in scores of fisheries around the world; however, project ability to realize improvements has been highly variable, and little is known about how fishery and project conditions affect improvement efforts. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the FIP model as a tool for improving div...

Increasing anthropogenic pressure on marine ecosystems from fishing, pollution, climate change, and other sources is a big concern in marine conservation. Scientists have thus developed spatial models to map cumulative human impacts on marine ecosystems. However, these models are based on many assumptions and incorporate data that suffer from substantial incompleteness and inaccuracies. Rather than using a single model, we use...

Climate change and ocean acidification are altering marine ecosystems and, from a human perspective, creating both winners and losers. Human responses to these changes are complex, but may result in reduced government investments in regulation, resource management, monitoring and enforcement. Moreover, a lack of peoples’ experience of climate change may drive some towards attributing the symptoms of climate change to more fami...

Inaccurate or incomplete diagnosis of the root causes of overfishing can lead to misguided and ineffective fisheries policies and programmes. The “Malthusian overfishing narrative” suggests that overfishing is driven by too many fishers chasing too few fish and that fishing effort grows proportionately to human population growth, requiring policy interventions that reduce fisher access, the number of fishers, or the human popu...

Coastal and ocean planning comprises a broad field of practice. The goals, political processes, and approaches applied to planning initiatives may vary widely. However, all planning processes ultimately require adequate information on both the biophysical and social attributes of a planning region. In coastal and ocean planning practice, there are well‐established methods to assess biophysical attributes; however, less is unde...

Little is known about how specific anthropogenic hazards affect the biology of organisms . Quantifying the effect of regional hazards is particularly challenging for species such as sea turtles because they are migratory, difficult to study, long lived, and face multiple anthropogenic threats . Expert elicitation, a technique used to synthesize opinions of experts while assessing uncertainty around those views, has been in use...

Over the last decade, 2 major U.S. commissions on ocean policy and a wide range of independent sources have argued that ocean ecosystems are in a period of crisis and that current policies are inadequate to prevent further ecological damage. These sources have advocated ecosystem‐based management as an approach to address conservation issues in the oceans, but managers remain uncertain as to how to implement ecosystem‐based ap...