Editorial: Sharks and Skates—Ecology, Distribution and Conservation
Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e dell’Ambiente, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Via Tommaso Fiorelli 1, 09126 Cagliari, Italy
Animals 2023, 13(13), 2222; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13132222
Submission received: 28 June 2023
/
Accepted: 4 July 2023
/
Published: 6 July 2023
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sharks and Skates: Ecology, Distribution and Conservation)
The class Chondrichthyes (sharks, rays and chimeras) is one of the three lineages of fishes and the most evolutionary distinct radiation of vertebrates [1]. It has survived at least five mass extinctions in its 420-million-year history [2,3] and has radiated throughout the major marine (and some freshwater) habitats, dominating upper trophic levels and imposing predation risk in many food webs [4,5].
Chondrichthyes are among the most threatened vertebrates on the planet due to several reasons, such as overfishing, habitat degradation and slow life histories [6,7,8]. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List criteria, one-third of the world’s chondrichthyan fishes (sharks, rays and chimaeras) are now threatened with extinction [9].
The current observed number of threatened species is more than twice (391 of 1199) [9] that of the first global assessment in 2014, which reported that 181 of 1041 species were threatened [10]. If we assume that Data Deficient (DD) species are threatened in proportion to other species, then over one-third (37.5%) of chondrichthyans are threatened, with a lower estimate of 32.6% (assuming DD species are all Least Concern or Near Threatened) and an upper estimate of 45.5% [9]. Among the three chondrichthyan fish groups, the most threatened are: rays (41% of the 611 assessed species), sharks (35.9% of the 536 assessed species) and chimaeras (9.3% of the 52 assessed species) [9].
The depletion of chondrichthyan populations could lead to worrying ecosystem-level consequences [5,11,12] because many of these fishes are apex or mesopredators that range widely and may affect ecosystem processes through predation and associated risk effects, competition, nutrient transport and bioturbation [13,14,15,16].
In these regards, collecting information about these species is essential to formulate conservation strategies to preserve this precious marine resource.
In this Special Issue, we aimed to expand the knowledge about these important predators, collecting data about the following topics: abundance and distribution, genetic information, life histories (e.g., reproduction, age and growth), demographic analysis, stock assessment and behavior.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank all of the authors who contributed their papers to this Special Issue and the reviewers for their helpful recommendations. I am also grateful to all members of the Animals Editorial Office, for giving me this opportunity and for their continuous support in managing and organizing this Special Issue.
Conflicts of Interest
The author has no conflict of interest to declare.
References
- Stein, R.W.; Mull, C.G.; Kuhn, T.S.; Aschliman, N.C.; Davidson, L.N.K.; Joy, J.B.; Smith, G.J.; Dulvy, N.K.; Mooers, A.Ø. Global priorities for conserving the evolutionary history of sharks, rays and chimaeras. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 2018, 2, 288–298. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed] [Green Version]
- Cappetta, H. Extinctions and faunic renewals on post-Jurassic Selachians. Mem. Soc. Geol. Fr. 1987, 150, 113–131. [Google Scholar]
- Sibert, E.C.; Rubin, L.D. An early Miocene extinction in pelagic sharks. Science 2021, 372, 1105–1107. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Heithaus, M.R.; Wirsing, A.J.; Dill, L.M. The ecological importance of intact top-predator populations: A synthesis of 15 years of research in a seagrass ecosystem. Mar. Freshw. Res. 2012, 63, 1039–1050. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Ferretti, F.; Worm, B.; Britten, G.L.; Heithaus, M.R.; Lotze, H.K. Patterns and ecosystem consequences of shark declines in the ocean. Ecol. Lett. 2010, 13, 1055–1071. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Worm, B.; Davis, B.; Kettemer, L.; Ward-Paige, C.A.; Chapman, D.; Heithaus, M.R.; Kessel, S.T.; Gruber, S.H. Global catches, exploitation rates, and rebuilding options for sharks. Mar. Policy 2013, 40, 194–204. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Cortés, E. Life history patterns and correlations in sharks. Rev. Fish. Sci. 2000, 8, 299–344. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Talwar, B.S.; Anderson, B.; Avalos-Castillo, C.G.; del Pilar Blanco-Parra, M.; Briones, A.; Cardeñosa, D.; Carlson, J.K.; Charvet, P.; Cotton, C.F.; Crysler, Z.; et al. Extinction risk, reconstructed catches and management of chondrichthyan fishes in the Western Central Atlantic Ocean. Fish Fish. 2022, 23, 1150–1179. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Dulvy, N.K.; Pacoureau, N.; Rigby, C.L.; Pollom, R.A.; Jabado, R.W.; Ebert, D.A.; Finucci, B.; Pollock, C.M.; Cheok, J.; Derrick, D.H.; et al. Overfishing drives over one-third of all sharks and rays toward a global extinction crisis. Curr. Biol. 2021, 31, 4773–4787. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Dulvy, N.K.; Fowler, S.L.; Musick, J.A.; Cavanagh, R.D.; Kyne, P.M.; Harrison, L.R.; Carlson, J.K.; Davidson, L.N.K.; Fordham, S.V.; Francis, M.P.; et al. Extinction risk and conservation of the world’s sharks and rays. eLife 2014, 3, e00590. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed] [Green Version]
- Burkholder, D.A.; Heithaus, M.R.; Fourqurean, J.W.; Wirsing, A.; Dill, L.M. Patterns of top-down control in a seagrass ecosystem: Could a roving apex predator induce a behaviour-mediated trophic cascade? J. Anim. Ecol. 2013, 82, 1192–1202. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Estes, J.A.; Heithaus, M.; McCauley, D.J.; Rasher, D.B.; Worm, B. Megafaunal impacts on structure and function of ocean ecosystems. Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 2016, 41, 83–116. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Flowers, K.I.; Heithaus, M.R.; Papastamatiou, Y.P. Buried in the sand: Uncovering the ecological roles and importance of rays. Fish Fish. 2021, 22, 105–127. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Heithaus, M.R.; Frid, A.; Wirsing, A.J.; Worm, B. Predicting ecological consequences of marine top predator declines. Trends Ecol. Evol. 2008, 23, 202–209. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Heithaus, M.R.; Frid, A.; Vaudo, J.J.; Worm, B.; Wirsing, A.J. Unraveling the ecological importance of elasmobranchs. In Sharks and Their Relatives II: Biodiversity, Adaptive Physiology, and Conservation; Carrier, J.C., Musick, J.A., Heithaus, M.R., Eds.; CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL, USA, 2010; pp. 627–654. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Heupel, M.R.; Knip, D.M.; Simpfendorfer, C.A.; Dulvy, N.K. Sizing up the ecological role of sharks as predators. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 2014, 495, 291–298. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content. |
© 2023 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Share and Cite
MDPI and ACS Style
Marongiu, M.F. Editorial: Sharks and Skates—Ecology, Distribution and Conservation. Animals 2023, 13, 2222. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13132222
AMA Style
Marongiu MF. Editorial: Sharks and Skates—Ecology, Distribution and Conservation. Animals. 2023; 13(13):2222. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13132222
Chicago/Turabian StyleMarongiu, Martina Francesca. 2023. "Editorial: Sharks and Skates—Ecology, Distribution and Conservation" Animals 13, no. 13: 2222. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13132222
Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
