Dataset Information

More than Anecdotes: Fishers' Ecological Knowledge Can Fill Gaps for Ecosystem Modeling.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Ecosystem modeling applied to fisheries remains hampered by a lack of local information. Fishers' knowledge could fill this gap, improving participation in and the management of fisheries.

Methodology

The same fishing area was modeled using two approaches: based on fishers' knowledge and based on scientific information. For the former, the data was collected by interviews through the Delphi methodology, and for the latter, the data was gathered from the literature. Agreement between the attributes generated by the fishers' knowledge model and scientific model is discussed and explored, aiming to improve data availability, the ecosystem model, and fisheries management.

Principal findings

The ecosystem attributes produced from the fishers' knowledge model were consistent with the ecosystem attributes produced by the scientific model, and elaborated using only the scientific data from literature.

Conclusions/significance

This study provides evidence that fishers' knowledge may suitably complement scientific data, and may improve the modeling tools for the research and management of fisheries.

SUBMITTER: Bevilacqua AH

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4873290 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

More than Anecdotes: Fishers' Ecological Knowledge Can Fill Gaps for Ecosystem Modeling.

Bevilacqua Ana Helena V AH Carvalho Adriana R AR Angelini Ronaldo R Christensen Villy V

PloS one 20160519 5

<h4>Background</h4>Ecosystem modeling applied to fisheries remains hampered by a lack of local information. Fishers' knowledge could fill this gap, improving participation in and the management of fisheries.<h4>Methodology</h4>The same fishing area was modeled using two approaches: based on fishers' knowledge and based on scientific information. For the former, the data was collected by interviews through the Delphi methodology, and for the latter, the data was gathered from the literature. Agre ...[more]

PMID: 27196131

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Project description:BackgroundAlthough fishers' knowledge has been recently considered into management programmes, there is still the need to establish a better understanding of fishers' perceptions and cognition. Fishers can provide novel information on the biology and ecology of species, which can potentially be used in the management of fisheries. The knowledge fishers have and how they classify nature is empirically based. It is common, for example, to observe that fishers' taxonomy is often represented by the generic level, one of the hierarchical categories of folk classification that is somewhat analogous to the Linnean genus, as it groups organisms of a higher rank than the folk species.In this study we compiled the knowledge fishers have on local fish, such as their folk names, diet and habitat.MethodsFive coastal communities widely distributed along the Brazilian coast were studied: two from the northeast (Porto Sauípe and Itacimirim, in Bahia State, n of interviewees?=?34), two from the southeast (Itaipu at Niterói and Copacabana at Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro State, n?=?35) and one from the south coast (Pântano do Sul, in Santa Catarina State, n?=?23). Fish pictures were randomly ordered and the same order was presented to all interviewees (n?=?92), when they were then asked about the species name and classification and its habitat and diet preferences.ResultsFishers make clusters of fish species, usually hierarchically; fishers of the coast of Brazil use mostly primary lexemes (generic names) to name fish; and fishers did not differentiate between scientific species, since the same folk generic name included two different scientific species. Fishers provide information on species to which there is scarce or no information on diet and habitat, such as Rhinobatos percellens (chola guitarfish, arraia viola or cação viola), Sphoeroides dorsalis (marbled puffer, baiacu), Mycteroperca acutirostris (comb grouper, badejo) and Dasyatis guttata (longnose stingray, arraia, arraia manteiga).Conclusionsfishers' knowledge on fish diet and fish habitat can be strategic to management, since their knowledge concentrates on the fishery target species, which are the ones under higher fishing pressure. Besides, fishers showed to have knowledge on species still poorly known to science.

Project description:Environmental health studies relate how exposures (eg, chemicals) affect human health and disease; however, in most cases, the molecular and biological mechanisms connecting an exposure with a disease remain unknown. To help fill in these knowledge gaps, we sought to leverage content from the public Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD) to identify potential intermediary steps. In a proof-of-concept study, we systematically compute the genes, molecular mechanisms, and biological events for the environmental health association linking air pollution toxicants with 2 cardiovascular diseases (myocardial infarction and hypertension) as a test case. Our approach integrates 5 types of curated interactions in CTD to build sets of "CGPD-tetramers," computationally constructed information blocks relating a Chemical- Gene interaction with a Phenotype and Disease. This bioinformatics strategy generates 653 CGPD-tetramers for air pollution-associated myocardial infarction (involving 5 pollutants, 58 genes, and 117 phenotypes) and 701 CGPD-tetramers for air pollution-associated hypertension (involving 3 pollutants, 96 genes, and 142 phenotypes). Collectively, we identify 19 genes and 96 phenotypes shared between these 2 air pollutant-induced outcomes, and suggest important roles for oxidative stress, inflammation, immune responses, cell death, and circulatory system processes. Moreover, CGPD-tetramers can be assembled into extensive chemical-induced disease pathways involving multiple gene products and sequential biological events, and many of these computed intermediary steps are validated in the literature. Our method does not require a priori knowledge of the toxicant, interacting gene, or biological system, and can be used to analyze any environmental chemical-induced disease curated within the public CTD framework. This bioinformatics strategy links and interrelates chemicals, genes, phenotypes, and diseases to fill in knowledge gaps for environmental health studies, as demonstrated for air pollution-associated cardiovascular disease, but can be adapted by researchers for any environmentally influenced disease-of-interest.

Dataset Information

More than Anecdotes: Fishers' Ecological Knowledge Can Fill Gaps for Ecosystem Modeling.

Background

Methodology

Principal findings

Conclusions/significance

Publications

More than Anecdotes: Fishers' Ecological Knowledge Can Fill Gaps for Ecosystem Modeling.

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