Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities continue to thrive in the northern region of Australia’s Fishing Zone (AFZ). Indonesian fishermen involved in IUU fishing in this area target specific marine species such as shark, reef fish, sea cucumber and trochus that are destined for the Asian market. Many of these marine species’ stocks are now at critical levels. Local communit...

Is Pu-er in Zomia?: Tea Cultivation and the State in China Peter C. Perdue Agrarian Studies Colloquium, October 24, 2008 "We ordinarily count Yunnan among the provinces of the Chinese empire, but if one leaves the main lines of communication, entering the interior, traveling through the deserts and mountains, you are always in the territory of Yunnan, but you are no longer in China; you are in ...

Sustainable management of coastal resources depends on human knowledge and perceptions of natural resources and coastal environments. However, empirical evidence has been limited in order to understand linkages between knowledge, perceptions and collective actions to achieve sustainable resource management. This case study analyzed perceptions and knowledge among diverse stakeholders: villagers...

The occurrence and causes of abrupt transitions, thresholds, or regime shifts between ecosystem states are of great concern and the likelihood of such transitions is increasing for many ecological systems. General understanding of abrupt transitions has been advanced by theory, but hindered by the lack of a common, accessible, and data-driven approach to characterizing them. We apply such an ap...

Research on the involvement of retroelements in developmental processes has been gaining momentum recently; however, most of the studies published so far have been focused on embryonic development. This commentary presents two recent papers, which document significant changes in transcriptional activity of retroelements in two different model systems, salamander limb regeneration and regenerati...

—Overfishing due to high demand in Asian markets, have encouraged illegal fisheries of sea cucumbers in non-traditional areas of the tropical Caribbean. This work assesses the population structure, distribution, and abundance of three commercially important Caribbean species (Isostichopus badionotus, Holothuria mexicana, and Astichopus multifidus) in 47 158 hectares of shallow habitats in Bocas...

Sea cucumbers are recognized as food and drug resources with many nutritional benefits, and Apostichopus japonicus is a kind of sea cucumber with good quality. Processing methods have some effect on its quality. This study aimed to explore the effects of Apostichopus japonicus with three different processing methods (dried, instant, and enzymatic sea cucummbers) on intestinal microflora dysregu...

This study was designed to explore the relationship between deterioration of sea cucumbers and intestinal flora’s diversity change during preservation using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. We show that body wall cucumber develops white spots on day 4, epidermis dissolves 7. The distinctive OTUs remain relatively low four days storage but increase potential gut microbiota biomarkers are Psychrobacter-...

Five sea cucumber species including one new species of the genus Stichopus are reported from the shallow coral reefs of Straits of Malacca. The new species Stichopus fusiformiossa has unusual fusiform spicules in the tentacles, which are not found in the other species of the genus. Pseudo-tables and large perforated plates are newly recorded for Stichopus hermanni Semper, 1868 and Stichopus vas...