Stuart Campbell

Global conservation outcomes depend on marine protected areas with five key features

In line with global targets agreed under the Convention on Biological Diversity, the number of marine protected areas (MPAs) is increasing rapidly, yet socio-economic benefits generated by MPAs remain difficult to predict and under debate. MPAs often fail to reach their full potential as a consequence of factors such as illegal harvesting, regulations that legally allow detrimental harvesting, or emigration of animals outside boundaries because of continuous habitat or inadequate size of reserve. Here we show that the conservation benefits of 87 MPAs investigated worldwide increase exponentially with the accumulation of five key features: no take, well enforced, old (>10 years), large (>100 km2), and isolated by deep water or sand. Using effective MPAs with four or five key features as an unfished standard, comparisons of underwater survey data from effective MPAs with predictions based on survey data from fished coasts indicate that total fish biomass has declined about two-thirds from historical baselines as a result of fishing. Effective MPAs also had twice as many large (>250 mm total length) fish species per transect, five times more large fish biomass, and fourteen times more shark biomass than fished areas. Most (59%) of the MPAs studied had only one or two key features and were not ecologically distinguishable from fished sites. Our results show that global conservation targets based on area alone will not optimize protection of marine biodiversity. More emphasis is needed on better MPA design, durable management and compliance to ensure that MPAs achieve their desired conservation value.

Earliest date for milk use in the Near East and southeastern Europe linked to cattle herding

The domestication of cattle, sheep and goats had already taken place in the Near East by the eighth millennium bc. Although there would have been considerable economic and nutritional gains from using these animals for their milk and other products from living animals—that is, traction and wool—the first clear evidence for these appears much later, from the late fifth and fourth millennia bc. Hence, the timing and region in which milking was first practised remain unknown. Organic residues preserved in archaeological pottery have provided direct evidence for the use of milk in the fourth millennium in Britain, and in the sixth millennium in eastern Europe, based on the δ13C values of the major fatty acids of milk fat. Here we apply this approach to more than 2,200 pottery vessels from sites in the Near East and southeastern Europe dating from the fifth to the seventh millennia bc. We show that milk was in use by the seventh millennium; this is the earliest direct evidence to date. Milking was particularly important in northwestern Anatolia, pointing to regional differences linked with conditions more favourable to cattle compared to other regions, where sheep and goats were relatively common and milk use less important. The latter is supported by correlations between the fat type and animal bone evidence.

Integrating abundance and functional traits reveals new global hotspots of fish diversity

Species richness has dominated our view of global biodiversity patterns for centuries. The dominance of this paradigm is reflected in the focus by ecologists and conservation managers on richness and associated occurrence-based measures for understanding drivers of broad-scale diversity patterns and as a biological basis for management. However, this is changing rapidly, as it is now recognized that not only the number of species but the species present, their phenotypes and the number of individuals of each species are critical in determining the nature and strength of the relationships between species diversity and a range of ecological functions (such as biomass production and nutrient cycling). Integrating these measures should provide a more relevant representation of global biodiversity patterns in terms of ecological functions than that provided by simple species counts. Here we provide comparisons of a traditional global biodiversity distribution measure based on richness with metrics that incorporate species abundances and functional traits. We use data from standardized quantitative surveys of 2,473 marine reef fish species at 1,844 sites, spanning 133 degrees of latitude from all ocean basins, to identify new diversity hotspots in some temperate regions and the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean. These relate to high diversity of functional traits amongst individuals in the community (calculated using Rao’s Q), and differ from previously reported patterns in functional diversity and richness for terrestrial animals, which emphasize species-rich tropical regions only. There is a global trend for greater evenness in the number of individuals of each species, across the reef fish species observed at sites (‘community evenness’), at higher latitudes. This contributes to the distribution of functional diversity hotspots and contrasts with well-known latitudinal gradients in richness. Our findings suggest that the contribution of species diversity to a range of ecosystem functions varies over large scales, and imply that in tropical regions, which have higher numbers of species, each species contributes proportionally less to community-level ecological processes on average than species in temperate regions. Metrics of ecological function usefully complement metrics of species diversity in conservation management, including when identifying planning priorities and when tracking changes to biodiversity values.

Emerging complexity on the Kahramanmaraş Plain, Turkey : The Domuztepe project, 1995-1997

The fifth millennium is a key period in the development of complex societies in the Near East. Domuztepe, situated in southeastern Turkey on the northwestern edge of the traditional heartlands of the Halaf, is one of the largest sites known from this period. The investigation of this large (20 ha), central site is providing new details of the organization of society at the site and its relationship with the surrounding environment. The settlement seems to have been a focus of long-distance exchange, with evidence for the manufacture and manipulation of status items. Stamp seals occur remarkably frequently and ceramics seem to have been used in a complex way, indicating shifting external relations over time. There is also evidence for economic intensification, notably the possible use of secondary products.

Whose Bones are those? Preliminary Comparative Analysis of Fragmented Human and Animal Bones in the “Death Pit” at Domuztepe, a Late Neolithic Settlement in Southeastern Turkey

Kansa S.W., Gauld S.C., Campbell S. & Carter E. 2009. — Whose Bones are those? Preliminary Comparative Analysis of Fragmented Human and Animal Bones in the “Death Pit” at Domuztepe, a Late Neolithic Settlement in Southeastern Turkey. Anthropozoologica 44(1): 159-172. ABSTRACT A unique feature at the mid-6th millennium BCE settlement at Domuztepe, Turkey, is a large pit filled predominantly with fragmented human and animal bones. Previous studies have established that the “Death Pit” animal bone assemblage is characterized by specific features not found in the daily refuse from the rest of the site. The present study seeks further understanding of the Death Pit through a preliminary comparison of the animal and human bone assemblages, including element preservation, degree of fragmentation and breakage patterns. Spatial models of animal and human bones in the Death Pit provide insight into depositional sequencing and the nature of the probable feasting activities that produced this assemblage. Our initial osteological results show that the near identical processing of humans and animals suggests of cannibalism. However, a lower occurrence of fragmentation on human skulls, together with depositional differences between animals and humans, also suggests that conceptual differences between human and animal were maintained.

Resource exploitation at late neolithic domuztepe: Faunal and botanical evidence

Domuztepe, in southeastern Turkey, is one of the largest known Late Neolithic sites in the Near East. Ecofactual remains recovered at Domuztepe indicate that the site’s inhabitants relied on a well‐established mixed economy of domestic plants and animals to sustain the settlement’s large population, which may have peaked at more than 1,500 people. Evidence of a long and continuous occupation of this site attests to a successful agropastoral economy, even though Domuztepe was situated at the intersection of uplands, an alluvial plain, and marshy zones, an environment not traditionally considered ideal for agriculture. Integrated faunal and botanical analyses explore the diversity of domestic and wild resources used by the site’s inhabitants. The typical suite of Near Eastern domesticates dominates the excavated assemblage, with sheep, goats, cattle, pigs, and cereals prominent. In addition to a nutritional role, these food products were used for clothing, storage, and construction and had symbolic importance in ritual and prestige. Combined archaeobiological data point to a seasonal cycle of activities.

The Burnt House at Arpachiyah: A Reexamination

Mallowans excavations at Arpachiyah in northern Iraq in 1933 uncovered a Burnt House at the summit of the mound. Although the importance of the discovery has been recognized ever since as vital evidence for society in the late Halaf (mid-fifth millennium B. C.; ca. 5300 cal B. C.) in northern Mesopotamia, the basic data have never been reviewed and no comprehensive interpretation has been put forward. Using both published and unpublished material, this article attempts to review the evidence and propose a new interpretation, based on the current knowledge of the period. It is suggested that the Burnt House was the last in a series of structures where exchange-of obsidian, among other commodities-took place within a formalized social context, and it was through this role that Arpachiyah acted as a center of regional integration. The destruction of the Burnt House may have been a deliberate, ritual act.

The Halaf Period in Iraq: Old Sites and New

From about 5200 B.C.E. to 4500 B.C.E., large numbers of Halaf communities appear over a very large area of northern Iraq, northern Syria and southern Turkey. Until recently, it was believed that the Halaf originated in northern Syria, but new evidence shows the Halaf seems to have evolved from localized Neolithic cultures, more or less simultaneously, over much of its later range.

Fishing-gear restrictions and biomass gains for coral reef fishes in marine protected areas

Considerable empirical evidence supports recovery of reef fish populations with fishery closures. In countries where full exclusion of people from fishing may be perceived as inequitable, fishing-gear restrictions on nonselective and destructive gears may offer socially relevant management alternatives to build recovery of fish biomass. Even so, few researchers have statistically compared the responses of tropical reef fisheries to alternative management strategies. We tested for the effects of fishery closures and fishing gear restrictions on tropical reef fish biomass at the community and family level. We conducted 1,396 underwater surveys at 617 unique sites across a spatial hierarchy within 22 global marine ecoregions that represented 5 realms. We compared total biomass across local fish assemblages and among 20 families of reef fishes inside marine protected areas (MPAs) with different fishing restrictions: no-take, hook-and-line fishing only, several fishing gears allowed, and sites open to all fishing gears. We included a further category representing remote sites, where fishing pressure is low. As expected, full fishery closures, (i.e., no-take zones) most benefited community- and family-level fish biomass in comparison with restrictions on fishing gears and openly fished sites. Although biomass responses to fishery closures were highly variable across families, some fishery targets (e.g., Carcharhinidae and Lutjanidae) responded positively to multiple restrictions on fishing gears (i.e., where gears other than hook and line were not permitted). Remoteness also positively affected the response of community-level fish biomass and many fish families. Our findings provide strong support for the role of fishing restrictions in building recovery of fish biomass and indicate important interactions among fishing-gear types that affect biomass of a diverse set of reef fish families.