PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

MU fish ecologist’s research indicates need to conserve iconic migratory snook in Mexico

A new study on the common snook, a prized game fish, will inform conservation policy in the Usumacinta River in southern Mexico

2023-11-28
(Press-News.org) Allison Pease grew up fascinated by river fish, spending countless summers in a mask beneath the surface of Texas creeks. Now a fish ecologist in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources at the University of Missouri, Pease is studying the common snook — an iconic game fish that has filled an important cultural, ecological and economic niche in Mexico for centuries. Her latest study focuses on this species’ migration patterns and the effects of proposed hydrodams on their population in southern Mexico.

For the study, Pease traveled to the states of Tabasco and Chiapas, where she investigated the snook’s almost 400-mile migration up into the rainforest habitat of the Usumacinta River. She and colleagues have found that the snook, which connect aquatic food webs and support fisheries, spawn and start their lives in coastal nursey habitats before moving into river habitats that offer an array of food resources.

Using otolith microchemistry — the measuring of the chemical composition of the layers of bone that grow in a fish’s ear as it matures — Pease determined approximately where each snook had lived during its lifetime. This gave her insight into not only the snook’s migration patterns, but also whether the fish returned to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico to spawn or spent their adult lives in the river ecosystem.

“This is a fish that is important both culturally and economically, but it’s in danger of facing a collapse due to overharvesting,” Pease said. For instance, since the 1980s there have been recurring proposals to construct hydropower dams in this river system, which would restrict the migratory domain these fish currently occupy when they go up to 400 miles into the rainforest from the Gulf of Mexico. “The more we can understand what the fish needs and where it’s moving,  the more we can inform conservation efforts in terms of identifying places to restrict harvest during certain times of the year to keep this fishery going.”

From Indigenous fisheries to commercial operations, snook have been celebrated as a high-quality river fish since the time of Mayan rule, making river fisheries in Mexico important for food, Pease said. She explained that diminishing environmental resources are spurring scientists to address the conservation of these historic fish to ensure their species’ protection.

“I suspect that because people really love this fish, they might be open to accepting some more conservative regulation,” Pease said. “The fisheries are mostly self-regulated with some places that have closures and limits on what kind of net you can use. We may need to strengthen some of those restrictions, if possible, to maintain the harvest of this fish.”

In the future, Pease hopes this research will not only advance the science of understanding how the common snook function — their migration patterns, habitat preferences and spawning sites — but also serve a critical role in informing fisheries conservation. With continuing environmental change, species that depend on many different connected habitats are often the most at risk of becoming endangered.

"Otolith microchemistry highlights the importance of extensive connectivity for conservation of an iconic migratory fish in a large tropical river basin" was recently published in Aquatic Conservation.

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Two biomedical sciences researchers named among world’s most highly cited scientists for 2023

Two biomedical sciences researchers named among world’s most highly cited scientists for 2023
2023-11-28
ATLANTA — Two leading researchers in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University have been ranked in the top 1 percent worldwide by citations for their field and publication year in the Web of Science database, according to the Highly Cited Researchers 2023 list by Clarivate. The annual Highly Cited Researchers list has identified global research scientists and social scientists who have demonstrated significant and broad influence in their fields of research since 2001. The ...

NYU Abu Dhabi researchers develop first-of-its-kind woven material made entirely from flexible organic crystals

2023-11-28
Fast facts: Weaving is one of the oldest crafts known to humankind, with the earliest textiles dating back to about 5,000 years ago. Organic crystals, long thought to be stiff and brittle, are now known to have extraordinary elastic properties, revealing an unexplored new direction in materials science. Abu Dhabi, UAE, November 28, 2023: Applying simple, ancient weaving techniques to newly recognized properties of organic crystals, researchers with the Smart Materials Lab (SML) and the Center for Smart Engineering Materials (CSEM) at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) have, for the first time, developed a unique form of woven “textile.” These new fabric ...

St. Jude revealed functional targets of oncogenic HOXA9 in high-risk pediatric leukemia

St. Jude revealed functional targets of oncogenic HOXA9 in high-risk pediatric leukemia
2023-11-28
(MEMPHIS, Tenn. – November 28, 2023) Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital comprehensively identified genes directly regulated by a protein associated with high-risk pediatric leukemias. High-risk leukemias, particularly MLL-rearranged (MLL-r) leukemia, often overexpress the homeodomain transcription factor HOXA9 protein, which cannot currently be targeted with drugs. This study provides a foundation for revealing the HOXA9 regulation network and finding novel drug targets downstream of HOXA9 that can form the basis of new treatments. The findings were published today in Nature Communications.    HOXA9 ...

Human rights are a low priority for many national climate change adaptation policies, new Concordia research finds

Human rights are a low priority for many national climate change adaptation policies, new Concordia research finds
2023-11-28
The link between human rights and climate change adaptation policy has not been a major source of discussion in national policies, according to a new Concordia-led study. Moreover, the researchers say the topic should play a bigger role in the upcoming COP28 conference, opening this week in Dubai. The paper was published in the journal Climate Policy. Assistant professor in Concordia’s Department of Geography, Planning and Environment Alexandra Lesnikowski co-authored the study with researchers from McGill University’s Faculty ...

Want school kids to eat more vegetables? Don’t forget about the power of potatoes on the plate

2023-11-28
A new study published in Nutrients illustrates how potatoes may play a beneficial role in encouraging school aged children to eat more vegetables. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans currently recommends children ages 3-18 consume between 2.5-3 cups of vegetables per day to meet their total vegetable goals. Yet, the average school-age child eats only about 1 cup daily. “That’s why we wanted to learn more about how school meal offerings may influence kids’ eating behavior and possibly encourage greater vegetable consumption,” explains principal ...

Repairing nerve cells after injury and in chronic disease

Repairing nerve cells after injury and in chronic disease
2023-11-28
LA JOLLA (November 28, 2023)—Each year in the United States there are more than 3 million cases of peripheral neuropathy, wherein nerves outside of the brain and spinal cord are damaged and cause pain and loss of feeling in the affected areas. Peripheral neuropathy can occur from diabetes, injury, genetically inherited disease, infection, and more. Salk scientists have now uncovered in mice a mechanism for repairing damaged nerves during peripheral neuropathy. They discovered that the protein Mitf helps turn on the repair function of specialized nervous system Schwann cells. The findings, published in Cell Reports ...

First multi-chamber heart organoids unravel human heart development and disease

First multi-chamber heart organoids unravel human heart development and disease
2023-11-28
Heart disease kills 18 million people each year, but the development of new therapies faces a bottleneck: no physiological model of the entire human heart exists – so far. A new multi-chamber organoid that mirrors the heart’s intricate structure enables scientists to advance screening platforms for drug development, toxicology studies, and understanding heart development. The new findings, using heart organoid models developed by Sasha Mendjan’s group at the Institute of Molecular ...

Race and ethnicity and emergency department discharge against medical advice

2023-11-28
About The Study: The findings of this study of 33.1 million visits to 989 U.S. hospitals suggest that Black and Hispanic patients are more likely to receive care in hospitals with higher overall discharge against medical advice (DAMA) rates, suggesting interventions should address medical segregation. Structural racism may contribute to emergency department DAMA disparities via unequal allocation of health care resources in hospitals that disproportionately treat racial and ethnic minoritized groups. Monitoring variation in DAMA by race and ethnicity and hospital suggests ...

Strategies to increase cervical cancer screening with mailed HPV self-sampling kits

2023-11-28
About The Study: Direct-mail human papillomavirus (HPV) self-sampling increased cervical cancer screening by more than 14% in individuals who were due or overdue for cervical cancer screening in this randomized clinical trial of 31,000 individuals. The opt-in approach minimally increased screening. To increase screening adherence, systems implementing HPV self-sampling should prioritize direct-mail outreach for individuals who are due or overdue for screening. For individuals with unknown screening history, ...

Scientists track rapid retreat of Antarctic glacier

Scientists track rapid retreat of Antarctic glacier
2023-11-28
Scientists are warning that apparently stable glaciers in the Antarctic can “switch very rapidly” and lose large quantities of ice as a result of warmer oceans.    Their finding comes after a research team led by Benjamin Wallis, a glaciologist at the University of Leeds, used satellites to track the Cadman Glacier, which drains into Beascochea Bay, on the west Antarctic peninsula.   Between November 2018 and May 2021, the glacier retreated eight kilometres as the ice shelf at the end ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Scientists uncover key to decoupling economic growth from pollution in developing countries

Frailty fuels gut imbalance and post-surgery gastrointestinal risks

BMS-986504 demonstrates durable responses in MTAP-deleted NSCLC, including EGFR and ALK-positive tumors

Phase III trial finds hypofractionated radiotherapy with chemotherapy offers comparable survival and lower toxicity to conventional schedule in LS-SCLC

Lung cancer screening benefits adults up to age 80 if surgical candidates, UK study finds

Video assisted thoracoscopy surgery reduces mortality by 21 percent compared to lobectomy

NADIM ADJUVANT trial suggests benefit of adjuvant chemo-immunotherapy in resected stage IB–IIIA NSCLC

EA5181 phase 3 trial finds no OS benefit for concurrent and consolidative durvalumab vs consolidation alone in unresectable stage 3 NSCLC

Training to improve memory

Are patients undergoing surgery for early-stage cancer at risk of persistent opioid use?

Black youth, especially Black girls, use mental health services less than their White peers

Canada must protect youth from sports betting advertising

First-in-human trial shows promising results for DLL3-targeted antibody-drug conjugate SHR-4849 in relapsed small cell lung cancer

Ifinatamab deruxtecan demonstrates high response rate in previously treated extensive-stage small cell lung cancer: Phase 2 IDeate-Lung01 trial

Higher blood pressure in childhood linked to earlier death from heart disease in adulthood

AI helped older adults report accurate blood pressure readings at home

High blood pressure in childhood and premature cardiovascular disease mortality

Zidesamtinib shows durable responses in ROS1 TKI pre-treated NSCLC, including patients with CNS disease and ROS1 G2032R mutations

Crizotinib fails to improve disease-free survival in resected early-stage ALK+ NSCLC

Ivonescimab plus chemotherapy improves progression-free survival in patients with EGFR+ NSCLC following 3rd-generation EGFR-TKI therapy

FLAURA2 trial shows osimertinib plus chemotherapy improves overall survival in eGFR-mutated advanced NSCLC

Aumolertinib plus chemotherapy improves progression-free survival in NSCLC with EGFR and concomitant tumor suppressor genes: ACROSS 2 phase III study

New antibody-drug conjugate shows promising efficacy in EGFR-mutated NSCLC patients

Iza-Bren in combination with osimertinib shows 100% response rate in EGFR-mutated NSCLC, phase II study finds

COMPEL study shows continuing osimertinib treatment through progression with the addition of chemotherapy improves progression-free survival in EGFR-mutated NSCLC

CheckMate 77T: Nivolumab maintains quality of life and reduces symptom deterioration in resectable NSCLC

Study validates AI lung cancer risk model Sybil in predominantly Black population at urban safety-net hospital

New medication lowered hard-to-control high blood pressure in people with chronic kidney disease

Innovative oncolytic virus and immunotherapy combinations pave the way for advanced cancer treatment

New insights into energy metabolism and immune dynamics could transform head and neck cancer treatment

[Press-News.org] MU fish ecologist’s research indicates need to conserve iconic migratory snook in Mexico
A new study on the common snook, a prized game fish, will inform conservation policy in the Usumacinta River in southern Mexico