IABO Hub Anniversary: The Hub Editorial Team’s Top Articles

This week marks the One Year Anniversary of the IABO Hub, the publishing home of the International Association for Biological Oceanography. To commemorate, we have put together an abstract book of the articles published in the first year of the IABO Hub, you can download it here. We also asked the Hub Editorial Team to pick their favourite articles that have been featured in the IABO Hub.

The IABO Hub Editorial Team are made up of IABO Members. They read every abstract submitted to the IABO Hub and give an initial decision based on if the research would be of interest to the wider IABO membership. Approved abstracts are invited to make a full submission to PeerJ Life & Environment, with articles accepted following peer review published by the journal and highlighted in the IABO Hub.

Valentina Costa

Hub Editor Pick: Opportunistic consumption of marine pelagic, terrestrial, and chemosynthetic organic matter by macrofauna on the Arctic shelf: a stable isotope approach. Kokarev V, Zalota AK, Zuev A, Tiunov A, Kuznetsov P, Konovalova O, Rimskaya-Korsakova N. 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15595.

I liked this article because it employs a stable isotope approach to discriminate the trophic niches of the macrofauna inhabithating the challenging Artic shelf. This research holds significance as it represents a first step in the identification of food sources used and exploited in remote Artic regions.

Mark Costello

Hub Editor Pick: The distribution of benthic amphipod crustaceans in Indonesian seas. Arfianti T, Costello MJ. 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12054

I found it interesting that it confirmed that the Coral Triangle is within one larger biogeographic region and there are no Wallacean or other boundaries as in terrestrial biogeography in south-east Asia. What was surprising was the relatively low number of amphipod species found in field surveys. Thus, while the Coral Triangle is the richest place for coral and fish species in the world, this may not be the case for other taxa, such as small crustaceans, perhaps due to intense fish predation.

Ana Carolina Peralta

Hub Editor Pick: Global marine biodiversity in the context of achieving the Aichi Targets: ways forward and addressing data gaps. Saeedi H, Reimer JD, Brandt MI, Dumais P, Jażdżewska AM, Jeffery NW, Thielen PM, Costello MJ. 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7221

Understanding marine biodiversity patterns and processes is a difficult task, however the article demonstrates progress in terms of scientific knowledge and data management over the last 12 years. What I like from this article is a clear statement of the Aichi Targets plan results. Although the Aichi Targets timeframe has ended, the article analysis is still very pertinent and needs to be considered in order to assess what should be the next action plan regarding marine biodiversity conservation. From my perspective, not all Aichi targets can or could be reached at the same timeframe because many of the goal achievements take longer, especially those where transversal axes are involved in decisions.

The article carefully reviews where we are in terms of the targets, which can also be integrated or analyzed together with another plans, like the Sustainable Development Goals and the Ocean Decade. I agree with the authors that we are still showing “negligible progress with regard to Targets 6 to 13 which aimed to safeguard and reduce human impacts on biodiversity.” We keep pushing timeframe goals with different programs or plan names, and many priorities still wait for real actions.

Cesar Cordeiro

Hub Editor Pick: Low cost macroalgal canopy biomass monitoring using light attenuation. Johnson MP. 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.14368

The influence of macroalgae on marine ecosystems is undeniable, either considering their trophic and engineering role on temperate reefs or their negative impacts on coral reefs. Regarding all these predicates, macroalgae canopy is listed as one of the Essential Biological Variables to be monitored worldwide. This article shed some light on a sensible point about large-scale replications, the cost. Jonhson proposes a cheap method using light loggers to evaluate macroalgae biomass based on light attenuation caused by the macroalgae canopy. Although no method is perfect, the manuscript indicates the gaps and issues still to be solved to improve this method, and that is a great first step to provide a path to new methods.

What is a Hub?

PeerJ Hubs (https://peerj.com/hubs) are a new publishing concept for scholarly societies and research organizations, providing a sustainable Open Access publishing option to help grow and develop partner associations. A PeerJ Hub is an overlay journal built on top of PeerJ’s existing infrastructure and journal portfolio, allowing societies and research associations to create a branded, Open Access publishing option for their members with minimal fuss.

Hubs are free to launch, whether your organization wants to create its first publication, or is seeking a fully OA, funder-compliant option to complement existing options. You can read more by downloading our Hubs Prospectus.

If you are interested in discussing your own Hub, please contact communities@peerj.com.