Jun Shoji

People living in coastal areas have the advantage of accessing a high level of ecosystem services, but are also exposed to the dangers inherent in living by the sea in an area prone to natural disasters. To achieve sustainable utilization of the high ecosystem services of coastal areas, establishment of an effective marine policy based on regional characteristics of human–nature interactions is essential. We compared the structure of perceived satisfaction for five components of human well-being (‘Security’, ‘Basic material for a good life’, ‘Good social relations’, ‘Health’, and ‘Freedom of choice and action’) derived from coastal ecosystem services among three sites in Japan (Wakasa, Sanriku, and Shima) that share the same natural and social backgrounds: highly dependent on fisheries industry, located in the same climate regime (temperate zone), and have similar topographical features (ria coast). Structural equation modeling using the results from questionnaire surveys showed that the three sites shared a common basic structure of the interactions among the five components of human well-being. However, the intensity of interactions among components differed among the three sites. Questionnaire surveys on anxiety about natural disasters and future access to marine ecosystem services were simultaneously conducted at the three sites. The site-specific anxieties were responsible for the difference in the interactions among the five components of human well-being. We propose a method that quantitatively evaluates both positive (satisfaction) and negative (anxiety) aspects of respondents’ subjective assessment as a useful tool for understanding the diversity of human–nature interactions caused by the region-specific natural and social backgrounds of coastal areas.

Early life survival is critical to successful replenishment of fish populations, and hypotheses developed under the Growth‐Survival Paradigm (GSP) have guided investigations of controlling processes. The GSP postulates that recruitment depends on growth and mortality rates during early life stages, as well as their duration, after which the mortality declines substantially. The GSP predicts a shift in the frequency distribution of growth histories with age towards faster growth rates relative to the initial population because slow‐growing individuals are subject to high mortality (via starvation and predation). However, mortality data compiled from 387 cases published in 153 studies (1971–2022) showed that the GSP was only supported in 56% of cases. Selection against slow growth occurred in two‐thirds of field studies, leaving a non‐negligible fraction of cases showing either an absence of or inverse growth‐selective survival, suggesting the growth‐survival relationship is more complex than currently considered within the GSP framework. Stochastic simulations allowed us to assess the influence of key intrinsic and extrinsic factors on the characteristics of surviving larvae and identify knowledge gaps on the drivers of variability in growth‐selective survival. We suggest caution when interpreting patterns of growth selection because changes in variance and autocorrelation of individual growth rates among cohorts can invalidate fundamental GSP assumptions. We argue that breakthroughs in recruitment research require a comprehensive, population‐specific characterization of the role of predation and intrinsic factors in driving variability in the distribution and autocorrelation of larval growth rates, and of the life stage corresponding to the endpoint of pre‐recruited life.