Evaluating the success of a marine protected area: A systematic review approach.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), marine areas in which human activities are restricted, are implemented worldwide to protect the marine environment. However, with a large proportion of these MPAs being no more than paper parks, it is important to be able to evaluate MPA success, determined by improvements to biophysical, socio-economic and governance conditions. In this study a systematic literature review was conducted to determine the most frequently used indicators of MPA success. These were then applied to a case study to demonstrate how success can be evaluated. The fifteen most frequently used indicators included species abundance, level of stakeholder participation and the existence of a decision-making and management body. Using the indicator framework with a traffic light system, we demonstrate how an MPA can be evaluated in terms of how well it performs against the indicators using secondary data from the literature. The framework can be used flexibly. For example, where no MPA data currently exist, the framework can be populated by qualitative data provided by local stakeholder knowledge. This system provides a cost-effective and straightforward method for managers and decision-makers to determine the level of success of any MPA and identify areas of weakness. However, given the variety of motivations for MPA establishment, this success needs to be determined in the context of the original management objectives of the MPA with greater weighting being placed on those objectives where appropriate.

A longitudinal study of growth in Newcastle upon Tyne adolescents.

White Newcastle upon Tyne schoolchildren born in 1962 were examined at approximately half-yearly intervals from 9 to 17 years of age. During the last year of compulsory education losses to follow-up became selective with respect to socio-economic background, and the results reported here are restricted to 564 boys and 669 girls seen regularly between the ages of 10 and 15 years at least. Newcastle adolescents were slightly shorter and lighter than the London children on whom Tanner's British Standards were based. The longitudinal pattern of skinfold changes in boys was different from that observed in girls. Differences in height attained between occupational groups were well established by the age of five years, and the same was true of differences between family-size groups for children with fathers in manual occupations. It is inferred that differences in height between occupational and family-size groups resulted more from differences in leg than in trunk length. At age 15, the correlations of height attained with maternal height were 0.42 and 0.43, and with birthweight 0.25 and 0.28, for boys and girls respectively. Adjustment, by regression, of heights attained for birthweight, age at peak height velocity and maternal height diminished differences between occupational and family-size groups. After such adjustment, heights significantly lower than average were found only among subjects with fathers in unskilled manual occupations and with large families. Among subjects with fathers in manual occupations, subscapular and triceps skinfolds and arm circumference decreased significantly with increasing family size.

Weight-for-height in adolescence.

Weight-for-height in adolescence was investigated on the basis of observations on 669 boys and 753 girls. It was found: (a) that given the age, the expected weight of individuals of the same height changes considerably with pubertal status; (b) that the change in weight for a given change in height also depends on pubertal status, and (c) that these relations vary with age so that chronological age should be taken into account when constructing weight-for-height standards. Interpretation of weight-for-height standards is briefly discussed.

Menarche in Newcastle upon Tyne girls.

Age at menarche was recorded for 699 white Newcastle upon Tyne girls taking part in a longitudinal study of growth and development during puberty. Girls from large (5+) families started menstruation about five months later than girls from small families. This effect was observed only among girls with fathers in manual occupations. The occurrence of menarche had a peak in January and a possible secondary peak about August. Height and to some extent weight increased with the age at menarche, while arm circumference and skinfolds tended to decrease. The correlation of age at menarche with weight at given height was -0.13 and that of age at menarche with height at given weight was 0.38. The correlation of age at menarche with skinfolds and arm circumference for given weight were of the order of -0.3 and for given height of the order of -0.2. The time lapse between the age at peak height velocity (PHV) and the age at menarche decreased with increasing subscapular skinfold at PHV.

Pubertal changes in boys and girls in Newcastle upon Tyne.

669 boys and 753 girls born in 1962 and living at home were observed at approximately half-yearly intervals from 9 to 17 years of age. Mean ages of reaching various developmental stages were calculated for voice change and facial hair in boys, menarche and breast development in girls, and for axillary hair in both sexes. Peak height velocity and age at which it occurred were also calculated for both sexes. Means were generally in good agreement with those found about 15 years previously in the Harpenden Growth Study. Most pubertal changes in the present study showed gradients by social class; in boys, development was later in those with fathers in unskilled manual occupations, whereas in girls the greatest differences, where found, were between those with fathers in non-manual occupations and the remainder.

Menarche in Newcastle upon Tyne girls.

PIP: Using data for 699 white girls from Newcastle upon Tyne, England, who were born in 1962, the authors examine the relationship between age at menarche and selected social and anthropometric variables. Factors considered include family size, birth order, father's occupation, birth weight, and height and weight at five years of age and at menarche (SUMMARY IN FRE, GER)^ieng

Post-menarcheal menstrual cycle in British (Newcastle upon Tyne) girls.

Data for the first 36 menstrual intervals immediately following menarche were analysed for 298 girls studied in Newcastle upon Tyne. The mean cycle length decreased from 49 . 5 days for the first cycle in 29.5 days for cycles 31-36. There was no clear seasonal pattern in cycle length. The standard deviation within subjects in the length of menstrual interval fell sharply from 23 . 3 days for cycles 1-6 to 10-7 days for cycles 7-12 and more slowly thereafter, reaching 5 . 5 days for cycles 31-36, and was not related to age at menarche. The proportion of short cycles (17 days or less) was relatively stable, but that of long cycles (57 days or more) decreased with cycle number from 27.4% for the first cycle to about 1% for cycles 31-36. The average length of menstrual flow was 5 . 5 days irrespective of age at menarche, cycle number of season. The standard deviation of menstrual flow within subjects fell from 1 . 5 days for cycles 1-6 to 0 . 8 days for cycles 25-36.

Comments on the critical metabolic mass and the age of menarche.

Data from Frisch and Revelle (1971) and Frisch et al. (1973) are used to show that some of their biological conclusions relating body composition to age at menarche follow directly from arithmetical operations on the two observed items of information: weight and height. This emphasizes the dangers of drawing biological conclusions from derived, as opposed to observed, data. The hypothesis that an age-unrelated critical body weight triggers off menarche is examined in relation to preliminary data from a longitudinal study of adolescent girls. It is unacceptable because: (a) mean weights at menarche showed an upward trend with increasing age; (b) for given body weights the proportion of girls starting to menstruate increased with age; (c) at all ages the variation of body weight at menarche was as large as that among non-menstruating girls: (d) only 41 per cent of girls started to menstruate at weights 48 +/- 5 kg; and (e) eleven of the 20 girls whose weight exceeded 48 kg at the age 10-5-11 years did not start to menstruate although 1-1-5 years had elapsed since they attained the "critical" weight. Although no direct body composition data are presented the behaviour of skinfold suggests that body composition is unlikely to be the primary trigger of menarche.