This essay highlights recommendations to make academic biology more inclusive of LGBTQ+ individuals. These recommendations are drawn from the literature and the collective experience of the 26-member author team.

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Consumer-driven nutrient recycling can have substantial effects on primary production and patterns of nutrient limitation in aquatic ecosystems by altering the rates as well as the relative supplies of the key nutrients nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). While variation in nutrient recycling stoichiometry has been well-studied among species, the mechanisms that explain intraspecific variation in recycling N:P are not well-understood. We examined the relative importance of potential drivers of variation in nutrient recycling by the fish Gambusia marshi among aquatic habitats in the Cuatro Ciénegas basin of Coahuila, Mexico. There, G. marshi inhabits warm thermal springs with high predation pressure as well as cooler, surface runoff-fed systems with low predation pressure. We hypothesized that variation in food consumption among these habitats would drive intraspecific differences in excretion rates and N:P ratios. Stoichiometric models predicted that temperature alone should not cause substantial variation in excretion N:P, but that further reducing consumption rates should substantially increase excretion N:P. We performed temperature and diet ration manipulation experiments in the laboratory and found strong support for model predictions. We then tested these predictions in the field by measuring nutrient recycling rates and ratios as well as body stoichiometry of fish from nine sites that vary in temperature and predation pressure. Fish from warm, high-predation sites excreted nutrients at a lower N:P ratio than fish from cool, low-predation sites, consistent with the hypothesis that reduced consumption under reduced predation pressure had stronger consequences for P retention and excretion among populations than did variation in body stoichiometry. These results highlight the utility of stoichiometric models for predicting variation in consumer-driven nutrient recycling within a phenotypically variable species.

Marine spatial management is challenged by complex situations in European countries where multiple stakeholder interests and many management options have to be balanced. EU policy initiatives such as the proposed Marine Spatial Planning Directive, are in different ways targeting area allocation in European waters. In this circumstance, EU marine management needs assessments based on a satisfactory evaluation framework design that can ensure a transparent treatment of different types of information including interests, values, and facts. The main goal of this article is to introduce an evaluation framework applicable to marine management in European countries. This so-called CoExist framework maps out different types of relevant knowledge to assess future possibilities for use or no-use of marine areas and links this with appropriate management measures. The CoExist framework is based on the principles of ensuring transparent treatment of different types of information as well as appropriate stakeholder representation which can ensure legitimacy. Empirical findings in six European case studies have been obtained while conducting the CoExist framework. Applying the basic principles of the CoExist framework when planning future management directions of the coexistence of multiple activities in the long-run will expectedly affect the ecological and social-cultural goals by counterbalancing the economic ones.