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Evidence for managing herbivores for reef resilience

Herbivore management is an important tool for resilience-based approaches to coral reef conservation, and evidence-based science is needed to enact successful management. We synthesized data from multiple monitoring programs in Hawai‘i to measure herbivore biomass and benthic condition over a 10-yea...

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Autores principales: Donovan, Mary K., Counsell, Chelsie W. W., Donahue, Megan J., Lecky, Joey, Gajdzik, Laura, Marcoux, Stacia D., Sparks, Russell, Teague, Christopher
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10697801/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.2101
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author Donovan, Mary K.
Counsell, Chelsie W. W.
Donahue, Megan J.
Lecky, Joey
Gajdzik, Laura
Marcoux, Stacia D.
Sparks, Russell
Teague, Christopher
author_facet Donovan, Mary K.
Counsell, Chelsie W. W.
Donahue, Megan J.
Lecky, Joey
Gajdzik, Laura
Marcoux, Stacia D.
Sparks, Russell
Teague, Christopher
author_sort Donovan, Mary K.
collection PubMed
description Herbivore management is an important tool for resilience-based approaches to coral reef conservation, and evidence-based science is needed to enact successful management. We synthesized data from multiple monitoring programs in Hawai‘i to measure herbivore biomass and benthic condition over a 10-year period preceding any major coral bleaching. We analysed data from 20 242 transects alongside data on 27 biophysical and human drivers and found herbivore biomass was highly variable throughout Hawai‘i, with high values in remote locations and the lowest values near population centres. Both human and biophysical drivers explained variation in herbivore biomass, and among the human drivers both fishing and land-based pollution had negative effects on biomass. We also found evidence that herbivore functional group biomass is strongly linked to benthic condition, and that benthic condition is sensitive to changes in herbivore biomass associated with fishing. We show that when herbivore biomass is below 80% of potential biomass, benthic condition is predicted to decline. We also show that a range of management actions, including area-specific fisheries regulations and gear restrictions, can increase parrotfish biomass. Together, these results provide lines of evidence to support managing herbivores as an effective strategy for maintaining or bolstering reef resilience in a changing climate.
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spelling pubmed-106978012023-12-06 Evidence for managing herbivores for reef resilience Donovan, Mary K. Counsell, Chelsie W. W. Donahue, Megan J. Lecky, Joey Gajdzik, Laura Marcoux, Stacia D. Sparks, Russell Teague, Christopher Proc Biol Sci Biological Applications Herbivore management is an important tool for resilience-based approaches to coral reef conservation, and evidence-based science is needed to enact successful management. We synthesized data from multiple monitoring programs in Hawai‘i to measure herbivore biomass and benthic condition over a 10-year period preceding any major coral bleaching. We analysed data from 20 242 transects alongside data on 27 biophysical and human drivers and found herbivore biomass was highly variable throughout Hawai‘i, with high values in remote locations and the lowest values near population centres. Both human and biophysical drivers explained variation in herbivore biomass, and among the human drivers both fishing and land-based pollution had negative effects on biomass. We also found evidence that herbivore functional group biomass is strongly linked to benthic condition, and that benthic condition is sensitive to changes in herbivore biomass associated with fishing. We show that when herbivore biomass is below 80% of potential biomass, benthic condition is predicted to decline. We also show that a range of management actions, including area-specific fisheries regulations and gear restrictions, can increase parrotfish biomass. Together, these results provide lines of evidence to support managing herbivores as an effective strategy for maintaining or bolstering reef resilience in a changing climate. The Royal Society 2023-12-06 /pmc/articles/PMC10697801/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.2101 Text en © 2023 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Biological Applications
Donovan, Mary K.
Counsell, Chelsie W. W.
Donahue, Megan J.
Lecky, Joey
Gajdzik, Laura
Marcoux, Stacia D.
Sparks, Russell
Teague, Christopher
Evidence for managing herbivores for reef resilience
title Evidence for managing herbivores for reef resilience
title_full Evidence for managing herbivores for reef resilience
title_fullStr Evidence for managing herbivores for reef resilience
title_full_unstemmed Evidence for managing herbivores for reef resilience
title_short Evidence for managing herbivores for reef resilience
title_sort evidence for managing herbivores for reef resilience
topic Biological Applications
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10697801/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.2101
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