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Ecological effects of full and partial protection in the crowded Mediterranean Sea: a regional meta-analysis

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a cornerstone of marine conservation. Globally, the number and coverage of MPAs are increasing, but MPA implementation lags in many human-dominated regions. In areas with intense competition for space and resources, evaluation of the effects of MPAs is crucial to in...

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Autores principales: Giakoumi, Sylvaine, Scianna, Claudia, Plass-Johnson, Jeremiah, Micheli, Fiorenza, Grorud-Colvert, Kirsten, Thiriet, Pierre, Claudet, Joachim, Di Carlo, Giuseppe, Di Franco, Antonio, Gaines, Steven D., García-Charton, José A., Lubchenco, Jane, Reimer, Jessica, Sala, Enric, Guidetti, Paolo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5566470/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28827603
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-08850-w
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author Giakoumi, Sylvaine
Scianna, Claudia
Plass-Johnson, Jeremiah
Micheli, Fiorenza
Grorud-Colvert, Kirsten
Thiriet, Pierre
Claudet, Joachim
Di Carlo, Giuseppe
Di Franco, Antonio
Gaines, Steven D.
García-Charton, José A.
Lubchenco, Jane
Reimer, Jessica
Sala, Enric
Guidetti, Paolo
author_facet Giakoumi, Sylvaine
Scianna, Claudia
Plass-Johnson, Jeremiah
Micheli, Fiorenza
Grorud-Colvert, Kirsten
Thiriet, Pierre
Claudet, Joachim
Di Carlo, Giuseppe
Di Franco, Antonio
Gaines, Steven D.
García-Charton, José A.
Lubchenco, Jane
Reimer, Jessica
Sala, Enric
Guidetti, Paolo
author_sort Giakoumi, Sylvaine
collection PubMed
description Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a cornerstone of marine conservation. Globally, the number and coverage of MPAs are increasing, but MPA implementation lags in many human-dominated regions. In areas with intense competition for space and resources, evaluation of the effects of MPAs is crucial to inform decisions. In the human-dominated Mediterranean Sea, fully protected areas occupy only 0.04% of its surface. We evaluated the impacts of full and partial protection on biomass and density of fish assemblages, some commercially important fishes, and sea urchins in 24 Mediterranean MPAs. We explored the relationships between the level of protection and MPA size, age, and enforcement. Results revealed significant positive effects of protection for fisheries target species and negative effects for urchins as their predators benefited from protection. Full protection provided stronger effects than partial protection. Benefits of full protection for fish biomass were only correlated with the level of MPA enforcement; fish density was higher in older, better enforced, and —interestingly— smaller MPAs. Our finding that even small, well-enforced, fully protected areas can have significant ecological effects is encouraging for “crowded” marine environments. However, more data are needed to evaluate sufficient MPA sizes for protecting populations of species with varying mobility levels.
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spelling pubmed-55664702017-08-23 Ecological effects of full and partial protection in the crowded Mediterranean Sea: a regional meta-analysis Giakoumi, Sylvaine Scianna, Claudia Plass-Johnson, Jeremiah Micheli, Fiorenza Grorud-Colvert, Kirsten Thiriet, Pierre Claudet, Joachim Di Carlo, Giuseppe Di Franco, Antonio Gaines, Steven D. García-Charton, José A. Lubchenco, Jane Reimer, Jessica Sala, Enric Guidetti, Paolo Sci Rep Article Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a cornerstone of marine conservation. Globally, the number and coverage of MPAs are increasing, but MPA implementation lags in many human-dominated regions. In areas with intense competition for space and resources, evaluation of the effects of MPAs is crucial to inform decisions. In the human-dominated Mediterranean Sea, fully protected areas occupy only 0.04% of its surface. We evaluated the impacts of full and partial protection on biomass and density of fish assemblages, some commercially important fishes, and sea urchins in 24 Mediterranean MPAs. We explored the relationships between the level of protection and MPA size, age, and enforcement. Results revealed significant positive effects of protection for fisheries target species and negative effects for urchins as their predators benefited from protection. Full protection provided stronger effects than partial protection. Benefits of full protection for fish biomass were only correlated with the level of MPA enforcement; fish density was higher in older, better enforced, and —interestingly— smaller MPAs. Our finding that even small, well-enforced, fully protected areas can have significant ecological effects is encouraging for “crowded” marine environments. However, more data are needed to evaluate sufficient MPA sizes for protecting populations of species with varying mobility levels. Nature Publishing Group UK 2017-08-21 /pmc/articles/PMC5566470/ /pubmed/28827603 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-08850-w Text en © The Author(s) 2017 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Giakoumi, Sylvaine
Scianna, Claudia
Plass-Johnson, Jeremiah
Micheli, Fiorenza
Grorud-Colvert, Kirsten
Thiriet, Pierre
Claudet, Joachim
Di Carlo, Giuseppe
Di Franco, Antonio
Gaines, Steven D.
García-Charton, José A.
Lubchenco, Jane
Reimer, Jessica
Sala, Enric
Guidetti, Paolo
Ecological effects of full and partial protection in the crowded Mediterranean Sea: a regional meta-analysis
title Ecological effects of full and partial protection in the crowded Mediterranean Sea: a regional meta-analysis
title_full Ecological effects of full and partial protection in the crowded Mediterranean Sea: a regional meta-analysis
title_fullStr Ecological effects of full and partial protection in the crowded Mediterranean Sea: a regional meta-analysis
title_full_unstemmed Ecological effects of full and partial protection in the crowded Mediterranean Sea: a regional meta-analysis
title_short Ecological effects of full and partial protection in the crowded Mediterranean Sea: a regional meta-analysis
title_sort ecological effects of full and partial protection in the crowded mediterranean sea: a regional meta-analysis
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5566470/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28827603
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-08850-w
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