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Exceptionally high but still growing predatory reef fish biomass after 23 years of protection in a Marine Protected Area

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) help replenish fish assemblages, though different trophic levels may show diverse recovery patterns. Long-term protection is required to achieve total recovery but poaching events may prevent the achievement of full carrying capacity. Here, we have analysed the effect o...

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Autores principales: Rojo, Irene, Anadón, José Daniel, García-Charton, José Antonio
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7870052/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33556064
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246335
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author Rojo, Irene
Anadón, José Daniel
García-Charton, José Antonio
author_facet Rojo, Irene
Anadón, José Daniel
García-Charton, José Antonio
author_sort Rojo, Irene
collection PubMed
description Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) help replenish fish assemblages, though different trophic levels may show diverse recovery patterns. Long-term protection is required to achieve total recovery but poaching events may prevent the achievement of full carrying capacity. Here, we have analysed the effect of long-term protection on the entire reef fish community and the different trophic levels in the Cabo de Palos-Islas Hormigas MPA (SE Spain; SW Mediterranean Sea) in order to assess their recovery patterns after 23 years of protection. We compared the values for carrying capacity obtained with the maximum values achieved at regional scale, and we assessed the effect of a reduction in the surveillance over a few years, during which poaching events increased, on the recovery patterns. We found that, overall, biomass of fishes increased with time while density diminished. In particular, piscivorous and macro-invertivore fish increased while the other trophic groups remained constant or declined, suggesting top-down processes. For the entire study period, those trophic groups were approaching carrying capacity; however, when accounting only for the period in which enforcement was high and constant, they grew exponentially, indicating that full carrying capacity may have not been achieved yet. When compared to other Mediterranean MPAs, the Cabo de Palos-Islas Hormigas MPA showed values for biomass that were disproportionately higher, suggesting that local factors, such as habitat structure and associated oceanographic processes, may be responsible for the dynamics found. Our results help to understand the potential trajectories of fish assemblages over a consolidated MPA and highlight empirically how the reduction of surveillance in a period may change the recovery patterns.
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spelling pubmed-78700522021-02-11 Exceptionally high but still growing predatory reef fish biomass after 23 years of protection in a Marine Protected Area Rojo, Irene Anadón, José Daniel García-Charton, José Antonio PLoS One Research Article Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) help replenish fish assemblages, though different trophic levels may show diverse recovery patterns. Long-term protection is required to achieve total recovery but poaching events may prevent the achievement of full carrying capacity. Here, we have analysed the effect of long-term protection on the entire reef fish community and the different trophic levels in the Cabo de Palos-Islas Hormigas MPA (SE Spain; SW Mediterranean Sea) in order to assess their recovery patterns after 23 years of protection. We compared the values for carrying capacity obtained with the maximum values achieved at regional scale, and we assessed the effect of a reduction in the surveillance over a few years, during which poaching events increased, on the recovery patterns. We found that, overall, biomass of fishes increased with time while density diminished. In particular, piscivorous and macro-invertivore fish increased while the other trophic groups remained constant or declined, suggesting top-down processes. For the entire study period, those trophic groups were approaching carrying capacity; however, when accounting only for the period in which enforcement was high and constant, they grew exponentially, indicating that full carrying capacity may have not been achieved yet. When compared to other Mediterranean MPAs, the Cabo de Palos-Islas Hormigas MPA showed values for biomass that were disproportionately higher, suggesting that local factors, such as habitat structure and associated oceanographic processes, may be responsible for the dynamics found. Our results help to understand the potential trajectories of fish assemblages over a consolidated MPA and highlight empirically how the reduction of surveillance in a period may change the recovery patterns. Public Library of Science 2021-02-08 /pmc/articles/PMC7870052/ /pubmed/33556064 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246335 Text en © 2021 Rojo et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Rojo, Irene
Anadón, José Daniel
García-Charton, José Antonio
Exceptionally high but still growing predatory reef fish biomass after 23 years of protection in a Marine Protected Area
title Exceptionally high but still growing predatory reef fish biomass after 23 years of protection in a Marine Protected Area
title_full Exceptionally high but still growing predatory reef fish biomass after 23 years of protection in a Marine Protected Area
title_fullStr Exceptionally high but still growing predatory reef fish biomass after 23 years of protection in a Marine Protected Area
title_full_unstemmed Exceptionally high but still growing predatory reef fish biomass after 23 years of protection in a Marine Protected Area
title_short Exceptionally high but still growing predatory reef fish biomass after 23 years of protection in a Marine Protected Area
title_sort exceptionally high but still growing predatory reef fish biomass after 23 years of protection in a marine protected area
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7870052/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33556064
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246335
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