Conservation of natural wilderness values in the Port Davey marine and estuarine protected area,south‐western Tasmania

• 1. Port Davey and associated Bathurst Harbour in south‐western Tasmania represent one of the world's most anomalous estuarine systems owing to an unusual combination of environmental factors. These include: (i) large uninhabited catchment protected as a National Park; (ii) ria geomorphology but with fjord characteristics that include a shallow entrance and deep 12‐km long channel connecting an almost land‐locked harbour to the sea; (iii) high rainfall and riverine input that generate strongly‐stratified estuarine conditions, with a low‐salinity surface layer and marine bottom water; (iv) a deeply tannin‐stained surface layer that blocks light penetration to depth; (v) very low levels of nutrients and low aquatic productivity; (vi) weak tidal influences; (vii) marine bottom water with stable temperature throughout the year; (viii) numerous endemic species; (ix) strongly depth‐stratified benthic assemblages exhibiting high compositional variability over small spatial scales; (x) deepsea species present at anomalously shallow depths; (xi) no conspicuous introduced taxa; (xii) a predominance of fragile sessile invertebrates, including slow‐growing fenestrate bryozoans; and (xiii) sponge spicule‐ and bryozoan‐based sediments that are more characteristic of deep sea and polar environments than those inshore.
• 2. Although this region has historically been protected by its isolation, seven major anthropogenic stressors now threaten its natural integrity: boating, fishing, dive tourism, nutrient enrichment, introduced species, onshore development, and global climate change. These threats are not randomly distributed but disproportionately affect particular habitat types.
• 3. For management of environmental risk, the Port Davey–Bathurst Harbour region is subdivided into six biophysical zones, each with different ecological characteristics, values, and types and levels of potential threat. In response to the various threats, the Tasmanian Government has enacted an adaptive management regime that includes a multi‐zoned marine protected area and the largest ‘no‐take’ estuarine protected area in Australia. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

     

Biogeographical and ecological context for managing threats to coral and rocky reef communities in the Lord Howe Island Marine Park,south‐western Pacific

• 1. Quantitative subtidal surveys of fishes, macro‐invertebrates and sessile organisms at 33 sites within the Lord Howe Island Marine Park revealed a rich fauna and flora, including 164 fishes, 40 mobile invertebrate taxa, 53 coral and other sessile invertebrate taxa, 32 algal taxa, and two seagrasses. The biota in this newly‐zoned marine park was overwhelmingly tropical when species lists were tabulated; however, species with distributions centred on temperate coasts of eastern Australia and New Zealand occurred in disproportionately high densities compared with the tropical species.
• 2. Lord Howe Island reefs were generally in good condition. Virtually no bleached coral was observed (0.2% of the reef surface; 0.8% of total hard coral cover). Living scleractinian coral comprised the predominant group of organisms growing on reef surfaces, with 25.5% cover overall. Other major taxa observed were brown algae (18.8% cover) and red algae (16.9% cover).
• 3. Three distinctive community types were identified within the marine park—coral reefs, macroalgal beds and an offshore/open coast community. The distribution of these community types was strongly related to wave exposure, as indicated by an extremely high correlation with the first principal coordinates axis for biotic data (R²=0.80).
• 4. The close (<3 km) proximity of tropical coral and temperate macroalgal community types off Lord Howe Island is highly unusual, with localized patterns of nutrient enrichment suggested as the primary cause. The macroalgal community type is only known from a small area off the south‐western coast that is not protected from fishing. This community is considered highly susceptible to threats because of potential impacts of global warming and the possibility of expansion of sea urchin barrens. Coral bleaching and ocean acidification associated with global climate change also threaten the coral reef community, which includes relatively high numbers of endemic and near endemic fish species. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

     

Distribution of benthic communities in the fjord‐like Bathurst Channel ecosystem,south‐western Tasmania,a globally anomalous estuarine protected area

• 1. Benthic assemblages in the fjord‐like Bathurst Channel estuarine system, south‐western Tasmania, vary over horizontal scales of 1–5 km and vertical scales of 1–10 m. Multivariate analysis indicated a total of eight major assemblages that characterize different sections and depths of the channel.
• 2. Because tannins in the low‐salinity surface water layer block light, foliose algae reach 5 m depth in the marine western region but do not penetrate below 1 m in the east. By contrast, sessile invertebrates are most abundant below 5 m depth in the west and below 2 m in the east. Deeper assemblages are unlikely to be continuous with assemblages in deeper waters off the Tasmanian coast as they are highly constrained by depth within particular sections of the estuary.
• 3. While the species composition of the Bathurst Channel biota is most similar to that found elsewhere in Tasmania, the structural character of the biota in terms of major taxonomic groups is more closely allied to that found in fjords of south‐western Chile and south‐western New Zealand. These three regions all possess wilderness settings, high rainfall that is channelled through estuaries as a low‐salinity surface layer, deep‐water emergence of fauna, rapid change in biotic communities over short horizontal and vertical distances, and high levels of local endemism. They also include some of the most threatened aquatic ecosystems on earth due to increasing human activity from a near pristine base, and the potentially catastrophic impacts of climate change. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

     

A spatio‐temporal long‐term assessment on the ecological response of reef communities in a Caribbean marine protected area

1. Coral reef biodiversity is rapidly decreasing as a result of the loss of coral cover, which modifies the structure and functioning of the ecosystem. Understanding how coral reef communities respond in space and over the long term is essential in order to implement management strategies and reduce the effects of biodiversity loss on coral reefs.
2. Fish, coral, and algae communities were used as indicators to evaluate changes in coral reef systems. The variation of these communities was studied in a marine protected area composed of three management zones in Cozumel Coral Reef National Park in Quintana Roo, Mexico, over a period of 11 years (2004–2014). The following parameters were monitored annually: (i) total fish density; (ii) fish trophic group densities; (iii) species richness and three fish diversity indices; (iv) relative scleractinian coral cover; and (v) relative macroalgae cover.
3. In the years in which coastal development, such as the construction of a marina, took place, an increase in the abundance of territorial herbivorous and planktivorous fish was observed. As the coral recovered, macrocarnivores and sessile benthic invertivores were re‐established, whereas scraper herbivores showed no changes in the period of study in any of the three management zones.
4. Coral cover recovery showed rapid phase‐shift reversal (phase‐shift, macroalgae dominance over coral) in the three zones. Even though the fish density and coral cover recovered, the diversity indices of each fish trophic group exhibited a reduction in the three management zones over time.

     

Assessing the effectiveness of a long‐standing rocky intertidal protected area and its contribution to the regional conservation of species,habitats and assemblages

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Residential movements of top predators in Chile’s most isolated marine protected area: Implications for the conservation of the Galapagos shark,Carcharhinus galapagensis,and the yellowtail amberjack,Seriola lalandi

1. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are becoming a widely used tool for the conservation of biodiversity and for fishery management; however, most of these areas are designed without prior knowledge of the basic ecological aspects of the species that they are trying to protect.
2. This study investigated the movement of two top predators: the Galapagos shark, Carcharhinus galapagensis, and the yellowtail amberjack, Seriola lalandi, in and around the Motu Motiro Hiva Marine Park (MMHMP) using MiniPAT satellite tags to determine the effectiveness of this MPA for the protection of these species.
3. The Galapagos sharks (n = 4) spent most of their tag deployment periods inside the MMHMP. However, high intraspecific variability was observed in their movement dynamics. Daily individual maximum movements ranged from 17 to 58 km and the maximum distance from Salas y Gómez Island, the only emergent island within the MMHMP, ranged from 31 to 139 km.
4. The maximum linear distance travelled for a female juvenile Galapagos shark (152 cm total length) was 236 km, which is greater than the maximum distance previously documented for juveniles of this species (<50 km).
5. For the yellowtail amberjack (n = 1), 91% of the satellite geolocations were within the MMHMP, with a maximum daily distance travelled of 6 km. The maximum distance travelled between points was 111 km and the maximum distance from Salas y Gómez Island was 62 km.
6. All archival tagged fish spent most of their time at depths of <50 m and never left the epipelagic zone. Daytime versus night-time differences were pronounced in all individuals but showed high interindividual variability.
7. This study provides a baseline on the movement of these two top predators in the MMHMP and provides valuable insights for the creation of MPAs in the region and elsewhere.

     

Larger biomass of targeted reef fish in no‐take marine reserves on the Great Barrier Reef,Australia

• 1. An expansion of no‐take marine reserve zones of Australia's 348 000 km² Great Barrier Reef (GBR) Marine Park from 4.6% to 33.4% of the park area is proposed in 2004. However, limited evidence currently exists that no‐take marine reserves on the GBR have increased abundance of reef fish targeted by fisheries. This study provides such evidence for inshore reefs of the GBR.
• 2. Underwater visual surveys were used to estimate the effect of no‐take reserves on abundance of species targeted by hook‐and‐line fisheries around the Palm, Whitsunday and Keppel Islands, spanning 600 km of the length of the GBR. The reserves had been zoned ‘no fishing’ for 14 yr.
• 3. Densities of Plectropomus spp. and Lutjanus carponotatus, both targeted by fisheries, were much higher in protected zones than fished zones in two of the three island groups. Plectropomus spp. were 3.6 and 2.3 times more abundant in protected than fished zones of the Palm and Whitsunday island groups. L. carponotatus were 2.3 and 2.2 times more abundant in protected zones than fished zones of the Whitsunday and Keppel island groups.
• 4. The biomasses of Plectropomus spp. and L. carponotatus were significantly greater (3.9 and 2.6 times respectively) in the protected zones than fished zones at all three island groups.
• 5. Legal minimum sizes of Plectropomus spp. and L. carponotatus are ?38 cm and 25 cm TL respectively. There were significantly higher densities and biomasses of Plectropomus spp. >35 cm TL (density: 3.8 times; biomass: 5.1 times) and L. carponotatus >25 cm TL (density: 4.2 times; biomass: 5.3 times) in protected zones than fished zones at all three island groups.
• 6. No significant difference in abundance between protected and fished zones was found for two species not captured by fisheries (Siganus doliatus and Chaetodon aureofasciatus), and there were no significant differences in benthic characteristics between protected and fished zones.
• 7. Results suggest that no‐take marine reserves have increased stock biomass of targeted fish species on inshore GBR reefs.

Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spatial and seasonal differences in the top predators of Easter Island: Essential data for implementing the new Rapa Nui multiple‐uses marine protected area

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