Attenuating effects of ecosystem management on coral reefs

Science Advances
Robert S SteneckGeorge Stoyle

Abstract

Managing diverse ecosystems is challenging because structuring drivers are often processes having diffuse impacts that attenuate from the people who were "managed" to the expected ecosystem-wide outcome. Coral reef fishes targeted for management only indirectly link to the ecosystem's foundation (reef corals). Three successively weakening interaction tiers separate management of fishing from coral abundance. We studied 12 islands along the 700-km eastern Caribbean archipelago, comparing fished and unfished coral reefs. Fishing reduced biomass of carnivorous (snappers and groupers) and herbivorous (parrotfish and surgeonfish) fishes. We document attenuating but important effects of managing fishing, which explained 37% of variance in parrotfish abundance, 20% of variance in harmful algal abundance, and 17% of variance in juvenile coral abundance. The explained variance increased when we quantified herbivory using area-specific bite rates. Local fisheries management resulted in a 62% increase in the archipelago's juvenile coral density, improving the ecosystem's recovery potential from major disturbances.

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Citations

Oct 17, 2019·Global Change Biology·David J Suggett, David J Smith
Mar 12, 2019·Science Advances·Jonathan S LefcheckDouglas B Rasher
Apr 10, 2019·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Marine GouezoChristopher Doropoulos
Jun 7, 2020·Annual Review of Marine Science·Nancy Knowlton
Dec 12, 2020·Current Biology : CB·Angelo Jason Spadaro, Mark J Butler
Feb 24, 2021·Current Biology : CB·Peter J Mumby
Apr 3, 2021·Marine Environmental Research·Sterling B Tebbett, David R Bellwood
Apr 29, 2021·Conservation Biology : the Journal of the Society for Conservation Biology·Peter J MumbyValerie J Paul
Aug 5, 2021·Journal of Environmental Management·Marine GouezoChristopher Doropoulos
Feb 6, 2020·The Science of the Total Environment·Sterling B Tebbett, David R Bellwood

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