Habitat continuity effects on gradients of fish biomass across marine protected area boundaries.
Marine protected areas (MPAs) could be useful as fisheries management tools for the exportation of pelagic eggs, larvae and adult fish. A decreasing gradient of fish biomass across MPAs boundary may indicate export. We determine whether gradients of decreasing biomass of fish assemblage occurred in Tabarca Marine Reserve over two habitats with different continuity across the boundaries, to test if the patchy nature of the marine environment might act as a barrier for the fish export. In general, significant decreasing gradients in total fish biomass and biomass of some species were observed on P. oceanica and rocky substrates, independently of their different continuity through the reserve boundaries. Changes in the multivariate structure of the fish assemblage were correlated with the distance from integral reserve. All of these results support the hypothesis that the exportation of adult fish from Tabarca Marine Reserve occurs, and this process may influence the surrounding fished areas.
Forcada
Aitor
A
Unidad de Biología Marina, Departamento de Ciencias del Mar y Biología Aplicada, Universidad de Alicante, P.O. Box 99, Edificio Ciencias V, Campus de San Vicente del Raspeig, E-03080 Alicante, Spain. forcada@ua.es
Bayle-Sempere
Just T
JT
Valle
Carlos
C
Sánchez-Jerez
Pablo
P
D000818:Animals; D018533:Biomass; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D003710:Demography; D017753:Ecosystem; D005398:Fisheries; D005399:Fishes / Q000502:physiology*; D009792:Oceans and Seas