title: Farming-up coastal fish assemblages through a massive aquaculture escape event.
abstract: We investigated the changes on the mean trophic level of fish assemblages across different spatiotemporal scales, before and after a massive escape event occurred off La Palma (Canary Islands), which resulted in the release of 1.5 million fish (mostly Dicentrarchus labrax) into the wild. The presence of escaped fish altered significantly the mean trophic level of fish assemblages in shallow coastal waters. This alteration was exacerbated by the massive escape. A nearby marine protected area buffered the changes in mean trophic level but exhibited the same temporal patterns as highly fished areas. Moreover, escaped fish exploited natural resources according to their total length and possibly, time since escapement. New concerns arise as a "farming up" process is detected in shallow coastal fish assemblages where marine aquaculture is established.
authors.affiliation: BIOECOMAC, Universidad de La Laguna, Dpto. de Biología Animal. Ciencias Marinas, Facultad de Biología, Av. Astrofísico Francisco Sánchez s/n, CP 38206 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. Electronic address: ktoledo@ua.es.
authors.forename: Kilian
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Toledo-Guedes
authors.affiliation: Department of Marine Sciences and Applied Biology, University of Alicante, Ap.C. 99, CP 03080 Alicante, Spain.
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sanchez-Jerez
authors.affiliation: BIOECOMAC, Universidad de La Laguna, Dpto. de Biología Animal. Ciencias Marinas, Facultad de Biología, Av. Astrofísico Francisco Sánchez s/n, CP 38206 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.
authors.forename: María E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Benjumea
authors.affiliation: BIOECOMAC, Universidad de La Laguna, Dpto. de Biología Animal. Ciencias Marinas, Facultad de Biología, Av. Astrofísico Francisco Sánchez s/n, CP 38206 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brito
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001492:Bass / Q000502:physiology*; D049628:Body Size; D004032:Diet; D005398:Fisheries; D020387:Food Chain; D005766:Gastrointestinal Contents; D011156:Population Density; D013030:Spain; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: Aquaculture; Dicentrarchus labrax; Diet; Escaped fish; Sparus aurata; Trophic level