Loading...
3 results
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
- Spawning-related fish movement synchrony of white seabream diplodus sargus in a no-take zonePublication . Pedaccini, Marie; Sousa, Inês; Bentes, Luis; de Benito Abelló, Carmela; Lino, Pedro G.; Moland, Even; Gonçalves, Jorge Manuel Santos; Horta E Costa, BarbaraStudies assessing fish spatial behaviour are essential to better understand the performance of marine protected areas. However, few studies have focused on the fine-scale movements related to reproduction, a key feature in a population’s perpetuation. Knowledge of movements modulated by reproduction is particularly important since migrations towards spawning grounds may increase the vulnerability to threats if these occur outside protected areas. Further, reproductive behavioural polymorphism is widely understudied but may affect reproductive success. In this work, we used acoustic telemetry to study a harvested fish, Diplodus sargus, within a small no-take zone in Portugal.
- Among-individual variation in white seabream (Diplodus sargus) spatial behaviour and protection in a coastal no-take areaPublication . De Benito Abelló, Carmela; Bentes, Luis; Sousa, Inês; Pedaccini, Marie; Villegas-Ríos, David; Olsen, Esben Moland; Gonçalves, Jorge Manuel Santos; Horta E Costa, BarbaraMarine protected areas (MPAs), and specially no-take areas (NTAs), play an important role in protecting target populations from fisheries. When developing spatial conservation and management tools, the design has mainly focused on population-level measures of fish home ranges, spawning and feeding areas, and migration routes. Intraspecific differences in fish behaviour, however, are often not accounted for, even though they could influence the level of realized protection. In this study, we investigated the intraspecific variation in spatial behaviour of a harvested fish, Diplodus sargus, and how it impacts the degree of protection granted by a NTA in the south of Portugal. We identified four behavioural types according to their spatial behaviour: residents, commuters, seasonal visitors, and single users. Time at risk (i.e. outside the NTA) greatly varied among the four groups, but also over the year for the seasonal and the single users. Our study shows how acoustic telemetry can assist spatial conservation and fisheries management and provides novel insight regarding the role of individual variation in behaviour to understand protection granted by MPAs to harvested species. It also suggests that incorporating such information into all stages of MPA design and implementation can result in increased resilience of the protected populations.
- Marine protected areas stage of establishment and level of protection are good predictors of their conservation outcomesPublication . Horta e Costa, Barbara; de Benito Abelló, Carmela; Pike, Elizabeth; Turnbull, John; MacCarthy, Jessica; Harasta, Nikki; Fragkopoulou, Eliza; Roessger, Julia; Sullivan-Stack, Jenna; Grorud-Colvert, Kirsten; Gill, David; Morgan, Lance; Gonçalves, Emanuel J.; Zupan, Mirta; Gonçalves, Jorge Manuel Santos; Claudet, JoachimDespite the importance of active management and strong protection in driving marine protected areas (MPA) performance, coverage area remains the sole indicator for global targets. To assess whether conservation quality lags behind quantity, we conducted a global meta-analysis of 123 MPAs. We show that MPAs’ Levels of Protection and Stages of Establishment are reliable proxies for MPAs’ ecological outcomes; hence, they are good candidates for tracking MPA quality. Actively managed MPAs have significantly higher fish density and biomass than non-protected surrounding areas, while MPAs that are only implemented do not. The effectiveness of actively managed MPAs can be maximized if they are fully or highly protected. Lightly and minimally protected areas that are only implemented can deliver negative outcomes. Our findings highlight the important interplay between stages and levels as developed in the MPA Guide and support the need to include both in conservation targets to track not only MPA quantity but also quality.