Assessing hotspots within hotspots to conserve biodiversity and support fisheries management

Abstract

The decline of marine biodiversity can negatively affect the ocean's resilience, goods and services. Consequently, the identification and protection of biodiversity hotspots is often a priority in marine spatial planning. Marine protected areas (MPAs) can also be designated as fisheries management tools to promote sustainable fisheries. However, the integration of fisheries and biodiversity objectives is still the cause of much debate, and challenging to achieve in a simple, straightforward manner. In this study, generalised additive models of (1) various biodiversity indices and (2) an intrinsic vulnerability index of fishes to fishing were applied to produce predictive maps to identify hotspots of biodiversity and fisheries vulnerability, respectively, and combined hotspots of both parameters for shallow coastal fish assemblages surrounding 2 islands in the Azores archipelago, northeast Atlantic Ocean. Individually, hotspots of biodiversity and vulnerability covered up to half of the study area and were quantitatively well represented in the existing MPA network. Although similar levels of representativeness were found for shared hotspots that included both criteria, more importantly, they were substantially smaller than individual hotspots, highlighting the importance of their complete protection to ensure the ecological functioning of multi-objective MPAs. This case study demonstrates a novel use of a fish vulnerability index in support of marine spatial planning. It can be combined with biodiversity patterns that alone may not represent well the areas of higher need for conservation. MPA design and adaptive management processes may use this straightforward approach to identify hotspots within larger areas of high conservation value, especially in data-limited situations that may benefit from predictive modelling.

Ecosystem-Based Management for More Effective and Equitable Marine Protected Areas: A Case Study on the Faial-Pico Channel Marine Protected Area, Azores

“…We find that rocky habitats support the most ecosystem functions and were associated with the most ecosystem services. This aligns with recent research on values of biodiversity indices around the Faial and Pico islands, which shows that the highest values were linked to rocky habitat, which provide refuge and substrate for various marine species, making rocky habitats important sites for fishing and diving (Schmiing et al 2014). These insights suggest that management should prioritise protection of these central and valued ecosystem components.…”

Experience counts: Integrating spearfishers’ skills and knowledge in the evaluation of biological and ecological impacts

“…The experienced and intermediate groups, by contrast, also fished across São Miguel Island, probably to assess the best spots. Given their expertise and better equipment, experienced fishers potentially have the means to selectively explore areas known as coastal hot spots of fish abundance and biodiversity (Schmiing, Afonso, Tempera & Santos, ; Schmiing, Diogo, Santos & Afonso, ). An expansion of the study area should fully validate this result in future studies.…”

Systematic Review of Spatial Planning and Marine Protected Areas: A Brazilian Perspective

“…On the one hand, MPA zoning requires integrating socio-economic and cultural factors to obtain support from communities during implementation. On the other hand, spatial prediction models include zoning studies of biodiversity distribution to represent areas of high conservation need (Schmiing et al, 2014) and to identify areas of conservation priority for interconnected landsea planning (Klein et al, 2012). In addition, multi-criteria spatial analysis is used to define areas and minimum and maximum sustainability through the socioeconomic evaluation of activities such as fish farming in the MPA (Dapueto et al, 2015).…”