Assessing the erect bryozoan Myriapora truncata (Pallas, 1766) as indicator of recreational diving impact on coralligenous reef communities

Nuez-Hernández, Daril de la; Valle, Carlos; Forcada, Aitor; Gorospe, José Miguel Correa; Fernández‐Torquemada, Yolanda

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2014.05.035

Cited by 19 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The main groups of species that either disappeared or became more rare at Gallinara included calcified bryozoans, barnacles, scleractinian corals, and sponges. The reduction of fragile calcified bryozoans elsewhere has been correlated with mechanical impact resulting from scuba‐diving (de la Nuez‐Hernández, Valle, Forcada, González Correa, & Fernández Torquemada, ) or anchoring (Milazzo et al, ). Similar conclusions have been reached for the ascidian Halocynthia papillosa (Luna‐Pérez, Vallea, Vega Fernández, Sánchez‐Lizaso, & Ramos‐Esplá, ), which did not exhibit any obvious reduction at Gallinara, however.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The park never born: Outcome of a quarter of a century of inaction on the sea‐floor integrity of a proposed but not established Marine Protected Area

Bianchi

Cocito

Diviacco

et al. 2018

Aquatic Conservation

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1. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are a major tool to conserve marine ecosystems but are also strongly attractive to tourists, the increased numbers of which can cause environmental issues if not properly managed.2. Proposing an MPA and then failing to establish it risks advertising the beauty of a marine area without managing the unavoidable increase in tourism. This is what happened at Gallinara Island (Ligurian Sea, north-western Mediterranean), where an MPA was proposed in 1990 but has not yet been established. 3. Benthic data collected soon after the proposal (1990-92) have been compared with similar information obtained in subsequent periods (2009 and 2016): change has been assessed both visually and statistically, using multivariate and univariate techniques. 4. The Gallinara sea floor supported five epibenthic communities in 1991, four of which corresponded to European Nature Information System (EUNIS) habitats; the fifth epibenthic community, characterized by the erect sponge Axinella polypoides, should be included in the next revision of EUNIS. 5. In the 25 years since the original MPA proposal, all epibenthic communities have exhibited a reduction in their three-dimensional structure and biotic homogenization, and severe decreases in species diversity, and the sea floor has been littered with derelict fishing gear and other waste from boats. 6. In absence of the MPA, proposals to develop a management plan for a marine Site of Community Importance (SCI) have been provided, to reduce sea-based human pressures. The dramatic alteration of Gallinara sea floor after 25 years of negligence and inaction is a sad warning for other unmanaged yet beautiful natural areas within urbanized regions of the world.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The park never born: Outcome of a quarter of a century of inaction on the sea‐floor integrity of a proposed but not established Marine Protected Area

Bianchi

Cocito

Diviacco

et al. 2018

Aquatic Conservation

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“…Low values of COARSE correspond also to situations where the erect layer was less developed in the coralligenous assemblages. In fact, although human activities, such as fishing, anchoring or scuba diving, may damage organisms of the erect layer (Bavestrello, Cerrano, Zanzi, & Cattaneo-Vietti, 1997;de la Nuez-Hernández, Valle, Forcada, González Correa, & Fernández Torquemada, 2014;Garrabou, Sala, Arcas, & Zabala, 1998), the presence of many erect animals (e.g. anthozoans and arborescent sponges) may not be necessarily related to the environmental quality, but rather to natural patterns of variability (Casas-Güell, Teixidó, Garrabou, & Cebrian, 2015;Virgilio, Airoldi, & Abbiati, 2006), even due to different recruitment rates, population human-induced stress Piazzi, Gennaro, & Balata, 2012;Piazzi et al, 2015;Piazzi, La Manna, Cecchi, Serena, & Ceccherelli, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What's in an index? Comparing the ecological information provided by two indices to assess the status of coralligenous reefs in the NW Mediterranean Sea

Piazzi

Bianchi

Cecchi

et al. 2017

Aquatic Conservation

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This study compared the results obtained through the concurrent use of the two indices ESCA (Ecological Status of Coralligenous Assemblages) and COARSE (COralligenous Assessment by ReefScape Estimate) to define the ecological status of coralligenous reefs. The study evaluated: i) the effectiveness of the two indices at a regional spatial scale (100 s of km); ii) the descriptors that mostly influence the indices; and iii) the ecological information provided by the two indices. Both ESCA and COARSE were applied to coralligenous reefs selected at sites affected by different human‐induced pressures. The two indices provided different but complementary information to determine the intrinsic quality of coralligenous reefs and to detect the effects of human pressures on the associated assemblages. The simultaneous use of ESCA and COARSE can be effective in providing information about the alteration of ecological quality of coralligenous reefs, in order to achieve the requirements of European directives.

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“…Because this framework accounts for multiple criteria, it improves on common approaches whereby indicators may often be selected based only on whether they are sensitive to change or cheap to monitor (e.g. de la Nuez-Hernandez et al 2014;Brunbjerg et al 2015). The results show that indicator selection based on a costeffectiveness framework can help improve threat management decisions when resources are limited, leading to better conservation outcomes.…”

Section: Cost-effective Monitoring To Trigger Conservation Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…For example, comparing mean abundance of a coral species between localities with high and low diving pressure to establish its sensitivity to diving impact (de la Nuez-Hernandez et al 2014).…”

Section: Methods Used For Indicator Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effective monitoring for biodiversity conservation

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Monitoring of biodiversity is expensive and can detract resources for managing biodiversity. Given limited resources for conservation, it is not only important to assess the choices we make for managing biodiversity but also those for monitoring biodiversity. This entails considering the benefits and costs of alternative monitoring strategies, and selecting the ones that best inform and improve management decisions. However, understanding which aspects of an ecosystem to monitor (e.g. which species, threat, or indicator) to make effective management decisions is a challenging task. This is especially true when we are faced with large uncertainties, such as those regarding the drivers of change when species are impacted by multiple threats. Although optimal monitoring approaches for conservation decision-making under limited resources have gained popularity over the last decade, similar approaches for monitoring and indicator selection to inform the management of multiple threats for biodiversity have received relatively little attention. In this thesis, I contribute to the theory and tools for selecting monitoring strategies and indicators to improve management decisions, with a focus on multi-species, multi-threat systems. The four objectives of my thesis are: (1) to review current approaches for selecting indicator species for biodiversity management; (2) to assess the value of monitoring species for managing multiple threats; (3) to assess the relative influence of uncertainty and expected benefits of management on monitoring decisions for multiple threats; and (4) to develop a simple indicator selection tool based on a return on investment framework for managing multi-species, multi-threat systems.The thesis starts with a systematic review of the conservation literature, in chapter two, to assess the extent to which the selection of indicator species for biodiversity management explicitly considers management objectives and the management outcomes of monitoring. I find that most indicator selection studies focus on improving the monitoring efficiency rather than the management effectiveness, potentially leading to ineffective indicators. Recommendations are provided to improve indicator selection for management decision-making. I also propose a decision framework for selecting indicator species and identify decision-analytic approaches to evaluate alternative monitoring choices that are further developed in the remainder of the thesis.In chapter three, I use value of information analysis to investigate how monitoring alternative species subject to multiple threats improves our ability to inform the management of these threats.iii Specifically, I compare the effectiveness of different monitoring approaches to learn about the threats i.e. monitoring just species and monitoring with experimental manipulation of threats. My results show that monitoring species alone is unlikely to provide useful information for threat management when there is uncertainty about the effect of multiple threats. Instead, an ...

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Assessing the erect bryozoan Myriapora truncata (Pallas, 1766) as indicator of recreational diving impact on coralligenous reef communities

Cited by 19 publications

References 29 publications

The park never born: Outcome of a quarter of a century of inaction on the sea‐floor integrity of a proposed but not established Marine Protected Area

The park never born: Outcome of a quarter of a century of inaction on the sea‐floor integrity of a proposed but not established Marine Protected Area

What's in an index? Comparing the ecological information provided by two indices to assess the status of coralligenous reefs in the NW Mediterranean Sea

Effective monitoring for biodiversity conservation

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