Effects of Benthic Protection Extent on Recovery Dynamics of a Conceptual Seafloor Community

Stephenson, Fabrice; Bulmer, R.H.; Meredyth-Young, Michael; Meysick, Lukas; Hewitt, Judi E.; Lundquist, Carolyn J.

doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00607

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 68 publications

(106 reference statements)

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“…MPAs contribute to improving or, at least, avoiding the degradation of two fundamental aspects of the habitat, spatial heterogeneity and structural complexity (Stephenson et al, 2019). The first is the mosaic of types of habitats that can occur on the seabed (sandy or muddy bottoms, rocky bottoms, macrophyte meadows) and constitutes the horizontal dimension of space (García-Charton and Pérez-Ruzafa, 1998).…”

Section: Mpas Maintain or Recover Habitat Quality And/or Quantitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are a large number of works that analyze the effects of trawling on communities and the nature of the sediments (Kaiser et al, 2002;Thrush and Dayton, 2002;Ramalho et al, 2020;Silveira et al, 2020). Stephenson et al (2019) established a conceptual relationship between disturbance, loss of habitat heterogeneity and consequences on ecological functioning and ecosystem services through the loss of substrate burrowers and the role that they play on the biogeochemical process and nutrient and oxygen fluxes. On the other hand, protection can also enhance temporal stability of habitat characteristics (Fraschetti et al, 2013).…”

Section: Mpas Maintain or Recover Habitat Quality And/or Quantitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reviewing the Ecosystem Services, Societal Goods, and Benefits of Marine Protected Areas

et al. 2021

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Marine protected areas (MPAs) are globally important environmental management tools that provide protection from the effects of human exploitation and activities, supporting the conservation of marine biological diversity, habitats, ecosystems and the processes they host, as well as resources in a broad sense. Consequently, they are also expected to manage and enhance marine ecosystem services and material, non-material, consumptive and non-consumptive goods, and benefits for humans. There is however certain confusion on what constitutes an ecosystem service, and it is not always easy to distinguish between them and societal benefits. The main nuance is that an ecosystem service is the aptitude an ecosystem has or develops naturally or as consequence of a management action, and that manifests through its own properties (productivity, diversity, stability, quality of its key parameters, etc.), while a societal benefit is the economic or other profitability (emotional, educational, scientific, etc.) that humans obtain from said service or quality. In this work, 268 publications, together with our own experiences in the different investigations carried out in the MPAs that are part of the BiodivERsA3-2015-21 RESERVEBENEFIT European project, have been selected, reviewed and discussed to analyze the knowledge status of the expected ecosystem services of MPAs and the societal benefits derived from them, sometimes providing information on their evidence, when they exist. We define and classify the effects of protection, ecosystem services and societal benefits and elaborate a conceptual model of the cause-effect relationships between them.

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Section: Mpas Maintain or Recover Habitat Quality And/or Quantitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mpas Maintain or Recover Habitat Quality And/or Quantitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Reviewing the Ecosystem Services, Societal Goods, and Benefits of Marine Protected Areas

et al. 2021

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“…The patchy distribution of fishing effort across the seafloor generates a habitat mosaic in which each patch can be distinguished by its fishing history and subsequent response to previous fishing disturbances (Figure 1.5) (Lambert et al, 2014;Stephenson et al, 2019). Successful recolonisation of disturbed habitat patches by sessile marine benthic invertebrates largely depends on the availability of recruits from neighbouring patches and the suitability of the substrate for settlement and growth (Figure 1.5) (Connell and Keough, 1985).…”

Section: Recolonisation and Patch Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resilience of Seamount Benthic Communities to Fishing Disturbance

Goode

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Seamounts are important marine habitats that commonly occur in deep waters, with global estimates ranging from tens of thousands to several million. Interactions between seamount topographies and surrounding currents increase local productivity at some features, supporting high abundances and biomasses of both pelagic and benthic fauna. For this reason, many seamounts host fish aggregations, including several commercially-important species. Early observations of seamount fish aggregations led to their initial targeting in the 1960s by bottom trawlers. Since then, this practice has expanded globally. In New Zealand, seamounts were initially targeted by fisheries in the late 1970s, and by the early 1990s a majority of the annual orange roughy (Hoplostethus atlanticus) catch was obtained from several seamounts. Bottom trawling has significant impacts not only on the target fish population, but also on the non-target benthic fauna caught as bycatch, as they can be comprised of fragile, emergent, sessile animals (e.g., deep-sea corals and sponges) that are easily damaged or removed by trawling gear. However, the extent to which these communities can recover from trawling impacts is uncertain, and this information is necessary to design effective spatial management measures, particularly in New Zealand where many seamounts are located within the Exclusive Economic Zone and actively fished. Designing studies to address this knowledge gap and provide management recommendations first requires an assessment of current understanding regarding resilience of seamount benthic communities to fishing. In this thesis, such an assessment was done through a global literature review and meta-analysis of seamount benthos, fisheries, known trawling impacts, and a three-fold evaluation of community resilience (Chapter 1). This review indicated that recovery will likely be initially patchy, and information on community spatial patterns is a necessary starting point to determine recovery potential. In order to provide such baseline spatial context to subsequent studies of previously fished seamounts, the structure and distribution of benthic communities at two unfished seamounts was investigated to characterise fine-scale community structural patterns and identify environmental drivers of these patterns (Chapter 2). Megabenthic (seafloor fauna with body sizes >2 cm) fauna were identified and described from 1,233 total seafloor images collected with camera transects on both seamounts in 2015 to identify communities. The predicted spatial distributions of these communities were mapped and characteristics of the patches they were predicted to occupy were described. Habitat drivers were found to differ between the two features at different spatial scales, and these differences were reflected in the predicted spatial distributions and patch characteristics of communities characterising each seamount. Post-fishing responses of benthic communities were determined by examining fine-scale spatio-temporal changes in their structure and function over 20 years on a seamount that was intensively trawled from the early 1990s until its protection in 2001 (Chapter 3). As part of a long-term research programme, camera surveys were conducted on this seamount (and others) in 2001, 2006, 2009, 2015, and 2020. In total, 2,343 images were analysed across years to obtain megabenthic faunal counts of 148 taxa. Results showed there was a temporal shift in community structure driven by small relative changes in abundances of several taxa, indicative of early recovery. However, community function showed little sign of ongoing recovery. Juvenile colonies of a reef-forming stony coral, Solenosmilia variabilis, were observed, demonstrating that the fisheries closure may have facilitated the early recovery process of this species and its associates. Data obtained from these analyses was used to develop joint-species distribution models to predict changes in benthic faunal occurrence and abundance up to 200 years post-fisheries closure (Chapter 4). Spatial distributions of 36 aggregated megabenthic taxa were predicted for five post-closure time-steps in 2001, 2020, 2040, 2100, and 2200. Nine communities were described from the spatial predictions using cluster analysis and spatial patterns of the patches they occupied were characterised. Results of this study suggested that the fisheries closure may enable the recovery of most, but not all, taxa. Additionally, several communities on the seamount summit may undergo succession towards a reef climax community, but are unlikely to fully reverse fishing impacts even on this long timescale.Key findings from the preceding chapters were synthesised, and their implications for seamount management and future research discussed (Chapter 5). The latter includes the need for studies determining the physiology and life history traits of seamount benthic species to better predict their resilience to fishing impacts. Major contributions of this thesis study to the field of seamount ecology were also presented, including a conceptual model of seamount recovery, hypothesised changes in community patch characteristics after trawling disturbance, and a decision framework for seamount management prioritisation.

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Habitat mapping of the Vila Franca do Campo marine reserve (Azores) and recommendations for its improvement

Cosme De Esteban,

Feldens,

Haroun

et al. 2024

Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science

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Effects of Benthic Protection Extent on Recovery Dynamics of a Conceptual Seafloor Community

Cited by 5 publications

References 68 publications

Reviewing the Ecosystem Services, Societal Goods, and Benefits of Marine Protected Areas

Reviewing the Ecosystem Services, Societal Goods, and Benefits of Marine Protected Areas

Resilience of Seamount Benthic Communities to Fishing Disturbance

Habitat mapping of the Vila Franca do Campo marine reserve (Azores) and recommendations for its improvement

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