Strong linkages between depth, longevity and demographic stability across marine sessile species

Montero‐Serra, Ignasi; Linares, Cristina; Doak, Daniel F.; Ledoux, J. B.; Garrabou, Joaquim

doi:10.1098/rspb.2017.2688

Cited by 34 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 56 publications

(68 reference statements)

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“…We expect that our observed patterns will apply to similar habitats beyond our study area because longevity is a fundamental life history trait, which will be under selection from the environmental conditions characteristic for a particular habitat (Montero‐Serra et al. ). Comparison of the range in habitats represented in our benthic data set with the range observed in the North Sea area shows that our data is biased to areas shallower than 150 m (Appendix ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Estimating sensitivity of seabed habitats to disturbance by bottom trawling based on the longevity of benthic fauna

Rijnsdorp

Bolam

Garcia

et al. 2018

Ecological Applications

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Bottom fishing such as trawling and dredging may pose serious risks to the seabed and benthic habitats, calling for a quantitative assessment method to evaluate the impact and guide management to develop mitigation measures. We provide a method to estimate the sensitivity of benthic habitats based on the longevity composition of the invertebrate community. We hypothesize that long‐lived species are more sensitive to trawling mortality due to their lower pace of life (i.e., slower growth, late maturation). We analyze data from box‐core and grab samples taken from 401 stations in the English Channel and southern North Sea to estimate the habitat‐specific longevity composition of the benthic invertebrate community and of specific functional groups (i.e., suspension feeders and bioturbators), and examine how bottom trawling affects the longevity biomass composition. The longevity biomass composition differed between habitats governed by differences in sediment composition (gravel and mud content) and tidal bed‐shear stress. The biomass proportion of long‐lived species increased with gravel content and decreased with mud content and shear stress. Bioturbators had a higher median longevity than suspension feeders. Trawling, in particular by gears that penetrate the seabed >2 cm, shifted the community toward shorter‐lived species. Changes from bottom trawling were highest in habitats with many long‐lived species (hence increasing with gravel content, decreasing with mud content). Benthic communities in high shear stress habitats were less affected by bottom trawling. Using these relationships, we predicted the sensitivity of the benthic community from bottom trawling impact at large spatial scale (the North Sea). We derived different benthic sensitivity metrics that provide a basis to estimate indicators of trawling impact on a continuous scale for the total community and specific functional groups. In combination with high resolution data of trawling pressure, our approach can be used to monitor and assess trawling impact and seabed status at the scale of the region or broadscale habitat and to compare the environmental impact of bottom‐contacting fishing gears across fisheries.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Estimating sensitivity of seabed habitats to disturbance by bottom trawling based on the longevity of benthic fauna

Rijnsdorp

Bolam

Garcia

et al. 2018

Ecological Applications

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“…We did not attempt to model the variance around normal growth rates due to the extremely low variance around mean growth. While this is a simplification, our previous work has shown that red coral population growth has relatively low sensitivity to growth rates, which likely minimizes any effects of this modelling decision (Montero‐Serra, Linares, Doak, Ledoux, & Garrabou, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marine protected areas enhance structural complexity but do not buffer the consequences of ocean warming for an overexploited precious coral

Montero‐Serra

Garrabou

Doak

et al. 2019

Journal of Applied Ecology

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1. Global warming and overexploitation both threaten the integrity and resilience of marine ecosystems. Many calls have been made to at least partially offset climate change impacts through local conservation management. However, a mechanistic understanding of the interactions of multiple stressors is generally lacking for habitat-forming species; preventing the development of sound conservation strategies.2. We examined the effectiveness of no-take marine protected areas (MPAs) at enhancing structural complexity and resilience to climate change on populations of an overexploited and long-lived octocoral. We used long-term data over eight populations, subjected to varying levels of disturbances, and Integral Projection Models to understand how the overfishing and mass-mortality events shape the stochastic dynamics of the Mediterranean red coral Corallium rubrum.3. Marine protected areas largely reduced colony partial mortality (i.e. shrinkage), enhancing the structural complexity of coral populations. However, there were no significant differences in individual mortality or population growth rates between protected and exploited populations. In contrast, warming had detrimental consequences for the long-term viability of red coral populations, driving steady declines and potential local extinctions due to sharp effects in survival rates. Stochastic demographic models revealed only a weak compensatory effect ofMPAs on the impacts of warming. 4. Policy implications. Our results suggest that marine protected areas (MPAs) are an effective local conservation tool for enhancing the structural complexity of red coral populations. However, MPAs may not be enough to ensure red coral's persistence under future increases in thermal stress. Accordingly, conservation strategies aiming to ensure the persistence and functional role of red coral populations should include management actions at both local (well-enforced MPAs) and global S U PP O RTI N G I N FO R M ATI O N Additional supporting information may be found online in the Supporting Information section at the end of the article. How to cite this article: Montero-Serra I, Garrabou J, Doak DF, Ledoux J-B, Linares C. Marine protected areas enhance structural complexity but do not buffer the consequences of ocean warming for an overexploited precious coral.

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“…The adverse impact of fishing to vulnerable marine ecosystems, such as cold‐water coral (CWC) reefs and coral gardens (OSPAR Commission, ) and the need to conserve them, have become a global concern (Angiolillo & Canese, ; Davies, Roberts, & Hall‐Spencer, ). Owing to the low resilience of coral garden species, they display high vulnerability to disturbance from human activities (Montero‐Serra, Linares, Doak, Ledoux, & Garrabou, ; Roberts & Hirshfield, ), which has prompted a growing interest in protection and restoration initiatives aimed at mitigating their further degradation and enhancing their recovery (Angiolillo & Canese, ). Currently, a few deep‐sea active restoration initiatives have mainly focused on transplantation actions of CWC species, such as Oculina varicosa off the south‐eastern coast of Florida (Brooke et al, ) and Lophelia pertusa in Sweden (Dahl, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First attempts towards the restoration of gorgonian populations on the Mediterranean continental shelf

Montseny

Linares

Viladrich

et al. 2019

Aquatic Conservation

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In the Mediterranean Sea, gorgonians are among the main habitat‐forming species of benthic communities on the continental shelf and slope, playing an important ecological role in coral gardens. In areas where bottom trawling is restricted, gorgonians represent one of the main components of trammel net bycatch. Since gorgonians are long‐lived and slow‐growing species, impacts derived from fishing activities can have far‐reaching and long‐lasting effects, jeopardizing their long‐term viability. Thus, mitigation and ecological restoration initiatives focusing on gorgonian populations on the continental shelf are necessary to enhance and speed up their natural recovery. Bycatch gorgonians from artisanal fishermen were transplanted into artificial structures, which were then deployed at 85 m depth on the outer continental shelf of the marine protected area of Cap de Creus (north‐west Mediterranean Sea, Spain). After 1 year, high survival rates of transplanted colonies (87.5%) were recorded with a hybrid remotely operated vehicle. This pilot study shows, for the first time, the survival potential of bycatch gorgonians once returned to their habitat on the continental shelf, and suggests the potential success of future scaled‐up restoration activities.

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Strong linkages between depth, longevity and demographic stability across marine sessile species

Cited by 34 publications

References 56 publications

Estimating sensitivity of seabed habitats to disturbance by bottom trawling based on the longevity of benthic fauna

Estimating sensitivity of seabed habitats to disturbance by bottom trawling based on the longevity of benthic fauna

Marine protected areas enhance structural complexity but do not buffer the consequences of ocean warming for an overexploited precious coral

First attempts towards the restoration of gorgonian populations on the Mediterranean continental shelf

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