Article
The Influence of Boundary Habitat Continuity on Spillover from a Mediterranean Marine Protected Area
Registro en:
0212-5919
Autor
Pinillos, Fernando
Riera, Rodrigo
Resumen
Artículo de publicación WOS - SCOPUS The efectiveness of marine protected areas (MPAs) to restore populations of exploited species, both within and outside of
their boundaries through net movement of individuals (“spillover”), can potentially be afected by continuity of habitats
across the boundaries. Sandy seabeds may reduce movement of reef-associated species across MPA boundaries, thereby
increasing the ‘reserve efect’ while decreasing spillover. Underwater visual censuses were undertaken inside the CerbèreBanyuls Marine Reserve (CBMR) (France) and adjacent non-protected areas to assess the infuence of habitat on spillover.
Total fsh biomass and mean fsh size were signifcantly higher within the MPA, but rapidly declined across the reserve
boundary. Nevertheless, there was no indication of a sharper decline in biomass at the northern boundary where a habitat
discontinuity was present relative to the southern boundary with continuous habitat. This result may refect a number of
complicating factors that make assessment of spillover potential difcult, and which may also lead to the uncertainty about
which situations and how much spillover may contribute to fshed populations outside reserves. In particular, the home
range area of the key exploited species relative to the scale of the habitat mosaic, and potentially diferent levels of fshing
pressure at each boundary likely contribute to variability. While the CBMR appeared particularly well-suited to investigating this question, resolving these issues and identifying general principles for where and how much spillover occurs will
likely be difcult without a series of specially designed MPAs. This highlights a conundrum facing MPA establishment in
the face of pressures to be successful for both biodiversity conservation and to ofer fsheries benefts—the latter are clearly
not ubiquitous, but a shortage of suitable MPAs that can be used as scientifc tools for better understanding how and when
these benefts may occur is precluded by a general lack of MPAs designed and managed for this purpose. The results of this
study do, however, clearly highlight the biodiversity conservation benefts of the CBMR.