Journal
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
Volume 26, Issue 3, Pages 1295-1305Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14941
Keywords
buffering productivity; coral reef fisheries; Coral Triangle; ecosystem functioning; fish productivity; Great Barrier Reef; overexploitation; overfishing; size-spectrum theory; standing biomass
Funding
- James Cook University
- Lizard Island Reef Research Foundation
- Ocean Geographic Society
- Australian Research Council
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Coral reef fisheries support the livelihoods of millions of people in tropical countries, despite large-scale depletion of fish biomass. While human adaptability can help to explain the resistance of fisheries to biomass depletion, compensatory ecological mechanisms may also be involved. If this is the case, high productivity should coexist with low biomass under relatively high exploitation. Here we integrate large spatial scale empirical data analysis and a theory-driven modelling approach to unveil the effects of human exploitation on reef fish productivity-biomass relationships. We show that differences in how productivity and biomass respond to overexploitation can decouple their relationship. As size-selective exploitation depletes fish biomass, it triggers increased production per unit biomass, averting immediate productivity collapse in both the modelling and the empirical systems. This 'buffering productivity' exposes the danger of assuming resource production-biomass equivalence, but may help to explain why some biomass-depleted fish assemblages still provide ecosystem goods under continued global fishing exploitation.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available