Fisheries restrictions and their cascading effects on herbivore abundance and macroalgae removal at Kenyan coral reefs

作者

Ewout G. Knoester¹ , Veerle E. Plug² , Albertinka J. Murk¹ , Susan O. Sande² , Ronald Osinga¹

1. Wageningen University & Research
2. Kenyatta University

会议/活动

14th International Coral Reef Symposium, July 2020 (虚拟会议)

海报摘要

This study evaluated the influence of fisheries management on the abundance and browsing of herbivorous fish in Kenya. Herbivorous fish biomass was clearly higher in protected areas, especially of large-bodied species such as unicornfishes and certain parrotfishes. The removal of common macroalgae was up to three-fold higher in protected areas and this correlated well with the higher biomasses of unicornfishes and parrotfishes. In unprotected areas, damselfishes and sea urchins dominated and overall browsing pressure was low. This shows that fishing restrictions can support reef resilience by increasing herbivorous fish biomass of key species and thereby promote macroalgae removal.

关键词

Browsing, Sargassum, Padina, Protected area, Grazers, Reef restoration

研究领域

Biological Sciences, Ecology and Forestry, Environmental Sciences, Ocean Sciences

参考文献

1. Knoester, E. G., Plug, V. E., Murk, A. J., Sande, S. O., & Osinga, R. (2023). Fisheries restrictions and their cascading effects on herbivore abundance and macroalgae removal at Kenyan coral reefs. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 559, 151850.

基金

暂无数据

补充材料

1. Published article   Download

附加信息

利益冲突

No competing interests were disclosed.

数据可用性声明

The datasets generated during and / or analyzed during the current study are available elsewhere (e.g., repository).
github.com/ewoutknoester/HerbivoryBrowsing

知识共享许可协议

Copyright © 2023 Knoester et al. This is an open access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.