Reproductive benefits of no-take marine reserves vary with region for an exploited coral reef fish

Carter, A.B., Davies, C.R., Emslie, M.J., Mapstone, B.D., Russ, G.R., Tobin, A.J., and Williams, A.J. (2017) Reproductive benefits of no-take marine reserves vary with region for an exploited coral reef fish. Scientific Reports, 7. 9693. pp. 1-12.

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Abstract

No-take marine reserves (NTMRs) are expected to benefit fisheries via the net export of eggs and larvae (recruitment subsidy) from reserves to adjacent fished areas. Quantifying egg production is the first step in evaluating recruitment subsidy potential. We calculated annual egg production per unit area (EPUA) from 2004 to 2013 for the commercially important common coral trout, Plectropomus leopardus, on fished and NTMR reefs throughout the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia. Geographic region, NTMR status, fish size, and population density were all found to affect EPUA. The interactions among these factors were such that, EPUA on NTMR reefs compared to reefs open to fishing was 21% greater in the southern GBR, 152% greater in the central GBR, but 56% less in the northern GBR. The results show that while NTMRs can potentially provide a substantial recruitment subsidy (central GBR reefs), they may provide a far smaller subsidy (southern GBR), or serve as recruitment sinks (northern GBR) for the same species in nearby locations where demographic rates differ. This study highlights the importance of considering spatial variation in EPUA when assessing locations of NTMRs if recruitment subsidy is expected from them.

Item ID: 50217
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 2045-2322
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Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. © The Author(s) 2017

Funders: Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility, National Environmental Research Program, CRC Reef Research Centre, Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, James Cook University
Date Deposited: 14 Sep 2017 02:57
FoR Codes: 31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3103 Ecology > 310305 Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology) @ 100%
SEO Codes: 96 ENVIRONMENT > 9605 Ecosystem Assessment and Management > 960507 Ecosystem Assessment and Management of Marine Environments @ 100%
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