Towards pristine biomass: reef fish recovery in coral reef marine protected areas in Kenya

McClanahan, Tim R., Graham, Nicholas A.J., Calnan, Jacqulyn M., and MacNeil, M. Aaron (2007) Towards pristine biomass: reef fish recovery in coral reef marine protected areas in Kenya. Ecological Applications, 17 (4). pp. 1055-1067.

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Abstract

Identifying the rates of recovery of fish in no-take areas is fundamental to designing protected area networks, managing fisheries, estimating yields, identifying ecological interactions, and informing stakeholders about the outcomes of this management. Here we study the recovery of coral reef fishes through 37 years of protection using a space-for-time chronosequence of four marine national parks in Kenya. Using AIC model selection techniques, we assessed recovery trends using five ecologically meaningful production models: asymptotic, Ricker, logistic, linear, and exponential. There were clear recovery trends with time for species richness, total and size class density, and wet masses at the level of the taxonomic family. Species richness recovered rapidly to an asymptote at 10 years. The two main herbivorous families displayed differing responses to protection, scarids recovering rapidly, but then exhibiting some decline while acanthurids recovered more slowly and steadily throughout the study. Recovery of the two invertebrate-eating groups suggested competitive interactions over resources, with the labrids recovering more rapidly before a decline and the balistids demonstrating a slower logistic recovery. Remaining families displayed differing trends with time, with a general pattern of decline in smaller size classes or small-bodied species after an initial recovery, which suggests that some species- and size-related competitive and predatory control occurs in older closures. There appears to be an ecological succession of dominance with an initial rapid rise in labrids and scarids, followed by a slower rise in balistids and acanthurids, an associated decline in sea urchins, and an ultimate dominance in calcifying algae. Our results indicate that the unfished “equilibrium” biomass of the fish assemblage >10 cm is 1100–1200 kg/ha, but these small parks (<10 km2) are likely to underestimate pre-human influence values due to edge effects and the rarity of taxa with large area requirement, such as apex predators, including sharks.

Item ID: 8853
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1939-5582
Keywords: coral reef ecology; ecological interactions; ecological succession; fisheries closures; fisheries production; fisheries yields; indirect effects; marine reserves; marine protected areas; maximum sustained yield; MSY; spillover
Additional Information:

Reproduced with permission from Ecological Society of America (ESA).

Date Deposited: 09 Mar 2010 23:14
FoR Codes: 05 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 0502 Environmental Science and Management > 050205 Environmental Management @ 20%
07 AGRICULTURAL AND VETERINARY SCIENCES > 0704 Fisheries Sciences > 070403 Fisheries Management @ 40%
06 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 0602 Ecology > 060205 Marine and Estuarine Ecology (incl Marine Ichthyology) @ 40%
SEO Codes: 96 ENVIRONMENT > 9605 Ecosystem Assessment and Management > 960506 Ecosystem Assessment and Management of Fresh, Ground and Surface Water Environments @ 100%
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