Reserve sizes needed to protect coral reef fishes
Krueck, Nils C., Legrand, Christelle, Ahmadia, Gabby N., Estradivari, Green, Alison, Jones, Geoffrey P., Riginos, Cynthia, Treml, Eric A., and Mumby, Peter J. (2018) Reserve sizes needed to protect coral reef fishes. Conservation Letters, 11 (3). e12415.
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Abstract
Marine reserves are a commonly applied conservation tool, but their size is often chosen based on considerations of socioeconomic rather than ecological impact. Here, we use a simple individual-based model together with the latest empirical information on home ranges, densities and schooling behaviour in 66 coral reef fishes to quantify the conservation effectiveness of various reserve sizes. We find that standard reserves with a diameter of 1-2 km can achieve partial protection (50% of the maximum number of individuals) of 56% of all simulated species. Partial protection of the most important fishery species, and of species with diverse functional roles, required 2-10 km wide reserves. Full protection of nearly all simulated species required 100 km wide reserves. Linear regressions based on the mean home range and density, and even just the maximum length, of fish species approximated these results reliably, and can therefore be used to support locally effective decision making.
| Item ID: | 54444 |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 1755-263X |
| Keywords: | conservation, coral reefs, fisheries management, home range, marine reserve network, marine protected areas: MPAs |
| Copyright Information: | © 2017 The Authors. Conservation Letters published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Funders: | Australian Research Council (ARC), World Wildlife Fund Indonesia (WWF - Indo), World Bank Group (WBG), University of Queensland, Global Environment Facility |
| Projects and Grants: | ARC LP120200245, WBG - Grant Number: Capturing Coral Reef & Related Ecosystem Services, WWF - Indo LP120200245 |
| Date Deposited: | 04 Jul 2018 08:00 |
| FoR Codes: | 41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4104 Environmental management > 410401 Conservation and biodiversity @ 100% |
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