Cardozo-Ferreira, Gabriel C., Mendes, Thiago C., Cordeiro, César A.M.M., Giglio, Vinicius J., Magris, Rafael A., Choat, John H., Clements, Kendall D., Eggertsen, Linda, Ferreira, Carlos E.L., and Francini-Filho, Ronaldo B. (2023) Comment on the article “Effect of human impact on coral reef herbivorous fish niche” by Leitão et al. (2023). Marine Biology, 170 (11). 145.

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Abstract

[Extract] Leitão et al. (2023) aimed to assess the effects of human impacts (namely overfishing) on the foraging niche of herbivorous reef fishes by comparing areas with different levels of protection in the largest coral reef complex in the South Atlantic: the Abrolhos Bank. The authors used video surveys, underwater visual censuses, and stable isotope analysis (SIA) to assess resource use and niche overlap among herbivorous fishes. Although the use of isotopic niche as a result of possible effects of anthropogenic disturbance (Post 2002; Vander Zanden et al. 2003), including overfishing (Frisch et al. 2014), is an interesting approach that can provide insightful information, the authors failed to account for differences in fish size and used a sampling strategy that may lead to dubious conclusions on marine protected area (MPA) effects.

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