Building Coral Reef Resilience Through Spatial Herbivore Management

Chung, Anne Elizabeth; Wedding, Lisa M.; Green, Alison L.; Friedlander, Alan M.; Goldberg, Grace; Meadows, Amber; Hixon, Mark A.

doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00098

Cited by 45 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 92 publications

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“…The state of Hawaiʻi developed a coral bleaching recovery plan following the mass‐bleaching event to support coral recovery. The plan calls for the establishment of a network of permanent no‐take MPAs and a network of herbivore fishery management areas to enhance the ability of Hawaiʻi's reefs to resist and recover from increasingly frequent climate disturbances (Chung et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Characteristics of effective marine protected areas in Hawaiʻi

Friedlander

Donovan

Koike

et al. 2019

Aquatic Conservation

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Ancient Hawaiians developed sophisticated natural resource management systems that included various forms of spatial management. The state of Hawaiʻi established its first legislated marine protected area (MPA) in 1953, and today there exists a patchwork of spatial marine management strategies along a range of sizes, with varying levels of governance, enforcement, and effectiveness. Approximately 12% of waters within the 50 m depth contour and 5% of waters within state jurisdiction (≤3 nmi) have some form of marine management. No‐take areas make up <0.5% of nearshore waters, and combined with highly protected areas account for 3.4% of this habitat. Most of the existing MPAs are small, with a median area of 1.2 km2 (confidence interval 0.2–8.1). Twenty‐five datasets, representing 1,031 individual surveys conducted throughout Hawaiʻi since 2000, were used to compare fish assemblage characteristics amongst a subset of MPAs using a regulation‐based protection classification scheme. Fully and highly protected areas had significantly greater resource fish biomass than areas with intermediate or low protection did. High human population density adjacent to MPAs had a negative influence on fish trophic structure within MPAs, whereas remote MPAs harboured higher fish biomass. Complex and heterogeneous habitats were important contributors to MPA effectiveness. Long‐term monitoring of select MPAs showed mixed and complex trajectories. Resource fish biomass increased after the establishment of the Hanauma Bay Marine Life Conservation District in 1967 but plateaued after ~15 years, followed by changes in assemblage structure from fish feeding and invasive species. The Pūpūkea Marine Life Conservation District, established in 1983, was expanded sevenfold in 2003 and showed dramatic increases in resource fish biomass following increased protection. This information is critical to improving effectiveness of existing MPAs, helping inform ongoing efforts to implement a network of MPAs statewide, and aiding in the development of comprehensive statewide marine spatial planning.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…MPAs and a network of herbivore fishery management areas to enhance the ability of Hawaiʻi's reefs to resist and recover from increasingly frequent climate disturbances (Chung et al, 2019).…”

Section: Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics of effective marine protected areas in Hawaiʻi

Friedlander

Donovan

Koike

et al. 2019

Aquatic Conservation

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“…Parrotfishes are important agents of reef bioerosion, sediment generation and sediment transport (Mallela and Fox 2018), all of which are significant drivers of reef geomorphology (Perry et al 2015;Morgan and Kench 2016). In light of their perceived importance to coral reef health, bans on fishing for herbivores, particularly parrotfishes, have been introduced and herbivore management areas (HMA) have been proposed to mitigate macroalgal dominance (Mumby 2006;Chung et al 2019;Williams et al 2019). The view that parrotfish are critical to coral reef ecosystems carries assumptions about their feeding behaviour and diet.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resolving resource partitioning in parrotfishes (Scarini) using microhistology of feeding substrata

Nicholson

Clements

2020

Coral Reefs

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Parrotfishes (Scarini) are considered key agents in coral reef health and recovery, but the drivers of parrotfish-coral dynamics remain contentious. The prevailing view of parrotfishes as ecosystem engineers is based on the perceived removal of algal turf, macroalgae and sediment, but these are effects of feeding, not causes. The recent proposal that most parrotfishes are 'microphages' that target microscopic photoautotrophs (particularly cyanobacteria) identifies the need to resolve dietary targets at a microscopic scale. Here, we investigate parrotfish dietary targets by posing the following two questions: (1) are microscopic photoautotrophs the most consistent and dominant elements of the prey community, and (2) do the prey community and substratum taphonomy vary between parrotfish species? In order to identify and quantify dietary targets, five parrotfish species were followed until focused feeding was observed at Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Feeding sites were photographed in situ and extracted as substratum bite cores. Cores were analysed microscopically to identify and quantify all epilithic photoautotrophs. Endolithic photoautotrophs accessible to excavating parrotfish were also investigated by vacuumembedding cores with epoxy resin followed by decalcification to expose endolith microborings. The dominant functional groups of epilithic biota on the cores were tufted cyanobacteria, turfing algae and crustose coralline algae (CCA). The only consistent feature across all cores was the high density of filamentous cyanobacteria, supporting the view that these parrotfishes target microphotoautotrophs. Macroalgae was absent or a minor component on cores, supporting the hypothesis that parrotfishes avoid larger algae. The microchlorophyte Ostreobium was the dominant photoautotrophic euendolith (true borer) in the cores of the excavating parrotfish Chlorurus microrhinos. Significant differences in CCA coverage, turf height and substrate taphonomy were found among the five parrotfish species, suggesting that interspecific resource partitioning is based on successional stage of feeding substrata.

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“…Conservation of reef corals in Hawaii also would benefit by implementing more stringent size regulations for parrotfishes (Chung, Oliver, et al, ). The KHFMA example represents a case in which local impact is being fuelled by local anthropogenic nutrient input (Kelly et al, ), but larger‐scale spatial protection of herbivores is now generally recognized capable of more expansive improvements in algal–coral relations (Chung, Wedding, et al, ).…”

Section: Future Research and Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hazards of managing disparate species as a pooled complex: A general problem illustrated by two contrasting examples from Hawaii

DeMartini

2019

Fish and Fisheries

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Surprisingly little published information exists on the pros and cons of managing extracted resources that are pooled as compound taxa such as species complexes. Current fisheries management includes many species complexes; in Hawaii, this includes two taxa of species pooled at subfamily and higher levels. These include seven species of parrotfishes (Scarinae, Labridae) and a seven‐species ‘bottomfish’ complex (the ‘Deep‐7’: comprising six species of snappers [Etelinae, Lutjanidae] and a single species of grouper [Epinephelidae]). Recent research on key vital rates (growth, reproduction) for major species in both taxa indicates that these complexes consist of species with disparate life histories. Species in the parrotfish taxon exhibit fast to very fast growth and short to moderate longevities, whilst Deep‐7 bottomfishes exhibit moderate to very slow growth and long to very long lifespans. These data clearly indicate that, although pooling species is a tempting default option in data‐poor situations, it is at best a necessary evil to be avoided when sufficient data on the demographics of component species become available. Pooling species is especially problematic when the ecosystem effects of extracting functionally dominant species should be an important management consideration in addition to that of species demographics. Assessments that recognize and quantify the ecosystem importance of habitat engineers and other ecological dominants could substantively improve management of species complexes. Ultimately, complexes of resource species need to be evaluated and managed based on many, sometimes conflicting and sometimes reinforcing, but always careful considerations such as those contrasted herein between the parrotfishes and bottomfishes of Hawaii.

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Building Coral Reef Resilience Through Spatial Herbivore Management

Cited by 45 publications

References 92 publications

Characteristics of effective marine protected areas in Hawaiʻi

Characteristics of effective marine protected areas in Hawaiʻi

Resolving resource partitioning in parrotfishes (Scarini) using microhistology of feeding substrata

Hazards of managing disparate species as a pooled complex: A general problem illustrated by two contrasting examples from Hawaii

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