Effectiveness of habitat classes as surrogates for biodiversity in marine reserve planning

Abstract

Surrogates are used in marine conservation planning when there is limited information on the distribution of biodiversity, and representation of species and assemblage diversity are conservation goals. With prior confirmation of their relationship to spatial variation in biodiversity, habitat classification schemes are a potentially useful surrogate. Polychaetes can comprise over one‐third of species of benthic infaunal assemblages, they are the most frequent and abundant marine metazoans in benthic environments, and they are a reliable surrogate for other macrobenthic taxa. It was tested whether polychaete biodiversity differed among six estuarine habitat classes defined for conservation planning in the Port Stephens–Great Lakes Marine Park, New South Wales, Australia: subtidal sand, mud, muddy sand, and seagrass beds comprising Posidonia australis, Zostera capricorni and mixed Posidonia/Zostera. Polychaetes were sampled from replicate sites in each habitat and differences among habitat classes in species richness, abundance, and assemblage structure were examined. Several environmental variables, known to be important determinants of polychaete distribution, were also quantified at each site. Ninety‐five species of polychaetes (belonging to 35 families) were identified. Species richness and abundance did not differ among the habitat classes. Polychaete assemblages of subtidal sand differed from assemblages in both mud and muddy sand, however, assemblages in all other habitats were not different. A combination of some of the measured environmental variables (distance to the estuary entrance, depth, sediment grain size) was a more important determinant of assemblage variation than the habitat classes. Using these predictors, an alternative habitat classification scheme to the scheme currently utilized in marine park planning is proposed. This study demonstrates the critical importance of testing assumptions about surrogacy and an approach for refining surrogates. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Understanding the Spatial and Temporal Distribution and Environmental Characteristics of Polychaete Assemblages in the Coastal Waters of Ulleungdo, East Sea of Korea

“…Polychaetes adapt to various environments and can survive even in extreme conditions and play a major role in interpreting ecosystem functions. Furthermore, polychaetes have been successfully used for estimating the diversity of benthic communities [48][49][50][51].…”

Intensive temporal and spatial sampling of polychaete biodiversity reveals significant implications for impact assessment and marine park design

“…A Beyond BACI design with a range of potential before and after times and numbers of reference sites was assessed to determine the statistical power to detect impacts on polychaetes. Dixon-Bridges et al, 2014;Edgar & Barrett, 2002), sabellariid reefs (Cole & Chapman, 2007) and oceanic shelf environments (Grassle et al, 2009;Przeslawski et al, 2013;Przeslawski et al, 2019). The generality of these patterns suggests that there is a wealth of small-scale variation associated with these assemblages and it is likely that this could be related to settlement, post-settlement mortality, predation and competition (Bergström et al, 2002;Thrush, 1991;Underwood et al, 2000).…”

Utilizing benthic habitat maps to inform biodiversity monitoring in marine protected areas

“…Defining whether specific ‘physical surrogates’ of biodiversity or ‘habitat types’ are correlated with benthos is thus a useful tool to support marine spatial planning and ecosystem‐based management because the physical environment can be more effectively mapped (e.g. Baker & Harris, ; Brown, Sameoto, & Smith, ; Cogan, Todd, Lawton, & Noji, ; Dixon‐Bridges, Hutchings, & Gladstone, ; Harris, Heap, Whiteway, & Post, ; Przeslawski et al, ; Roff & Taylor, ). Maps of physical surrogates are now commonly derived from acoustic instruments (e.g.…”