Evaluating demersal fish richness as a surrogate for epibenthic richness in management and conservation

Hewitt, Judi E.; Wang, Dong; Francis, Malcolm P.; Lundquist, Carolyn J.; Duffy, Clinton

doi:10.1111/ddi.12336

Cited by 13 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Boosted regression trees Supervised Costa et al, 2014;Hewitt et al, 2015 Classification rule with unbiased interaction selection and estimation Supervised Ierodiaconou et al, 2011 Discriminant function analysis Supervised Degraer et al, 2008 Ecological niche factor analysis Supervised Tong et al, 2012;Sánchez-Carnero et al, 2016 Fuzzy k-means Unsupervised Falace et al, 2015 Generalized additive model Supervised Schmiing et al, 2013;Touria et al, 2015 Generalized Quick, unbiased, efficient tree Supervised Ierodiaconou et al, 2011;Hasan et al, 2012 Random forest Both Hasan et al, 2012;Diesing et al, 2014;Piechaud et al, 2015 Support vector machine Supervised Hasan et al, 2012 Frontiers in Marine Science | www.frontiersin.orgFIGURE 2 | Example of how different methods can produce different outcomes. The input data were bathymetric data, backscatter data, and topographic data (i.e., slope, easterness, northerness, and relative deviation from mean value) (see Lecours et al, 2016b).…”

Section: Supervised/unsupervised Examplesmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Use of Maps and Models in Conservation and Resource Management (Warning: Results May Vary)

Lecours

2017

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Conservation planning and management typically require accurate and spatially explicit data at scales that are relevant for conservation objectives. In marine conservation, these data are often combined with spatial analytical techniques to produce marine habitat maps. While marine habitat mapping is increasingly used to inform conservation efforts, this field is still relatively young and its methods are rapidly evolving. Because conservation efforts do not always specify standards or guidelines for the production of habitat maps, results can vary dramatically. As representations of real environmental characteristics, habitat maps are highly sensitive to how they are produced. In this review paper, I present four concepts that are known to cause variation in spatial representation and prediction of habitats: the methodology used, the quality and scale of the data, and the choice of variables in regards to fitness for use. I then discuss the potential antinomy associated with the use of habitat maps in conservation: while habitat maps have become an invaluable tool to inform and assist decision-making, maps of the same area built using different methods and data may provide dissimilar representations, thus providing different information and possibly leading to different decisions. Exploring the theories and methods that have proved effective in terrestrial conservation and the spatial sciences, and how they can be integrated in marine habitat mapping practices, could help improve maps used to support marine conservation efforts and result in more reliable products to inform conservation decisions. Having a strong, consistent, transparent, repeatable, and science-based protocol for data collection and mapping is essential for effectively supporting decision-makers in developing conservation and management plans. The development of user-friendly tools to assist in the application of such protocol is crucial to a widespread improvement in practices. I discuss the potential to use interactive and collaborative Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to encourage the conservation and management community, from data collectors and mapmakers to decision-makers, to move toward a digital resilience and to develop such science-based protocol. Until standards and protocols are developed, habitat maps should always be interpreted with care, and the methods and metadata associated with their production should always be explicitly stated.

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Section: Supervised/unsupervised Examplesmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Use of Maps and Models in Conservation and Resource Management (Warning: Results May Vary)

Lecours

2017

Front. Mar. Sci.

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“…However, only a few studies on beta diversity patterns in marine demersal fish assemblages have been conducted (e.g., Anderson et al 2013;Zintzen et al 2017;Vega-Cendejas and Santillana 2019). Moreover, knowledge of the small-scale spatial heterogeneity of demersal fish assemblages and environmental settings in coastal-offshore environments is important for creating management and conservation strategies operating at a range of scales (Chang et al 2012;Hewitt et al 2015;Amezcua et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multivariate analysis of the spatial species diversity of demersal fish assemblages in relation to habitat characteristics in a subtropical national park, Taiwan

Chen

et al. 2021

Mar. Biodivers.

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To understand the spatial species diversity of demersal fish assemblages in Taijiang National Park (TJNP) of Taiwan, fishes from 44 demersal trawl hauls and environmental data were collected in the nearshore and offshore areas of TJNP from April 2016 to May 2019. In total, fishes of 47 families, 84 genera, and 113 species were recorded. The nearshore and offshore demersal fish assemblages in TJNP exhibited significant variability in species composition assessed via beta diversity. Using distance-based redundancy analysis, we demonstrated that bottom depth and substrate type were significant explanatory variables of spatial species diversity and identified three habitat types (I: shallow soft bottom; II: deeper soft bottom; III: deeper bottom with mixed sand and gravel substrates). The nearshore assemblage was characterized by type I, where Tarphops oligolepis (flounder), Trachinocephalus myops (snakefish), and Liachirus melanospilos (carpet sole) dominated in terms of abundance. The offshore assemblage was characterized by either type II or type III because differences in substrate types among sampling sites were noticeable. At the offshore sites characterized by a deeper soft bottom (type II), Johnius distinctus (croaker), Cynoglossus kopsii (shortheaded tonguesole), and Coelorinchus formosanus (Formosa grenadier) predominated. In contrast, the westernmost sampling site, characterized by type III habitat, exhibited relatively high Shannon indices, and Scorpaena miostoma (scorpionfish), Urolophus aurantiacus (sepia stingray), and Parabothus taiwanensis (lefteye flounder) predominated. Our results provide the first baseline information on the environmental characteristics and spatial species diversity of demersal fish assemblages in TJNP and have implications for biodiversity conservation in existing spatial management areas.

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“…; Beier & de Albuquerque ), other ecological components (e.g., use of demersal fish diversity to predict benthic diversity, Hewitt et al. ), and widespread species (Lennon et al. ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of time and species identities in spatial patterns of species richness and conservation

Hewitt

Thrush

Ellingsen

2016

Conservation Biology

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Many conservation actions are justified on the basis of managing biodiversity. Biodiversity, in terms of species richness, is largely the product of rare species. This is problematic because the intensity of sampling needed to characterize communities and patterns of rarity or to justify the use of surrogates has biased sampling in favor of space over time. However, environmental fluctuations interacting with community dynamics lead to temporal variations in where and when species occur, potentially affecting conservation planning by generating uncertainty about results of species distribution modeling (including range determinations), selection of surrogates for biodiversity, and the proportion of biodiversity composed of rare species. To have confidence in the evidence base for conservation actions, one must consider whether temporal replication is necessary to produce broad inferences. Using approximately 20 years of macrofaunal data from tidal flats in 2 harbors, we explored variation in the identity of rare, common, restricted range, and widespread species over time and space. Over time, rare taxa were more likely to increase in abundance or occurrence than to remain rare or disappear and to exhibit temporal patterns in their occurrence. Space-time congruency in ranges (i.e., spatially widespread taxa were also temporally widespread) was observed only where samples were collected across an environmental gradient. Fifteen percent of the taxa in both harbors changed over time from having spatially restricted ranges to having widespread ranges. Our findings suggest that rare species can provide stability against environmental change, because the majority of species were not random transients, but that selection of biodiversity surrogates requires temporal validation. Rarity needs to be considered both spatially and temporally, as species that occur randomly over time are likely to play a different role in ecosystem functioning than those exhibiting temporal structure (e.g., seasonality). Moreover, temporal structure offers the opportunity to place management and conservation activities within windows of maximum opportunity.

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Evaluating demersal fish richness as a surrogate for epibenthic richness in management and conservation

Cited by 13 publications

References 63 publications

On the Use of Maps and Models in Conservation and Resource Management (Warning: Results May Vary)

On the Use of Maps and Models in Conservation and Resource Management (Warning: Results May Vary)

Multivariate analysis of the spatial species diversity of demersal fish assemblages in relation to habitat characteristics in a subtropical national park, Taiwan

The role of time and species identities in spatial patterns of species richness and conservation

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