External fishing effort regulates positive effects of no-take marine protected areas

Ziegler, Shelby L.; Brooks, Rachel O.; Hamilton, Scott L.; Ruttenberg, Benjamin I.; Chiu, Jennifer A.; Fields, Ryan T.; Waltz, Grant T.; Shen, Chenchen; Wendt, Dean E.; Starr, Richard M.

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109546

Cited by 15 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…In cases where MPAs do not confer ecological resilience to marine heatwaves, it is important to note that the capacity of MPAs to harbor higher biomass than unprotected sites can still be maintained (Frid et al, 2023). Other studies have documented increases in targeted species biomass inside of MPAs within this system, which is a focal MPA conservation objective (Caselle et al, 2015; Hamilton et al, 2010; Ziegler et al, 2022). Similar responses to the marine heatwave in southern California fish communities were reported by Freedman et al (2020), who found that non‐targeted subtropical species were most responsible for community reorganization.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

A marine protected area network does not confer community structure resilience to a marine heatwave across coastal ecosystems

Smith

Free

Lopazanski

et al. 2023

Global Change Biology

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Marine protected areas (MPAs) have gained attention as a conservation tool for enhancing ecosystem resilience to climate change. However, empirical evidence explicitly linking MPAs to enhanced ecological resilience is limited and mixed. To better understand whether MPAs can buffer climate impacts, we tested the resistance and recovery of marine communities to the 2014–2016 Northeast Pacific heatwave in the largest scientifically designed MPA network in the world off the coast of California, United States. The network consists of 124 MPAs (48 no‐take state marine reserves, and 76 partial‐take or special regulation conservation areas) implemented at different times, with full implementation completed in 2012. We compared fish, benthic invertebrate, and macroalgal community structure inside and outside of 13 no‐take MPAs across rocky intertidal, kelp forest, shallow reef, and deep reef nearshore habitats in California's Central Coast region from 2007 to 2020. We also explored whether MPA features, including age, size, depth, proportion rock, historic fishing pressure, habitat diversity and richness, connectivity, and fish biomass response ratios (proxy for ecological performance), conferred climate resilience for kelp forest and rocky intertidal habitats spanning 28 MPAs across the full network. Ecological communities dramatically shifted due to the marine heatwave across all four nearshore habitats, and MPAs did not facilitate habitat‐wide resistance or recovery. Only in protected rocky intertidal habitats did community structure significantly resist marine heatwave impacts. Community shifts were associated with a pronounced decline in the relative proportion of cold water species and an increase in warm water species. MPA features did not explain resistance or recovery to the marine heatwave. Collectively, our findings suggest that MPAs have limited ability to mitigate the impacts of marine heatwaves on community structure. Given that mechanisms of resilience to climate perturbations are complex, there is a clear need to expand assessments of ecosystem‐wide consequences resulting from acute climate‐driven perturbations, and the potential role of regulatory protection in mitigating community structure changes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

A marine protected area network does not confer community structure resilience to a marine heatwave across coastal ecosystems

Smith

Free

Lopazanski

et al. 2023

Global Change Biology

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“…The number of fixed grid cells delineated at each site varied based on the amount of suitable habitat in the designated depth range (22 at Año Nuevo, 17 at Point Lobos, 57 at Piedras Blancas and 22 at Point Buchon across both MPA and reference sites). For each sampling day (n = 6 per year), we randomly selected four 500 × 500 m sampling grid cells at each site (n = 12 for each MPA or reference site per year) 69 , 70 . Within each grid cell, CPFV captains selected three suitable locations to conduct 15-min fishing drifts.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marine protected areas, marine heatwaves, and the resilience of nearshore fish communities

Ziegler

Johnson

Brooks

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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Anthropogenic stressors from climate change can affect individual species, community structure, and ecosystem function. Marine heatwaves (MHWs) are intense thermal anomalies where water temperature is significantly elevated for five or more days. Climate projections suggest an increase in the frequency and severity of MHWs in the coming decades. While there is evidence that marine protected areas (MPAs) may be able to buffer individual species from climate impacts, there is not sufficient evidence to support the idea that MPAs can mitigate large-scale changes in marine communities in response to MHWs. California experienced an intense MHW and subsequent El Niño Southern Oscillation event from 2014 to 2016. We sought to examine changes in rocky reef fish communities at four MPAs and associated reference sites in relation to the MHW. We observed a decline in taxonomic diversity and a profound shift in trophic diversity inside and outside MPAs following the MHW. However, MPAs seemed to dampen the loss of trophic diversity and in the four years following the MHW, taxonomic diversity recovered 75% faster in the MPAs compared to reference sites. Our results suggest that MPAs may contribute to long-term resilience of nearshore fish communities through both resistance to change and recovery from warming events.

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“…Well enforced, no‐take CAs have repeatedly been shown to be more effective conservation tools than partially protected areas or areas that lack sufficient enforcement (Giakoumi et al, 2017; Sala & Giakoumi, 2018; Ziegler et al, 2022). Our results on the amount of ongoing fishing in Canada's Pacific CAs, which are highly conservative based on detection limitations, signify that some of these areas likely need further regulation and enforcement to achieve conservation goals (see also Iacarella et al, 2023).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of AIS‐ and flyover‐based methods to monitor illegal and legal fishing in Canada's Pacific marine conservation areas

Iacarella

Burke

Clyde

et al. 2023

Conservat Sci and Prac

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New approaches are required to undertake the substantial task of monitoring ongoing fishing activity in marine conservation areas to ensure conservation goals are achieved. To address this need, we applied previously developed, yet currently underused, vessel tracking methods based on Automatic Identification System (AIS) and aerial surveillance (“flyovers”) to Canada's Pacific marine conservation areas from 2012 to 2019. We used satellite and terrestrial‐based AIS receivers and flyover‐based visual observations to estimate illegal and legal fishing activity after 185 conservation area (CA) enactments (i.e., static, geographically defined areas with fishing regulations). We compared the effectiveness in detecting fishing activity between the AIS‐ and flyover‐based methods, and used the latter to determine that 93% of vessels were actively fishing in CAs without AIS. The AIS‐based method still detected 3303 h of fishing in CAs after enactment, and both methods estimated 22%–24% of fishing activity in CAs was illegal. The application of these methods also shed light on the complexity of fishing regulations across CAs (i.e., varying and CA‐specific restrictions). This highlighted the need to better align vessel tracking fishing gear classifications with CA regulation specifications, and conversely to simplify regulations (e.g., no‐take), for more accurate monitoring and evaluation moving forward.

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External fishing effort regulates positive effects of no-take marine protected areas

Cited by 15 publications

References 48 publications

A marine protected area network does not confer community structure resilience to a marine heatwave across coastal ecosystems

A marine protected area network does not confer community structure resilience to a marine heatwave across coastal ecosystems

Marine protected areas, marine heatwaves, and the resilience of nearshore fish communities

Application of AIS‐ and flyover‐based methods to monitor illegal and legal fishing in Canada's Pacific marine conservation areas

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