Journal Article

Multidecadal changes in fish composition and traits diversity in a marine park in the Gulf of California

Saldívar-Lucio, Romeo, Olivier, Damien, Reyes-Bonilla, Hector

2022

Overview

No-take marine reserves allow overexploited fish populations to rebound. However, whether the resilience level of the community may recover is an open question. A community’s resilience to disturbances depends on the diversity of the species’ traits. We analyzed reef fish assemblages over 30 years in a no-take marine reserve to determine whether the fish composition and its ecological traits structure recovered after protection. We selected the National Park of Cabo Pulmo in the Gulf of California (Mexico), which is a model marine protected area because of its good management. From 1987 to 2017, fish assemblages were monitored to quantify species richness, density, and evenness. The ecological traits structure of the assemblages was computed using the traits richness, dispersion, and redundancy. We observed three distinct phases: (i) a decline period from 1987 to 1998 during which the species richness and fish density severely decreased due to resources exploitation and coral reef damage; (ii) a fish density recovery period following the creation of the reserve from 1998 to 2011; and (iii) a mature period where fish assemblages appear to be stable. However, during the fish recovery period, the fish composition changed. Some species became highly dominant while other species that were abundant during the pre-disturbance period did not recuperate. Thus, the fish assemblages’ evenness, traits dispersion, and traits redundancy decreased during the recovery period before stabilizing, probably decreasing the resilience ability of the community. Although Cabo Pulmo marine park is a success story since the fish density recovered, the prohibition of resource extraction alone did not restore the past resilience level of the fish assemblages, which may make them more vulnerable to future environmental disturbances.

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands,Springer,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Analysis / Animal population / Biodiversity / Biological monitoring / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts / Coastal and marine biodiversity / Composition / Conservation Biology/Ecology / Coral reefs / Coral reefs and islands / Density / Dispersion / Disturbances / Ecology / Ecosystem disturbance / Exploitation / Fish / Fish populations / Fishery conservation / Fishes / Life Sciences / Marine fishes / Marine invertebrates / Marine parks / Marine protected areas / National parks / National parks and reserves / Natural areas / Original Paper / Prohibition / Protected areas / Protection and preservation / Recovery / Redundancy / Reef fish / Reef fishes / Resilience / Species diversity / Species richness / Stabilizing