Historical abundance of juvenile commercial fish in coastal habitats: Implications for fish habitat management in Canada     

《Marine Policy》2016

An important component of science-based fisheries policy is the provision of habitat adequate for population renewal. In Canada, the Fisheries Act pays little attention to managing fish habitat, and was further weakened by changes enacted in 2012. Specifically, determining the role of fish habitat in contributing to fisheries and fish stock recovery is challenging when many stocks have severely declined and no longer occupy former habitats. This study compared the abundance of juvenile fish in coastal vegetated habitats before and after collapse or decline of groundfish stocks in Atlantic Canada. This comparison was done by compiling past studies that surveyed juvenile Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) and pollock (Pollachius virens) in vegetated habitats across three provinces. Two studies were repeated, and one that already had post-collapse data was analyzed to quantify long-term changes in juvenile abundance. In all three cases substantial reduction in juvenile abundance coincided with declines in adult stocks. However, juvenile fish still occur in coastal habitats and could aid in adult stock recovery. The current version of the Canadian Fisheries Act requires presence of an ongoing fishery to trigger habitat protection. This is problematic as low fish abundance may lead to lowered habitat protection and potentially habitat degradation, with less or lesser-quality habitat for fish in the future. Thus, recommendations are made to repeal the 2012 Fisheries Act changes and enhance current fish habitat legislation. Using a precautionary approach for coastal fish habitat management, particularly in valuing its potential for fish stock recovery, would strengthen Canadian fisheries management.  相似文献   

Atlantic humpback dolphins Sousa teuszii in the Saloum Delta (Senegal): distribution,relative abundance and photo-identification     

CR Weir 《African Journal of Marine Science》2016,38(3):385-394

During October and November 2015, the first systematic survey of Sousa teuszii was carried out in the Saloum Delta (Senegal, West Africa), comprising 1 617.5 km of boat-based survey coverage. Thirty sightings were recorded in the Saloum and Diomboss rivers, and along the southern coastline. Dolphins were also observed entering the Bandiala and Djinack channels, and travelling across the border into Gambia. The initial sighting locations were 0.043–1.192 km from shore, and tracked dolphins did not move more than 2.082 km from shore. Groups comprised 1–29 animals (mean 9.3 animals), and at least three neonate calves were observed during November. The overall relative abundance was 0.018 sight. km^?1 and 0.175 ind. km^?1. Sightings were concentrated in the Diomboss where relative abundance reached 0.037 sight. km^?1 and 0.331 ind. km^?1. Non-intensive photo-identification produced a minimum population size of 103 animals, the highest recorded for S. teuszii anywhere in its range. Photo-identification also confirmed a movement of individuals between different parts of the Saloum Delta. Combined travel–forage dominated the behaviour. Dolphins were photographed capturing mullet (Mugil sp.) on three occasions. The distribution, population size and movements of S. teuszii are discussed in relation to management.  相似文献   

基于ArcGIS ModelBuilder的洞庭湖区钉螺孳生环境圈定     

贺秋华  余德清  邹娟 《测绘与空间地理信息》2016,(3):176-177

洞庭湖区钉螺孳生环境与湖草、离岸距离、洲滩高程等有关,利用ArcGIS ModelBuilder建模方法对1987~2014年27年间5期遥感影像解译成果进行空间分析并划分不同级别的孳生环境,大大简化了操作流程,提高了工作效率和准确性。  相似文献   

Planning restoration in human-modified landscapes: New insights linking different scales     

《Applied geography (Sevenoaks, England)》2017

The transformation of tropical ecosystems by humans have resulted in forest loss, which, in turn, have caused negative impacts on biodiversity and the provisioning of ecosystem services. There is an urgent need to plan the restoration of these human-modified landscapes, using methodological approaches that consider key processes occurring at different spatial scales while engage local community participation, offering them the best possibilities of tangible benefits. In this study, was evaluated the landscape spatial pattern and local conservation status of existing forest remnants, showing an analysis of possible restoration scenarios for a human-modified landscape in La Montaña, an indigenous region in southwestern Mexico. Therefore, landscape and local scale approaches were linked to identify specific landscape elements where efforts to improve connectivity must be concentrated. Also, this approach allowed finding a set of species from reference sites that showed the best socioecological characteristics to be used in different restoration strategies. As expected, La Montaña region showed a spatial pattern typical of highly human-modified landscapes, i.e., several small (<21 ha) and irregular forest remnants with strong forest edge effects. Furthermore, these small and irregular forest fragments displayed forest structure, diversity and composition characteristics similar to those communities disturbed by selective harvesting or in an early successional phase. However, about 100 of woody species were found inside the fragments, some with important potential to provide ecosystem services. The landscape connectivity was very low, and an analysis of possible restoration scenarios showed that is equally important to restore the productive areas as well as open forest, to recover up to 47% of landscape connectivity. In this sense, it was proposed a productive restoration strategy to enrich open forests and create biodiversity-friendly habitat in agricultural areas, using species with high socioecological potential. We believe that the same approach could be applied to other highly human-modified tropical landscapes with similar socioecological problems.  相似文献   

Quantitative assessment of the area of shallow habitat for fish on the Swedish west coast     

Stal  Johan; Pihl  Leif 《ICES Journal of Marine Science》2007,64(3):446-452

  相似文献   

Ecological indicators based on fish biomass distribution along trophic levels: an application to the Terminos coastal lagoon, Mexico     

Sosa-Lopez  Atahualpa; Mouillot  David; Do Chi  Thang; Ramos-Miranda  Julia 《ICES Journal of Marine Science》2005,62(3):453-458

  相似文献   

Quality of coastal and estuarine essential fish habitats: estimations based on the size of juvenile common sole (Solea solea L.)     

O. Le Pape  J. Holley  D. Gurault  Y. Dsaunay 《Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science》2003,58(4):793-803

Survival and growth of early fish stages are maximal in coastal and estuarine habitats where natural shallow areas serve as nurseries for a variety of widely distributed species on the continental shelf. Processes occurring in these nursery grounds during the juvenile stage affect growth and may be important in regulating the year-class strength of fishes and population size. The need, therefore, exists to protect these essential fish habitats hence to develop indicators to estimate their quality.The purpose of the present study was to use the growth of juvenile sole as a means of comparing the quality of coastal and estuarine nursery habitats in the Bay of Biscay (France). These sole nurseries were clearly identified from studies based on trawl surveys carried out during the last two decades. The size of 1-group juveniles at the end of their second summer, as estimated from these surveys, is an indicator of growth in these habitats during the juvenile phase and can be used to compare habitat quality. A model taking into account the role of seawater temperature in spatial and interannual variations of juvenile size was developed to compare growth performance in the different nursery sectors.This study shows that the size of juvenile sole after two summers of life is not density-dependent, probably because the size of the population adapts to habitat capacity after high mortality during early-juvenile stages. Size is on one hand positively related to temperature and on the other hand higher in estuarine than in non-estuarine habitats. This high growth potential of juvenile fish in estuarine areas confirms the very important role played by estuaries as nursery grounds and the essential ecological interest of these limited areas in spite of their low water quality. If a general conclusion on habitat quality is to be reached about studies based on the growth of juvenile fish, it is necessary to use not only an integrative indicator of growth, like size, representative of the intrinsic habitat quality, but also more sensitive and less integrative means, such as otolith increments or caging experiments, which better respond to anthropogenic disturbance. Moreover, it is necessary to take juvenile densities into account.  相似文献   

Trophic Structure and Community Composition of Polychaetes Inhabiting Some Sabellaria alveolata (L.) Reefs Along the Valencia Gulf Coast, Western Mediterranean     

R. Porras    J. V. Bataller    E. Murgui  M. T. Torregrosa 《Marine Ecology》1996,17(4):583-602

  相似文献   

Habitat association of plaice, sole, and lemon sole in the English Channel   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Hinz  Hilmar; Bergmann  Melanie; Shucksmith  Richard; Kaiser  Michel J.; Rogers  Stuart I. 《ICES Journal of Marine Science》2006,63(5):912-927

  相似文献   

A Benthic Terrain Classification Scheme for American Samoa   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Emily R. Lundblad  Dawn J. Wright  Joyce Miller  Emily M. Larkin  Ronald Rinehart  David F. Naar  Brian T. Donahue  S. Miles Anderson  Tim Battista 《Marine Geodesy》2006,29(2):89-111

Coral reef ecosystems, the most varied on earth, continually face destruction from anthropogenic and natural threats. The U.S. Coral Reef Task Force seeks to characterize and map priority coral reef ecosystems in the U.S./Trust Territories by 2009. Building upon NOAA Biogeography shallow-water classifications based on Ikonos imagery, presented here are new methods, based on acoustic data, for classifying benthic terrain below 30 m, around Tutuila, American Samoa. The result is a new classification scheme for American Samoa that extends and improves the NOAA Biogeography scheme, which, although developed for Pacific island nations and territories, is only applicable to a maximum depth of 30 m, due to the limitations of satellite imagery. The scheme may be suitable for developing habitat maps pinpointing high biodiversity around coral reefs throughout the western Pacific.  相似文献