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Are marine protected areas useful for the recovery of the Mediterranean mussel populations?

Are marine protected areas useful for the recovery of the Mediterranean mussel populations?
Are marine protected areas useful for the recovery of the Mediterranean mussel populations?
1. Mussel beds are important intertidal communities in the Mediterranean Sea and have traditionally been exploited by humans.

2. Marine protected areas are management tools for recovering over-fished populations, normally top predator populations, which may in turn undermine prey abundance. Therefore, mussel populations might not recover inside protected areas, as they are affected by increasing fish populations.

3. To study the effects of both human and fish predation on mussels, three locations were selected: the Reserve (R), where all types of exploitation were banned and fish were abundant; the Partial Reserve (PR), where only angling was permitted, and fish abundance was low; and the Non-Reserve (NR), where no protection existed and fish were rare.

4. Data from mussel bed surveys indicate that recruitment is critical to sustain mussel populations, and similar size structures were found at all three locations. However, the overall biomass in the PR was nearly double that in both R and NR, suggesting disturbance of some sort at these latter two sites.

5. A tethering experiment showed that fish predation greatly affected mussels in R, while the analysis of harvester collections from the NR showed that the most harvested size classes were those least abundant in the mussel bed.

6. Both protected and non-protected areas are unable to increase mussel populations due to trophic cascade effects, while partial reserves, where fish populations are exploited and mussels protected, are areas where the Mediterranean mussel populations can recover.
marine protected area, mytilus galloprovincialis, harvesting, fish predation, trophic cascades, mediterranean sea
1052-7613
527-540
Rius, Marc
c4e88345-4b4e-4428-b4b2-37229155f68d
Zabala, Mikel
1bcf0cd7-8dbb-4b87-8729-b50e0ab1ed99
Rius, Marc
c4e88345-4b4e-4428-b4b2-37229155f68d
Zabala, Mikel
1bcf0cd7-8dbb-4b87-8729-b50e0ab1ed99

Rius, Marc and Zabala, Mikel (2008) Are marine protected areas useful for the recovery of the Mediterranean mussel populations? Aquatic Conservation Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 18 (5), 527-540. (doi:10.1002/aqc.887).

Record type: Article

Abstract

1. Mussel beds are important intertidal communities in the Mediterranean Sea and have traditionally been exploited by humans.

2. Marine protected areas are management tools for recovering over-fished populations, normally top predator populations, which may in turn undermine prey abundance. Therefore, mussel populations might not recover inside protected areas, as they are affected by increasing fish populations.

3. To study the effects of both human and fish predation on mussels, three locations were selected: the Reserve (R), where all types of exploitation were banned and fish were abundant; the Partial Reserve (PR), where only angling was permitted, and fish abundance was low; and the Non-Reserve (NR), where no protection existed and fish were rare.

4. Data from mussel bed surveys indicate that recruitment is critical to sustain mussel populations, and similar size structures were found at all three locations. However, the overall biomass in the PR was nearly double that in both R and NR, suggesting disturbance of some sort at these latter two sites.

5. A tethering experiment showed that fish predation greatly affected mussels in R, while the analysis of harvester collections from the NR showed that the most harvested size classes were those least abundant in the mussel bed.

6. Both protected and non-protected areas are unable to increase mussel populations due to trophic cascade effects, while partial reserves, where fish populations are exploited and mussels protected, are areas where the Mediterranean mussel populations can recover.

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More information

e-pub ahead of print date: 12 November 2007
Published date: July 2008
Keywords: marine protected area, mytilus galloprovincialis, harvesting, fish predation, trophic cascades, mediterranean sea
Organisations: Ocean Biochemistry & Ecosystems, Marine Biology & Ecology

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 354688
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/354688
ISSN: 1052-7613
PURE UUID: 707c7acf-130f-437a-b622-4186b2c0f78a

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Date deposited: 17 Jul 2013 12:38
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 14:23

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Contributors

Author: Marc Rius
Author: Mikel Zabala

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