Why the size structure of marine communities can require decades to recover from fishing

Marine Ecology Progress Series

David G. Reid¹  Tak Fung¹  Keith D. Farnsworth¹  Samuel Shephard¹  Axel G. Rossberg¹ 

关键词: Ecosystem approach to fisheries management;    Food-web;    Resilience;    Dynamic model;    Fisheries indicators;    Extinction;    Species richness;   

DOI  :  10.3354/meps10305

学科分类：海洋学与技术

来源: Inter-Research

【 摘 要 】

ABSTRACT: A dynamic food-web model of more than 1000 species was used to quantify the recovery trajectory of marine community size-structure under different hypothetical fishing regimes, using the Northeast Atlantic as an example. Size-structure was summarised by 4 indicators: the Large Fish Indicator (LFI), the Large Species Indicator (LSI), the biomass-weighted mean maximum length of fish species (L_max) and the biomass-weighted mean maturation length of fish species (L_mat). Time-series of these indicators recorded recovery following release from fishing with various size-selectivities, intensities and durations. In model simulations, fishing-induced trophic cascades were observed to distort fish community size-structure, but these did not have a large influence on recovery level or duration as measured by the 4 indicators. However, simulations showed that local extinctions of large fish species increased in number with both fishing intensity and duration, and could strongly limit the recovery level. Recovery of fish community size-structure to near equilibrium frequently took multiple decades in simulations; these long transient periods suggest that management interventions for size-structure recovery may require much longer than previously thought. Our results demonstrate the need for community-level modelling to set realistic targets for management of community size-structure.

【 授权许可】

Unknown