Environmental Drivers and Social Structure Features behind the Low Reproductive Success of Dusky Groupers Epinephelus marginatus (Lowe, 1834) in a Mediterranean Marine Protected Area
Por favor, use este identificador para citar o enlazar este ítem:
http://hdl.handle.net/10045/124192
Título: | Environmental Drivers and Social Structure Features behind the Low Reproductive Success of Dusky Groupers Epinephelus marginatus (Lowe, 1834) in a Mediterranean Marine Protected Area |
---|---|
Autor/es: | Lozano-Quijada, Felio | González-Correa, José Miguel | Bayle-Sempere, Just T. |
Grupo/s de investigación o GITE: | Biología Marina |
Centro, Departamento o Servicio: | Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Ciencias del Mar y Biología Aplicada | Universidad de Alicante. Instituto Multidisciplinar para el Estudio del Medio "Ramón Margalef" |
Palabras clave: | Flagship species | Marine reserve | Spawning aggregations | Social behavior | Protection | Sustainability |
Área/s de conocimiento: | Zoología |
Fecha de publicación: | 19-may-2022 |
Editor: | MDPI |
Cita bibliográfica: | Lozano-Quijada F, González-Correa JM, Bayle-Sempere JT. Environmental Drivers and Social Structure Features behind the Low Reproductive Success of Dusky Groupers Epinephelus marginatus (Lowe, 1834) in a Mediterranean Marine Protected Area. Sustainability. 2022; 14(10):6169. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14106169 |
Resumen: | Marine protected areas (MPAs) are considered key tools for achieving the sustainability of coastal fisheries by allowing habitat and species conservation by means of use regulations and active management. The effects of protection are more visible in slow-growing, high site fidelity and late-maturing species such as dusky grouper, a flagship species for all the fishermen and divers in the Mediterranean Sea. We studied the reproductive behavior of dusky grouper at Tabarca Island Marine Protected Area (TIMPA) in order to: (a) describe its temporal pattern; (b) evaluate the relationships among reproductive behavior and environmental factors and (c) verify the effects of social structure on reproductive activity. We observed all the behavior patterns previously reported in other studies besides the final spawn event. Our results evidenced that the monthly average density of dusky groupers tended to increase when temperature rose close to the seabed and without defined temporal limits for reproductive behavior. Among the environmental factors considered, visibility exhibited a very strong effect on the reproductive behavior of dusky grouper, interacting significantly with seabed temperature and thermocline. Regarding the effects of social structure, reproductive activity was positively correlated with the presence of large-sized individuals. We have discussed the differential facts of the reproductive activity of dusky groupers observed at TIMPA relating the results to the biogeographical location, the patterns of the environmental drivers (such as the seabed temperature per day, the thermocline, the visibility, the stream force, the photoperiod and the divers per day) and the structure of the habitat. These negative results contrast with the existing knowledge and generate new working hypotheses useful to improve the efficiency of MPAs and the sustainability of coastal fisheries. |
Patrocinador/es: | This research was funded by the Unidad de Biología Marina at the University of Alicante, and by the General Secretary of Maritime Fisheries (Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food). |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/10045/124192 |
ISSN: | 2071-1050 |
DOI: | 10.3390/su14106169 |
Idioma: | eng |
Tipo: | info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
Derechos: | © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Revisión científica: | si |
Versión del editor: | https://doi.org/10.3390/su14106169 |
Aparece en las colecciones: | INV - BM - Artículos Científicos / Scientific Papers |
Archivos en este ítem:
Archivo | Descripción | Tamaño | Formato | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Lozano-Quijada_etal_2022_Sustainability.pdf | 5,45 MB | Adobe PDF | Abrir Vista previa | |
Este ítem está licenciado bajo Licencia Creative Commons