Species-Specific Spillover Patterns Detected by Biomass Gradients in Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas

Just Tomàs Bayle-Sempere (), Aitor Forcada-Almarcha, Pablo Sánchez-Jerez, Mireille L. Harmelin-Vivien, Laurence Le Diréach, Eric Charbonnel, José Antonio García-Charton, Denis Ody, Olga Reñones, Carlos Valle and Ángel Pérez-Ruzafa
Additional contact information
Just Tomàs Bayle-Sempere: Department of Marine Science and Applied Biology, IMEM “Ramón Margalef”, University of Alicante, 03080 Alicante, Spain
Aitor Forcada-Almarcha: Department of Marine Science and Applied Biology, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, Spain
Pablo Sánchez-Jerez: Department of Marine Science and Applied Biology, IMEM “Ramón Margalef”, University of Alicante, 03080 Alicante, Spain
Mireille L. Harmelin-Vivien: Centre d’Océanologie de Marseille, UMR CNRS 6540, Université de la Méditerranée, 13005 Marseille, France
Laurence Le Diréach: GIS Posidonie, Parc Scientifique et Technologique de Luminy, Case 901, 13288 Marseille, CEDEX 09, France
Eric Charbonnel: Parc Marin de la Côte Bleue, Observatoire, BP 42, 13620 Carry-le-Rouet, France
José Antonio García-Charton: Departamento de Ecología e Hidrología, Campus de Espinardo, Universidad de Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain
Denis Ody: WWF-France, 6 Rue des Fabres, 13001 Marseille, France
Olga Reñones: Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro Oceanográfico de Baleares, Apdo. 291, 07080 Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Carlos Valle: Department of Marine Science and Applied Biology, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, Spain
Ángel Pérez-Ruzafa: Departamento de Ecología e Hidrología, Campus de Espinardo, Universidad de Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 24, 1-17

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to provide evidence of the species-specific export of adult fishes for some species or group of species from six well-enforced Mediterranean marine protected areas (MPAs): Cerbère-Banyuls and Carry-le-Rouet in France and Medes, Cabrera, Tabarca, and Cabo de Palos in Spain. We estimated the distance at which spillover of those individual or groups of species occur by directly assessing the existence of gradients of biomass across the MPA boundaries by means of underwater visual census, asuming that such gradients will be specifics in terms of structure (sharpness, slope, and intercept) for every species and group of species. A significant “reserve effect” was observed for biomass of some of the individual and grouped species in all MPAs. Decreasing gradients of biomass differ among taxons and are not related with the insular nature of the location. Different gradients of biomass resulted from the interaction between species characteristics and some ecological and structural drivers, and we did not find regular patterns for each taxa among MPAs, even though the same species can exhibit different gradient structure and/or spillover distances in the same MPA depending on the orientation. Habitat patch distribution and continuity seems the most important environmental factor explaining the existence and pattern of gradients at species level, interacting with fish home range and fishing pressure close to the limits of the MPAs. Managers should take in account the surrounding distribution of habitats in terms of complexity and quality in order to optimize the spillover capacity of the MPAs.

Keywords: fish spillover; adult biomass; marine conservation; visual census; fisheries; management; impact; Mediterranean sea (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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