The effectiveness of marine protected areas for predator and prey with varying mobility

Sergei S. Pilyugin, Jan Medlock and Patrick De Leenheer

Theoretical Population Biology, 2016, vol. 110, issue C, 63-77

Abstract: Marine protected areas (MPAs) are regions in the ocean where fishing is restricted or prohibited. Although several measures for MPA performance exist, here we focus on a specific one, namely the ratio of the steady state fish densities inside and outside the MPA. Several 2 patch models are proposed and analyzed mathematically. One patch represents the MPA, whereas the second patch represents the fishing ground. Fish move freely between both regions in a diffusive manner. Our main objective is to understand how fish mobility affects MPA performance. We show that MPA effectiveness decreases with fish mobility for single species models with logistic growth, and that densities inside and outside the MPA tend to equalize. This suggests that MPA performance is highest for the least mobile species. We then consider a 2 patch Lotka–Volterra predator–prey system. When one of the species moves, and the other does not, the ratio of the moving species first remains constant, and ultimately decreases with increased fish mobility, again with a tendency of equalization of the density in both regions. This suggests that MPA performance is not only highest for slow, but also for moderately mobile species. The discrepancy in MPA performance for single species models and for predator–prey models, confirms that MPA design requires an integrated, ecosystem-based approach. The mathematical approaches advocated here complement and enhance the numerical and theoretical approaches that are commonly applied to more complex models in the context of MPA design.

Keywords: Marine protected areas; Predator–prey; Diffusion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040580916300168
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:thpobi:v:110:y:2016:i:c:p:63-77

DOI: 10.1016/j.tpb.2016.04.005

Access Statistics for this article

Theoretical Population Biology is currently edited by Jeremy Van Cleve

More articles in Theoretical Population Biology from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().