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Smith JG, Free CM, Lopazanski C, Brun J, Anderson CR, Carr MH, Claudet J, Dugan JE, Eurich JG, Francis TB, Hamilton SL, Mouillot D, Raimondi PT, Starr RM, Ziegler SL, Nickols KJ, Caselle JE. A marine protected area network does not confer community structure resilience to a marine heatwave across coastal ecosystems. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2023; 29:5634-5651. [PMID: 37439293 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16862] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2023] [Revised: 06/21/2023] [Accepted: 06/21/2023] [Indexed: 07/14/2023]
Abstract
Marine protected areas (MPAs) have gained attention as a conservation tool for enhancing ecosystem resilience to climate change. However, empirical evidence explicitly linking MPAs to enhanced ecological resilience is limited and mixed. To better understand whether MPAs can buffer climate impacts, we tested the resistance and recovery of marine communities to the 2014-2016 Northeast Pacific heatwave in the largest scientifically designed MPA network in the world off the coast of California, United States. The network consists of 124 MPAs (48 no-take state marine reserves, and 76 partial-take or special regulation conservation areas) implemented at different times, with full implementation completed in 2012. We compared fish, benthic invertebrate, and macroalgal community structure inside and outside of 13 no-take MPAs across rocky intertidal, kelp forest, shallow reef, and deep reef nearshore habitats in California's Central Coast region from 2007 to 2020. We also explored whether MPA features, including age, size, depth, proportion rock, historic fishing pressure, habitat diversity and richness, connectivity, and fish biomass response ratios (proxy for ecological performance), conferred climate resilience for kelp forest and rocky intertidal habitats spanning 28 MPAs across the full network. Ecological communities dramatically shifted due to the marine heatwave across all four nearshore habitats, and MPAs did not facilitate habitat-wide resistance or recovery. Only in protected rocky intertidal habitats did community structure significantly resist marine heatwave impacts. Community shifts were associated with a pronounced decline in the relative proportion of cold water species and an increase in warm water species. MPA features did not explain resistance or recovery to the marine heatwave. Collectively, our findings suggest that MPAs have limited ability to mitigate the impacts of marine heatwaves on community structure. Given that mechanisms of resilience to climate perturbations are complex, there is a clear need to expand assessments of ecosystem-wide consequences resulting from acute climate-driven perturbations, and the potential role of regulatory protection in mitigating community structure changes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua G Smith
- National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, USA
- Conservation and Science Division, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey, California, USA
| | - Christopher M Free
- Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, USA
- Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, USA
| | - Cori Lopazanski
- National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, USA
- Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, USA
| | - Julien Brun
- National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, USA
| | - Clarissa R Anderson
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography/Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
| | - Mark H Carr
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, USA
| | - Joachim Claudet
- National Center for Scientific Research, PSL Université Paris, CRIOBE, CNRS-EPHE-UPVD, Paris, France
| | - Jenifer E Dugan
- Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, USA
| | - Jacob G Eurich
- National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, USA
- Environmental Defense Fund, Santa Barbara, California, USA
| | - Tessa B Francis
- Puget Sound Institute, University of Washington, Tacoma, Washington, USA
| | - Scott L Hamilton
- Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, San Jose State University, Moss Landing, California, USA
| | - David Mouillot
- MARBEC, University of Montpellier, CNRS, IFREMER, IRD, Montpellier, France
- Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), Paris, France
| | - Peter T Raimondi
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, USA
| | - Richard M Starr
- Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, San Jose State University, Moss Landing, California, USA
| | - Shelby L Ziegler
- Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
| | - Kerry J Nickols
- Department of Biology, California State University Northridge, Northridge, California, USA
| | - Jennifer E Caselle
- Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, USA
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Ziegler SL, Johnson JM, Brooks RO, Johnston EM, Mohay JL, Ruttenberg BI, Starr RM, Waltz GT, Wendt DE, Hamilton SL. Marine protected areas, marine heatwaves, and the resilience of nearshore fish communities. Sci Rep 2023; 13:1405. [PMID: 36697490 PMCID: PMC9876911 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-28507-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2022] [Accepted: 01/19/2023] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Anthropogenic stressors from climate change can affect individual species, community structure, and ecosystem function. Marine heatwaves (MHWs) are intense thermal anomalies where water temperature is significantly elevated for five or more days. Climate projections suggest an increase in the frequency and severity of MHWs in the coming decades. While there is evidence that marine protected areas (MPAs) may be able to buffer individual species from climate impacts, there is not sufficient evidence to support the idea that MPAs can mitigate large-scale changes in marine communities in response to MHWs. California experienced an intense MHW and subsequent El Niño Southern Oscillation event from 2014 to 2016. We sought to examine changes in rocky reef fish communities at four MPAs and associated reference sites in relation to the MHW. We observed a decline in taxonomic diversity and a profound shift in trophic diversity inside and outside MPAs following the MHW. However, MPAs seemed to dampen the loss of trophic diversity and in the four years following the MHW, taxonomic diversity recovered 75% faster in the MPAs compared to reference sites. Our results suggest that MPAs may contribute to long-term resilience of nearshore fish communities through both resistance to change and recovery from warming events.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shelby L Ziegler
- Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, San Jose State University, Moss Landing, CA, 95039, USA. .,Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA.
| | - Jasmin M Johnson
- Department of Marine Science, California State University Monterey Bay, Seaside, CA, 93955, USA
| | - Rachel O Brooks
- Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, San Jose State University, Moss Landing, CA, 95039, USA
| | - Erin M Johnston
- Center for Coastal Marine Sciences, Biological Sciences Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, 93407, USA
| | - Jacklyn L Mohay
- Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, San Jose State University, Moss Landing, CA, 95039, USA
| | - Benjamin I Ruttenberg
- Center for Coastal Marine Sciences, Biological Sciences Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, 93407, USA
| | - Richard M Starr
- Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, San Jose State University, Moss Landing, CA, 95039, USA
| | - Grant T Waltz
- Center for Coastal Marine Sciences, Biological Sciences Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, 93407, USA
| | - Dean E Wendt
- Center for Coastal Marine Sciences, Biological Sciences Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, 93407, USA
| | - Scott L Hamilton
- Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, San Jose State University, Moss Landing, CA, 95039, USA
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Hopf JK, Caselle JE, White JW. Recruitment variability and sampling design interact to influence the detectability of protected area effects. ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS : A PUBLICATION OF THE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2022; 32:e2511. [PMID: 34870882 DOI: 10.1002/eap.2511] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2021] [Revised: 07/18/2021] [Accepted: 08/25/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Correctly identifying the effects of a human impact on a system is a persistent challenge in ecology, driven partly by the variable nature of natural systems. This is particularly true in many marine fishery species, which frequently experience large temporal fluctuations in recruitment that produce interannual variations in populations. This variability complicates efforts to maintain stocks at management targets or detect the effects of rebuilding efforts. We address this challenge in the context of no-take marine reserves by exploring how variable larval recruitment could interact with the timing of reserve establishment and choice of sampling design to affect population dynamics and the detectability of reserve effects. To predict population changes in the years following a no-take reserve implementation, we first tested for periodicity in larval recruitment in an important U.S. Pacific coast recreational fishery species (kelp bass, Paralabrax clathratus) and then included that pattern in a population model. We also used this model to determine the detectability of population increases under alternative sampling approaches and minimum age sampled. Kelp bass larval recruitment in the Channel Islands, California, peaked every about six (major) and about two (minor) years. Our model showed that establishing a reserve during a peak or trough enhanced or delayed, respectively, the post-reserve population increases. However, establishing a reserve during a recruitment peak could obscure a failing reserve, that is, a reserve that is unable to secure longer-term metapopulation persistence. Recruitment peaks and troughs also interacted with sampling design to affect the detectability of reserve effects. Designs that compared inside-outside were the most robust to variable recruitment, but failed to capture whether the reserve has improved metapopulation growth. Designs that included a time element (e.g., before-after) are more suited to assessing reserve effectiveness, but were sensitive to recruitment variation and detectability can change year-to-year. Notably, detectability did not always increase monotonically with reserve age; the optimal time for detectability depended on the minimum age of organisms sampled and was greatest when the cohort of a major recruitment peak first appeared in the sampling. We encourage managers to account for variable recruitment when planning monitoring and assessment programs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jess K Hopf
- Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station, Oregon State University, Newport, Oregon, USA
| | - Jennifer E Caselle
- Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, USA
| | - J Wilson White
- Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station, Oregon State University, Newport, Oregon, USA
- Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences, Oregon State University, Newport, Oregon, USA
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