What was natural in the coastal oceans?
What was natural in the coastal oceans?
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DOI：
10.1073/pnas.091092898
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发表时间：
2001-05-08
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Jackson, JBC
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Jackson, JBC
在现代生态调查开始之前，古生态学，人类就改变了西大西洋沿海海洋生态系统。考古和历史重建表明，整个大西洋沿岸的大型脊椎动物和牡蛎遭受了令人难以置信的损失。 17 至 19 世纪，数以百万计的大型鱼类、鲨鱼、海龟和海牛被从加勒比海带走。最近珊瑚礁和海草的崩溃最终是由于这些大型消费者的损失以及最近的气候变化、富营养化或疾病的爆发。 19 世纪的过度捕捞使切萨皮克湾和其他河口的大片牡蛎床减少到原始丰度的百分之几，并加剧了富营养化。对鳕鱼等底层鱼类的机械化捕捞引发了一系列营养级联，消灭了海带森林，然后当渔民沿着食物网捕捞小型无脊椎动物时，它们又重新回来。最后，但也是最普遍的，整个大陆架的机械化捕捞导致大型长寿鱼类大量死亡，并破坏了由无柄珊瑚、苔藓虫和海绵建立的三维栖息地。普遍的损失模式表明，没有一个沿海生态系统是原始的，整个西大西洋沿岸几乎没有野生渔业是可持续的。对一两个世纪前失去的生态系统的重建表明，如果社会愿意支付费用，建立大型有效海洋保护区的目标是可以实现的。历史重建为生态系统尺度的操作性实验提供了新的科学框架，以探索保护我们的沿海生物资源的可行性和效益。
Humans transformed Western Atlantic coastal marine ecosystems before modern ecological investigations began, Paleoecological. archeological, and historical reconstructions demonstrate incredible losses of large vertebrates and oysters from the entire Atlantic coast. Untold millions of large fishes, sharks, sea turtles, and manatees were removed from the Caribbean in the 17th to 19th centuries. Recent collapses of reef corals and seagrasses are due ultimately to losses of these large consumers as much as to more recent changes in climate, eutrophication, or outbreaks of disease. Overfishing in the 19th century reduced vast beds of oysters in Chesapeake Bay and other estuaries to a few percent of pristine abundances and promoted eutrophication. Mechanized harvesting of bottom fishes like cod set off a series of trophic cascades that eliminated kelp forests and then brought them back again as fishers fished their way down food webs to small invertebrates. Lastly, but most pervasively, mechanized harvesting df the entire continental shelf decimated large, long-lived fishes and destroyed three-dimensional habitats built up by sessile corals, bryozoans, and sponges. The universal pattern of losses demonstrates that no coastal ecosystem is pristine and few wild fisheries are sustainable along the entire Western Atlantic coast. Reconstructions of ecosystems lost only a century or two ago demonstrate attainable goals of establishing large and effective marine reserves if society is willing to pay the costs. Historical reconstructions provide a new scientific framework for manipulative experiments at the ecosystem scale to explore the feasibility and benefits of protection of our living coastal resources.