Depth-dependent effects of culling-do mesophotic lionfish populations undermine current management?
Depth-dependent effects of culling-do mesophotic lionfish populations undermine current management?
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DOI：
10.1098/rsos.170027
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发表时间：
2017-05
影响因子：
3.5
通讯作者：
Exton DA
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Andradi-Brown DA;Grey R;Hendrix A;Hitchner D;Hunt CL;Gress E;Madej K;Parry RL;Régnier-McKellar C;Jones OP;Arteaga M;Izaguirre AP;Rogers AD;Exton DA
入侵的狮子鱼（Pterois volitans和P. miles）在西大西洋广泛传播，被认为是对当地海洋生物多样性的主要威胁。虽然狮子鱼栖息在浅水珊瑚礁和中光珊瑚生态系统（MCE; 30至150米深的珊瑚礁），但许多国家实施的主要管理对策是潜水员主导的捕杀，仅限于30米以下的珊瑚礁。然而，许多珊瑚鱼经历个体发育迁移，最大的，因此最多产的个体在最深处发现。在这里，我们研究狮子鱼的密度，身体大小，成熟度和饮食模式的深度梯度从表面下降到85米，大量淘汰的乌蒂拉，洪都拉斯周围的珊瑚礁。我们发现，与浅礁相比，MCE上的狮子鱼密度、体型和重量都有所增加，MCE还含有最大比例的活跃产卵的雌性，而浅礁中含有最大比例的未成熟狮子鱼。然后，我们比较了狮子鱼的行为，潜水员浅扑杀和mesophotic unculled乌蒂兰珊瑚礁，浅unculled珊瑚礁在特拉湾，在马达加斯加大陆。我们发现，mesophotic狮子鱼表现出较高的警戒距离，与以前暴露于扑杀的个人一致，尽管低于去除的深度限制。此外，当检查胃内容物时，我们发现鱼类是整个深度梯度的狮子鱼饮食的主要组成部分。重要的是，我们的研究结果表明，尽管邻近的浅扑杀，MCE保留了大量的狮子鱼种群，这可能不成比例地有助于继续狮子鱼招募到乌蒂拉的浅礁，可能会破坏目前的扑杀为基础的管理。
Invasive lionfish (Pterois volitans and P. miles) have spread widely across the western Atlantic and are recognized as a major threat to native marine biodiversity. Although lionfish inhabit both shallow reefs and mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs; reefs from 30 to 150 m depth), the primary management response implemented by many countries has been diver-led culling limited to reefs less than 30 m. However, many reef fish undergo ontogenetic migrations, with the largest and therefore most fecund individuals found at greatest depths. Here, we study lionfish density, body size, maturity and dietary patterns across the depth gradient from the surface down to 85 m on heavily culled reefs around Utila, Honduras. We found lionfish at increased densities, body size and weight on MCEs compared with shallow reefs, with MCEs also containing the greatest proportion of actively spawning females, while shallow reefs contained the greatest proportion of immature lionfish. We then compared lionfish behaviour in response to divers on shallow culled and mesophotic unculled Utilan reefs, and on shallow unculled reefs in Tela Bay, on the Honduran mainland. We found that mesophotic lionfish exhibited high alert distances, consistent with individuals previously exposed to culling despite being below the depth limits of removal. In addition, when examining stomach content, we found that fish were the major component of lionfish diets across the depth gradient. Importantly, our results suggest that despite adjacent shallow culling, MCEs retain substantial lionfish populations that may be disproportionately contributing towards continued lionfish recruitment onto the shallow reefs of Utila, potentially undermining current culling-based management.