Artificial Reefs in the Northern Gulf of Mexico: Community Ecology Amid the “Ocean Sprawl”
Artificial Reefs in the Northern Gulf of Mexico: Community Ecology Amid the “Ocean Sprawl”
复制标题
DOI：
10.3389/fmars.2020.00447
复制
发表时间：
2020-06
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
A. Schulze;D. Erdner;C. Grimes;D. Holstein;M. Miglietta
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
A. Schulze;D. Erdner;C. Grimes;D. Holstein;M. Miglietta
自20世纪30年代以来，墨西哥湾北方一直是原油和天然气开采的重要来源。墨西哥湾大陆架上安装了数千个固定平台和相关设备，导致了普遍的“海洋扩张”。退役后，根据联邦“钻机到珊瑚礁”计划，100多个这些结构已被转换为人工鱼礁，除了人工鱼礁专门设计，以提高渔业和/或有利于休闲潜水业。除了几个深至水面以下约55英尺的天然堤岸外，人工鱼礁为墨西哥湾北方较深沃茨的底栖生物提供了唯一的浅水硬基质。这种可利用栖息地的大规模扩张几乎完全发生在相对较短的时间内（150年）。在墨西哥湾北方人工和天然珊瑚礁的生态相互作用是复杂的。一般来说，人工礁，特别是石油和天然气结构，经常被用作非本地物种和入侵物种的垫脚石（例如，Tubastrea杯珊瑚，狮子鱼）。桩上覆盖着大量未研究的污损生物群落。虽然这些污损生物入侵天然珊瑚礁的风险正在得到广泛讨论，但对墨西哥湾生态和经济健康的其他影响，例如可能促进水母繁殖或增加雪卡毒鱼中毒的发生率，受到的关注较少。人工鱼礁还提供生态系统服务，特别是作为红笛鲷等重要经济鱼类的栖息地。在这里，我们重新审视人工鱼礁作为物种入侵和渔业增值的“垫脚石”的潜在作用。除了对生态影响的担忧之外，其中一些主题还引起了公众健康问题。我们指出了现有知识的差距，并提出了未来的研究方向。
The northern Gulf of Mexico has been an important source for crude oil and natural gas extraction since the 1930s. Thousands of fixed platforms and associated equipment have been installed on the Gulf of Mexico continental shelf, leading to a pervasive ‘ocean sprawl.’ After decommissioning, 100s of these structures have been converted to artificial reefs under the federal ‘Rigs-to-Reefs’ program, in addition to artificial reefs specifically designed to enhance fisheries and/or benefit the recreational diving industry. Apart from a few natural banks, which reach to approximately 55 ft below the surface, artificial reefs provide the only shallow-water hard substrate for benthic organisms in the deeper waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico. This vast expansion in available habitat has almost exclusively occurred over a relatively short span of time (∼50 years). The ecological interactions of artificial and natural reefs in the northern Gulf of Mexico are complex. Artificial reefs in general, and oil and gas structures in particular, have often been invoked as stepping stones for non-native and invasive species (e.g., Tubastrea cup corals, lionfish). The pilings are covered with fouling communities which remain largely unstudied. While the risks of these fouling organisms for invading natural reefs are being broadly discussed, other impacts on the ecological and economic health of the Gulf of Mexico, such as the potential to facilitate jellyfish blooms or increase the incidence of ciguatera fish poisoning, have received less attention. Artificial reefs also provide ecosystem services, particularly as habitat for economically important fish species like red snapper. Here we revisit the potential role of artificial reefs as ‘stepping stones’ for species invasions and for fisheries enhancement. Beyond concerns about ecological effects, some of these topics also raise public health concerns. We point out gaps in current knowledge and propose future research directions.