Assessing change on coral reefs: long-term trends in Caribbean reef fish abundance

珊瑚礁在世界范围内受到自然和人为因素的威胁。例如，在加勒比地区，我们发现珊瑚覆盖率在过去三十年中下降了80%，引发了整个地区从珊瑚为主到藻类为主的珊瑚礁的转变。这些生境的变化，加上捕捞压力，预计将对珊瑚礁鱼类群落产生相当大的影响。该项目的目的是首次汇编关于整个加勒比珊瑚礁鱼类丰度的所有现有的已发表和未发表的资料。使用我们用于检查珊瑚覆盖的相同分析技术，一名博士后研究人员将建立珊瑚鱼丰度变化的长期模式，并将其与栖息地和捕捞压力的变化联系起来。此外，还将审查海洋保护区在改变鱼类丰度变化模式方面的作用，特别是对那些未被渔业开发的物种而言。这项研究将对过去30年来加勒比珊瑚礁发生的大规模生态变化产生独特的了解。

Coral reefs are under threat worldwide from a combination of natural and man-made causes. In the Caribbean, for example, we found that coral cover has declined by 80% over the past three decades, triggering a region-wide shift from coral-dominated to algae-dominated reefs. These habitat changes, combined with fishing pressure, are expected to have had a considerable impact on reef fish communities. The aim of this project is to compile, for the first time, all existing published and unpublished information on reef fish abundance across the Caribbean. Using the same analytical techniques that we used to examine coral cover, a post-doctoral researcher will establish the long-term patterns of change in abundance of reef fish and relate these to changes in habitat and fishing pressure. In addition, the role of marine protected areas in altering the patterns of change in fish abundance, particularly for those species that are not exploited by fisheries, will be examined. This study will yield a unique picture of the large-scale ecological changes that have occurred on Caribbean coral reefs over the past 30 years.