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Zookeys
2021 Jan 01;1062:177-201. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1062.67964.
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Marine diversity in the biosphere reserve of the most oceanic island in the Gulf of California: San Pedro Mártir.
Amador-Castro IG
,
Melo FJF
,
Torre J
.
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San Pedro Mártir island is of high biological, ecological, and fishery importance and was declared a biosphere reserve in 2002. This island is the most oceanic in the Gulf of California, and information on its rocky reefs is scarce. The present study aimed to generate the first list of conspicuous invertebrate and fish species based on in situ observations and to examine the community structure of the shallow rocky reefs of the reserve. In addition, we estimated the ecological indicators of richness, abundance, Shannon diversity, and Pielou evenness to evaluate the conservation status of the biosphere reserve. Data were collected annually from 2007 to 2017 through 2,192 underwater SCUBA transects. A total of 35 species of invertebrates and 73 species of fish were recorded. Most of the species are widely distributed along the eastern Pacific. Overall, 64% of the species found in this study are commercially important, and 11 species have been listed as protected. The abundance of commercially important invertebrate species (i.e., the sea cucumber Isostichopusfuscus and the spiny oyster Spondyluslimbatus) is decreasing, while commercially important fish species have maintained their abundance with periods of increase. The ecological indicators and the abundance and size of the commercial species indicate that the reserve is in good condition while meeting its conservation objectives.
Figure 1. Left panel: Map of the Gulf of California and surrounding areas. The Midriff Islands region (MIR, dotted line) includes the a Bahía de los Ángeles, Canales de Ballenas y Salsipuedes Biosphere Reserve; b Archipiélago de San Lorenzo National Park; and c island San Pedro Mártir Biosphere Reserve (ISPMBR), whereas d Bahía de Loreto National Park is located to the south of the MIR. Right panel: The limits of the ISPMBR, including Island San Pedro Mártir (shaded region) and the monitoring sites (1–6) of this study. 1 Punta Rabijunco 2 Cueva de la Reserva and 3 Los Morritos are located within the core, no-take zone (dashed region) of the ISPMBR, whereas 4 Cueva del Biólogo 5 Barra Baya 6 La Ventana and 7 Arroyo del Cartelón are located within the buffer zone.
Figure 2. Total abundance and number of a invertebrate and b fish species observed per year in the Island San Pedro Mártir Biosphere Reserve (ISPMBR) in the Gulf of California, Mexico.
Figure 3. Ecological indicators of invertebrate species richness (S), Shannon-Wiener diversity (H’), and Pielou evenness (J’) by transect. The inferior and superior sides of each blue rectangle represent the first and third quartiles (P25 and P75), respectively, and the median is represented by the horizontal black line. The points indicate the values of each data point, while the line surrounding each box plot shows the probability density.
Figure 4. Ecological indicators of fish species richness (S), Shannon-Wiener diversity (H‘), and Pielou evenness (J’) by transect. The inferior and superior sides of each blue rectangle represent the first and third quartiles (P25 and P75), respectively, and the median is represented by the horizontal black line. The points indicate the values of each data point, while the line surrounding each box plot shows the probability density.
Figure 5. Yearly ranks of the ten most abundant species of invertebrates A and fishes B.
