Click
here to close Hello! We notice that
you are using Internet Explorer, which is not supported by Echinobase
and may cause the site to display incorrectly. We suggest using a
current version of Chrome,
FireFox,
or Safari.
Grazer removal and nutrient enrichment as recovery enhancers for overexploited rocky subtidal habitats.
Guarnieri G
,
Bevilacqua S
,
Vignes F
,
Fraschetti S
.
???displayArticle.abstract???
Increasing anthropogenic pressures are causing long-lasting regime shifts from high-diversity ecosystems to low-diversity degraded ones. Understanding the effects of multiple threats on ecosystems, and identifying processes allowing for the recovery of biodiversity, are the current major challenges in ecology. In several temperate marine areas, large parts of rocky subtidal habitats characterised by high diversity have been completely degraded to barren grounds by overfishing, including illegal date mussel fishing. Bare areas are characterized by the dominance of sea urchins whose grazing perpetuates the impact of overfishing. We investigated experimentally the separate and combined effects of nutrient enrichment and sea urchin exclusion on the recovery of barren grounds. Our results indicate that the two factors have a synergistic effect leading to the re-establishment of erect macroalgal canopies, enhancing the structural complexity of subtidal assemblages. In particular, in the overfished system considered here, the recovery of disturbed assemblages could occur only if sea urchins are removed. However, the recolonization of barren grounds by erect macroalgae is further enhanced under enriched conditions. This study demonstrates that the recovery of dramatically depleted marine habitats is possible, and provides useful indications for specific management actions, which at present are totally lacking, to achieve the restoration of barren grounds caused by human activity.
Bellwood,
Confronting the coral reef crisis.
2004, Pubmed
Bellwood,
Confronting the coral reef crisis.
2004,
Pubmed
Bevilacqua,
Mitigating human disturbance: can protection influence trajectories of recovery in benthic assemblages?
2006,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Bulleri,
Context-dependency in the effects of nutrient loading and consumers on the availability of space in marine rocky environments.
2012,
Pubmed
Burkepile,
Herbivore vs. nutrient control of marine primary producers: context-dependent effects.
2006,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Eriksson,
Declines in predatory fish promote bloom-forming macroalgae.
2009,
Pubmed
Galil,
Truth and consequences: the bioinvasion of the Mediterranean Sea.
2012,
Pubmed
Guidetti,
The destructive date-mussel fishery and the persistence of barrens in Mediterranean rocky reefs.
2011,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Guidetti,
Marine reserves reestablish lost predatory interactions and cause community changes in rocky reefs.
2006,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Guidetti,
Relationships among predatory fish, sea urchins and barrens in Mediterranean rocky reefs across a latitudinal gradient.
2007,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Hereu,
Multiple controls of community structure and dynamics in a sublittoral marine environment.
2008,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
McClanahan,
Algal growth and species composition under experimental control of herbivory, phosphorus and coral abundance in Glovers Reef, Belize.
2002,
Pubmed
Menge,
Top-down and bottom-up community regulation in marine rocky intertidal habitats.
2000,
Pubmed
Sala,
Community-wide distribution of predator-prey interaction strength in kelp forests.
2002,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Sala,
The structure of Mediterranean rocky reef ecosystems across environmental and human gradients, and conservation implications.
2012,
Pubmed
Sala,
Alien marine fishes deplete algal biomass in the Eastern Mediterranean.
2011,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Scheffer,
Catastrophic shifts in ecosystems.
2001,
Pubmed
Shears,
Marine reserves demonstrate top-down control of community structure on temperate reefs.
2002,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Smith,
The effects of top-down versus bottom-up control on benthic coral reef community structure.
2010,
Pubmed
Vendramin,
Viral Encephalopathy and Retinopathy in groupers (Epinephelus spp.) in southern Italy: a threat for wild endangered species?
2013,
Pubmed
Worm,
Consumer versus resource control of species diversity and ecosystem functioning.
2002,
Pubmed
