Effects of human footprint and biophysical factors on the body-size structure of fished marine species

Nestor E Bosch; Jacquomo Monk; Jordan Goetze; Shaun Wilson; Russell C Babcock; Neville Barrett; Jock Clough; Leanne M Currey-Randall; David V Fairclough; Rebecca Fisher; Brooke A Gibbons; David Harasti; Euan S Harvey; Michelle R Heupel; Jamie L Hicks; Thomas H Holmes; Charlie Huveneers; Daniel Ierodiaconou; Alan Jordan; Nathan A Knott; Hamish A Malcolm; Dianne McLean; Mark Meekan; Stephen J Newman; Ben Radford; Matthew J Rees; Benjamin J Saunders; Conrad W Speed; Michael J Travers; Corey B Wakefield; Thomas Wernberg; Tim J Langlois

doi:10.1111/cobi.13807

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Effects of human footprint and biophysical factors on the body-size structure of fished marine species

Journal article

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Effects of human footprint and biophysical factors on the body-size structure of fished marine species

Nestor E Bosch, Jacquomo Monk, Jordan Goetze, Shaun Wilson, Russell C Babcock, Neville Barrett, Jock Clough, Leanne M Currey-Randall, David V Fairclough, Rebecca Fisher, …

Conservation biology, Vol.36(2), e13807

04/2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13807

PMID: 34312893

Appears in Recent Faculty of Science and Engineering Publications

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Abstract

baited remote underwater stereo-video

ecosystem functioning

environmental reporting

fishing

human gravity

no-take marine reserves

Marine fisheries in coastal ecosystems in many areas of the world have historically removed large-bodied individuals, potentially impairing ecosystem functioning and the long-term sustainability of fish populations. Reporting on size-based indicators that link to food-web structure can contribute to ecosystem-based management, but the application of these indicators over large (cross-ecosystem) geographical scales has been limited to either fisheries-dependent catch data or diver-based methods restricted to shallow waters (<20 m) that can misrepresent the abundance of large-bodied fished species. We obtained data on the body-size structure of 82 recreationally or commercially targeted marine demersal teleosts from 2904 deployments of baited remote underwater stereo-video (stereo-BRUV). Sampling was at up to 50 m depth and covered approximately 10,000 km of the continental shelf of Australia. Seascape relief, water depth, and human gravity (i.e., a proxy of human impacts) were the strongest predictors of the probability of occurrence of large fishes and the abundance of fishes above the minimum legal size of capture. No-take marine reserves had a positive effect on the abundance of fishes above legal size, although the effect varied across species groups. In contrast, sublegal fishes were best predicted by gradients in sea surface temperature (mean and variance). In areas of low human impact, large fishes were about three times more likely to be encountered and fishes of legal size were approximately five times more abundant. For conspicuous species groups with contrasting habitat, environmental, and biogeographic affinities, abundance of legal-size fishes typically declined as human impact increased. Our large-scale quantitative analyses highlight the combined importance of seascape complexity, regions with low human footprint, and no-take marine reserves in protecting large-bodied fishes across a broad range of species and ecosystem configurations.

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Title: Effects of human footprint and biophysical factors on the body-size structure of fished marine species
Creators: Nestor E Bosch - The University of Western Australia
Jacquomo Monk - University of Tasmania
Jordan Goetze - Curtin University
Shaun Wilson - University of Western Australia
Russell C Babcock - CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere
Neville Barrett - University of Tasmania
Jock Clough - University of Western Australia
Leanne M Currey-Randall - Australian Institute of Marine Science
David V Fairclough - Government of Western Australia
Rebecca Fisher - Australian Institute of Marine Science
Brooke A Gibbons - University of Western Australia
David Harasti - NSW Department of Primary Industries
Euan S Harvey - Curtin University
Michelle R Heupel - Australian Institute of Marine Science
Jamie L Hicks - Department for Environment and Water, Marine Science, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
Thomas H Holmes - The University of Western Australia
Charlie Huveneers - Flinders University
Daniel Ierodiaconou - Deakin University
Alan Jordan - University of Tasmania
Nathan A Knott - New South Wales Department of Primary Industries (Coffs Harbour)
Hamish A Malcolm - New South Wales Department of Primary Industries (Coffs Harbour)
Dianne McLean - Australian Institute of Marine Science
Mark Meekan - Australian Institute of Marine Science
Stephen J Newman - Government of Western Australia
Ben Radford - Australian Institute of Marine Science
Matthew J Rees - NSW Department of Primary Industries
Benjamin J Saunders - Curtin University
Conrad W Speed - Australian Institute of Marine Science
Michael J Travers - Government of Western Australia
Corey B Wakefield - Government of Western Australia
Thomas Wernberg - University of Western Australia
Tim J Langlois - University of Western Australia
Publication Details: Conservation biology, Vol.36(2), e13807
Publisher: Wiley
Grant note: Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC′s) Marine Research Data Cloud Australian Government′s National Environmental Science Program Community of Practice Fund from the Australian Institute of Marine Science Paul G. Allen Philanthropies
Identifiers: 991013127413002368
Copyright: © 2021 The Authors. Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Academic Unit: Faculty of Science and Engineering
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article

Effects of human footprint and biophysical factors on the body-size structure of fished marine species

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