Identifying Spatial Patterns of Egg Nursery Habitat for a Demersal Shark in the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea: Conservation and Management Implications

IF 4.6 2区环境科学与生态学 Q1 BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION

Diversity and Distributions Pub Date : 2025-02-11 DOI:10.1111/ddi.70004

Miguel López, Morane Clavel-Henry, Nixon Bahamon, Maria Vigo, Marc Balcells, Antoni Sánchez-Márquez, Joan Navarro, Joan B. Company

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Aim

Oviparous elasmobranchs lay benthic eggs with long incubation periods, many of which also require habitat-forming sessile organisms for their development. However, they are threatened by bottom-trawling fishing impacts. Here, we aimed to identify the suitable habitat distribution of small-spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula) egg nursery areas, assess their current protection extent by an existing no-take MPA network and their coverage by other delimited spatial-based conservation areas.

Location

Balearic Sea, northwestern Mediterranean.

Methods

Egg cases were collected over 5 years (2018–2022) by a bottom-trawling monitoring programme along the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. We used these occurrences and various environmental variables (bathymetry, slope, sea bottom temperature, sea bottom dissolved oxygen and seabed type) to model the habitat suitability of egg nurseries for the species using maximum entropy modelling.

Results

Sea bottom temperature was the most important variable explaining habitat suitability of egg nurseries. Small-spotted catshark eggs were found either attached to or in the same samples as various species of habitat-forming sessile organisms. We found only 3.6% (381 km²) of the modelled suitable egg nursery habitat in the Balearic Sea to be currently covered by an implemented no-take MPA network. At the same time, 52% of said MPAs are inadvertently protecting suitable egg nursery habitats (and their associated benthic community), as they were not initially planned with elasmobranchs as conservation targets. Important shark and ray areas (ISRA-IUCN) were also observed to cover egg nursery habitat (4502 km² or 15.52%) within their boundaries.

Main Conclusions

While half of the current MPA surface is providing protection to this elasmobranch species' egg nursery areas and their associated benthic communities, they are not sufficient for their conservation. However, mapping the distributions of these essential fish habitats can help towards the 2030 European conservation target of ‘strictly protecting’ 10% of marine environments.

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确定地中海西北部底栖鲨鱼卵苗栖息地的空间格局：保护和管理意义

目的弹鳃类卵生的底栖动物卵具有较长的潜伏期，其中许多卵的发育还需要形成栖息地的无根生物。然而，它们受到海底拖网捕鱼的威胁。本文旨在确定小斑点猫鲨（Scyliorhinus canicula）卵苗圃的适宜生境分布，评估现有禁捕MPA网络对其的保护程度以及其他划定的空间保护区对其的覆盖范围。地理位置：巴利阿里海，地中海西北部。方法在伊比利亚半岛东部沿海开展海底拖网监测项目，在2018-2022年期间收集卵病例。我们利用这些事件和各种环境变量（水深、坡度、海底温度、海底溶解氧和海底类型），使用最大熵模型来模拟该物种卵苗圃的栖息地适宜性。结果海底温度是解释卵苗圃生境适宜性的最重要变量。小斑点猫鲨卵被发现附着在不同种类的栖息地形成的无根生物上或在相同的样本中。我们发现，目前在巴利阿里海模拟的适宜产卵栖息地中，只有3.6%（381平方公里）被实施的禁捕海洋保护区网络覆盖。与此同时，52%的海洋保护区无意中保护了合适的产卵栖息地（以及与之相关的底栖生物群落），因为它们最初没有计划将板鳃类作为保护目标。重要的鲨鱼和鳐鱼区（以色列-世界自然保护联盟）也覆盖了其边界内的产卵栖息地（4502 km2或15.52%）。主要结论目前海洋保护区一半的地表对该物种的产卵区及其相关底栖生物群落提供了保护，但保护力度不够。然而，绘制这些重要鱼类栖息地的分布图有助于实现2030年欧洲“严格保护”10%海洋环境的保护目标。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Diversity and Distributions 环境科学-生态学

CiteScore

8.90

自引率

4.30%

发文量

195

审稿时长

8-16 weeks

期刊介绍： Diversity and Distributions is a journal of conservation biogeography. We publish papers that deal with the application of biogeographical principles, theories, and analyses (being those concerned with the distributional dynamics of taxa and assemblages) to problems concerning the conservation of biodiversity. We no longer consider papers the sole aim of which is to describe or analyze patterns of biodiversity or to elucidate processes that generate biodiversity.