A marine protected area network does not confer community structure resilience to a marine heatwave across coastal ecosystems.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) have gained attention as a conservation tool for enhancing ecosystem resilience to climate change. However, empirical evidence explicitly linking MPAs to enhanced ecological resilience is limited and mixed. To better understand whether MPAs can buffer climate impacts, we tested the resistance and recovery of marine communities to the 2014-2016 Northeast Pacific heatwave in the largest scientifically designed MPA network in the world off the coast of California, United States.

Marine protected areas, marine heatwaves, and the resilience of nearshore fish communities.

Anthropogenic stressors from climate change can affect individual species, community structure, and ecosystem function. Marine heatwaves (MHWs) are intense thermal anomalies where water temperature is significantly elevated for five or more days. Climate projections suggest an increase in the frequency and severity of MHWs in the coming decades.

Trophic ecology of yellowtail rockfish (Sebastes flavidus) during a marine heat wave off central California, USA.

The yellowtail rockfish, Sebastes flavidus, is a widespread and abundant mesopredator in the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem. We utilized stomach content and stable isotope analyses to investigate the trophic ecology of this species at three sites off central California just before (August-October 2013) and during (August and October 2014) a marine heat wave. Sebastes flavidus largely consumed pelagic prey (zooplankton and micronekton).

Long-term participation in collaborative fisheries research improves angler opinions on marine protected areas.

Recent marine spatial planning efforts, including the management and monitoring of marine protected areas (MPAs), increasingly focus on the importance of stakeholder engagement. For nearly 15 years, the California Collaborative Fisheries Research Program (CCFRP) has partnered volunteer anglers with researchers, the fishing industry, and resource managers to monitor groundfishes in California's network of MPAs. While the program has succeeded in generating sustained biological observations, we know little about volunteer angler demography or the impact of participation on their perceptions and opinions on fisheries data or MPAs.

Thermal stratification drives movement of a coastal apex predator.

A characterization of the thermal ecology of fishes is needed to better understand changes in ecosystems and species distributions arising from global warming. The movement of wild animals during changing environmental conditions provides essential information to help predict the future thermal response of large marine predators. We used acoustic telemetry to monitor the vertical movement activity of the common dentex (Dentex dentex), a Mediterranean coastal predator, in relation to the oscillations of the seasonal thermocline during two summer periods in the Medes Islands marine reserve (NW Mediterranean Sea).

Targeting Abundant Fish Stocks while Avoiding Overfished Species: Video and Fishing Surveys to Inform Management after Long-Term Fishery Closures.

Historically, it has been difficult to balance conservation goals and yield objectives when managing multispecies fisheries that include stocks with various vulnerabilities to fishing. As managers try to maximize yield in mixed-stock fisheries, exploitation rates can lead to less productive stocks becoming overfished. In the late 1990s, population declines of several U.

Fitting state-space integral projection models to size-structured time series data to estimate unknown parameters.

Integral projection models (IPMs) have a number of advantages over matrix-model approaches for analyzing size-structured population dynamics, because the latter require parameter estimates for each age or stage transition. However, IPMs still require appropriate data. Typically they are parameterized using individual-scale relationships between body size and demographic rates, but these are not always available.

Ordinary and Extraordinary Movement Behaviour of Small Resident Fish within a Mediterranean Marine Protected Area.

It is important to account for the movement behaviour of fishes when designing effective marine protected areas (MPAs). Fish movements occur across different spatial and temporal scales and understanding the variety of movements is essential to make correct management decisions. This study describes in detail the movement patterns of an economically and commercially important species, Diplodus sargus, within a well-enforced Mediterranean MPA.

Diel activity and variability in habitat use of white sea bream in a temperate marine protected area.

Fish populations are often comprised of individuals that use habitats and associated resources in different ways. We placed sonic transmitters in, and tracked movements of, white sea bream (Diplodus sargus sargus) in the no-take zone of a Mediterranean marine protected area: the Torre Guaceto marine protected area, (Adriatic Sea, Italy). Tagged fish displayed three types of diel activity patterns in three different habitats: sand, rocky reefs and "matte" of the seagrass Posidonia oceanica.

Managing small-scale commercial fisheries for adaptive capacity: insights from dynamic social-ecological drivers of change in Monterey Bay.

Globally, small-scale fisheries are influenced by dynamic climate, governance, and market drivers, which present social and ecological challenges and opportunities. It is difficult to manage fisheries adaptively for fluctuating drivers, except to allow participants to shift effort among multiple fisheries. Adapting to changing conditions allows small-scale fishery participants to survive economic and environmental disturbances and benefit from optimal conditions.

Variation in responses of fishes across multiple reserves within a network of marine protected areas in temperate waters.

Meta-analyses of field studies have shown that biomass, density, species richness, and size of organisms protected by no-take marine reserves generally increase over time. The magnitude and timing of changes in these response variables, however, vary greatly and depend upon the taxonomic groups protected, size and type of reserve, oceanographic regime, and time since the reserve was implemented. We conducted collaborative, fishery-independent surveys of fishes for seven years in and near newly created marine protected areas (MPAs) in central California, USA.

Movements of blue rockfish (Sebastes mystinus) off central California with comparisons to similar species.

Olive (Sebastes serranoides), black (Sebastes melanops), and blue rockfish (Sebastes mystinus) are all common inhabitants of nearshore ecosystems on the West coast of North America and important components of the recreational fishery off California. Acoustic monitoring studies indicate that olive rockfish are highly residential and that black rockfish are capable of long migrations and have less site fidelity; yet little is known about the long-term movements of blue rockfish. External tag-recapture studies indicate that blue rockfish may have intermediate movements relative to these congener nearshore species.