Crane Nicole L, Nelson Peter, Abelson Avigdor, Precoda Kristin, Rulmal John, Bernardi Giacomo, Paddack Michelle
Department of Biology, Cabrillo College, Aptos, California, United States of America.
Oceanic Society, Ross, California, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2017 May 10;12(5):e0177083. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0177083. eCollection 2017.
The dynamic relationship between reefs and the people who utilize them at a subsistence level is poorly understood. This paper characterizes atoll-scale patterns in shallow coral reef habitat and fish community structure, and correlates these with environmental characteristics and anthropogenic factors, critical to conservation efforts for the reefs and the people who depend on them. Hierarchical clustering analyses by site for benthic composition and fish community resulted in the same 3 major clusters: cluster 1-oceanic (close proximity to deep water) and uninhabited (low human impact); cluster 2-oceanic and inhabited (high human impact); and cluster 3-lagoonal (facing the inside of the lagoon) and inhabited (highest human impact). Distance from village, reef exposure to deep water and human population size had the greatest effect in predicting the fish and benthic community structure. Our study demonstrates a strong association between benthic and fish community structure and human use across the Ulithi Atoll (Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia) and confirms a pattern observed by local people that an 'opportunistic' scleractinian coral (Montipora sp.) is associated with more highly impacted reefs. Our findings suggest that small human populations (subsistence fishing) can nevertheless have considerable ecological impacts on reefs due, in part, to changes in fishing practices rather than overfishing per se, as well as larger global trends. Findings from this work can assist in building local capacity to manage reef resources across an atoll-wide scale, and illustrates the importance of anthropogenic impact even in small communities.
珊瑚礁与在生存层面依赖它们的人们之间的动态关系，目前还鲜为人知。本文描述了浅海珊瑚礁栖息地和鱼类群落结构在环礁尺度上的模式，并将这些模式与环境特征和人为因素相关联，这些对于珊瑚礁及其依赖者的保护工作至关重要。对底栖生物组成和鱼类群落进行的站点分层聚类分析得出了相同的3个主要聚类：聚类1——大洋性（靠近深水）且无人居住（人类影响低）；聚类2——大洋性且有人居住（人类影响高）；聚类3——泻湖性（面向泻湖内部）且有人居住（人类影响最高）。村庄距离、珊瑚礁与深水的距离以及人口规模对预测鱼类和底栖生物群落结构的影响最大。我们的研究表明，在密克罗尼西亚联邦雅浦州的乌利西环礁，底栖生物和鱼类群落结构与人类利用之间存在紧密关联，并证实了当地人观察到的一种模式，即一种“机会主义”石珊瑚（蔷薇珊瑚属）与受影响更大的珊瑚礁有关。我们的研究结果表明，小规模人口（自给性捕鱼）仍可能对珊瑚礁产生相当大的生态影响，部分原因是捕鱼方式的改变而非过度捕捞本身，以及更大的全球趋势。这项工作的研究结果有助于增强当地在全环礁范围内管理珊瑚礁资源的能力，并说明了即使在小社区中人为影响的重要性。
