Mendez María M, Livore Juan P, Calcagno Javier A, Bigatti Gregorio
Laboratorio de Reproducción y Biología Integrativa de Invertebrados Marinos (IBIOMAR-CONICET), Puerto Madryn, Argentina.
Laboratorio de Reproducción y Biología Integrativa de Invertebrados Marinos (IBIOMAR-CONICET), Puerto Madryn, Argentina.
Mar Environ Res. 2017 Sep;130:213-220. doi: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2017.07.023. Epub 2017 Aug 1.
Recreational activities can be an important source of anthropogenic disturbance in intertidal benthic assemblages. On rocky shores, activities such as trampling, snorkeling and the handling of organisms may have a negative effect on benthic communities by modifying the abundance and distribution of key species. Here, we describe and quantify impacts due to recreational activities on benthic communities on a Patagonian rocky shore by investigating their resilience to two types of human disturbance: vehicle traffic and human trampling. To evaluate the effects of these activities, we carried out an observational study and assessed post-disturbance assemblage recovery. The rocky shores is most intensively visited during summer, and marked differences in the distribution and abundance of benthic species among disturbed and control plots were found after this season. The benthic community on the high intertidal was weakly impacted by disturbance generated due to vehicle traffic in summer (one vehicle on a single occasion, pulse disturbance); which did not affect the cover of dominant species. This suggests that the high intertidal community would be resistant to the passage of one vehicle on a single occasion. The effects of continuous trampling (press disturbance) were drastic and the community of the mid intertidal level did not recover before the next recreational season. Mid intertidal communities exposed to press disturbances require more than one tourist season of human inactivity to recover from anthropogenic effects, suggesting that resilience mechanisms in this community operate at broad timescales. Our findings highlight the need to establish and implement management actions that contemplate the nature of the disturbance and intertidal level to minimize habitat degradation due to human recreational activities.
休闲活动可能是潮间带底栖生物群落人为干扰的一个重要来源。在岩石海岸，诸如践踏、浮潜和处理生物等活动可能会通过改变关键物种的丰度和分布对底栖生物群落产生负面影响。在这里，我们通过调查巴塔哥尼亚岩石海岸底栖生物群落对两种人类干扰（车辆通行和人类践踏）的恢复力，来描述和量化休闲活动对其的影响。为了评估这些活动的影响，我们进行了一项观察性研究，并评估了干扰后的群落恢复情况。岩石海岸在夏季游客最多，在这个季节过后，受干扰区域和对照区域的底栖物种分布和丰度出现了显著差异。潮间带上部的底栖生物群落受到夏季车辆通行产生的干扰影响较小（单次一辆车，脉冲干扰）；这并未影响优势物种的覆盖度。这表明潮间带上部群落对单次一辆车的通行具有抵抗力。持续践踏（压力干扰）的影响是巨大的，潮间带中部的群落在下一个休闲季节之前没有恢复。受到压力干扰的潮间带中部群落需要超过一个旅游季节的人类不活动时间才能从人为影响中恢复，这表明该群落的恢复机制在较长时间尺度上起作用。我们的研究结果强调需要制定和实施管理措施，考虑干扰的性质和潮间带水平，以尽量减少人类休闲活动对栖息地的破坏。
