Woodall Lucy C, Otero-Ferrer Francisco, Correia Miguel, Curtis Janelle M R, Garrick-Maidment Neil, Shaw Paul W, Koldewey Heather J
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Project Seahorse, Zoological Society of London, Regent's Park, London, UK.
Mar Biol. 2018;165(1):19. doi: 10.1007/s00227-017-3274-y. Epub 2017 Dec 5.
Accurate taxonomy, population demography, and habitat descriptors inform species threat assessments and the design of effective conservation measures. Here we combine published studies with new genetic, morphological and habitat data that were collected from seahorse populations located along the European and North African coastlines to help inform management decisions for European seahorses. This study confirms the presence of only two native seahorse species ( and ) across Europe, with sporadic occurrence of non-native seahorse species in European waters. For the two native species, our findings demonstrate that highly variable morphological characteristics, such as size and presence or number of cirri, are unreliable for distinguishing species. Both species exhibit sex dimorphism with females being significantly larger. Across its range, were larger and found at higher densities in cooler waters, and individuals in the Black Sea were significantly smaller than in other populations. were significantly larger in Senegal. tends to have higher density populations than when they occur sympatrically. Although these species are often associated with seagrass beds, data show both species inhabit a wide variety of shallow habitats and use a mixture of holdfasts. We suggest an international mosaic of protected areas focused on multiple habitat types as the first step to successful assessment, monitoring and conservation management of these Data Deficient species.
准确的分类学、种群统计学和栖息地描述有助于进行物种威胁评估并设计有效的保护措施。在此，我们将已发表的研究与新的遗传、形态学和栖息地数据相结合，这些数据是从欧洲和北非海岸线的海马种群中收集的，以协助为欧洲海马的管理决策提供信息。这项研究证实，整个欧洲仅存在两种本土海马物种（和），欧洲水域偶尔会出现非本土海马物种。对于这两种本土物种，我们的研究结果表明，高度可变的形态特征，如大小、触须的有无或数量，对于区分物种并不可靠。这两个物种都表现出两性异形，雌性明显更大。在其分布范围内，在较凉爽的水域中更大且密度更高，而黑海的个体明显小于其他种群。在塞内加尔明显更大。当它们同域出现时，的种群密度往往比更高。尽管这些物种通常与海草床有关，但数据显示这两个物种都栖息在各种各样的浅海栖息地，并使用多种附着基。我们建议建立一个以多种栖息地类型为重点的国际保护区网络，作为成功评估、监测和保护这些数据缺乏物种的第一步。
