Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, Pacific Grove, CA 93950, USA.
Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Outer Circle, Regent's Park, London NW1 4RY, UK.
Sci Adv. 2018 Mar 7;4(3):eaaq0333. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aaq0333. eCollection 2018 Mar.
Scientific monitoring has recorded only a recent fraction of the oceans' alteration history. This biases our understanding of marine ecosystems. Remote coral reef ecosystems are often considered pristine because of high shark abundance. However, given the long history and global nature of fishing, sharks' vulnerability, and the ecological consequences of shark declines, these states may not be natural. In the Chagos archipelago, one of the remotest coral reef systems on the planet, protected by a very large marine reserve, we integrated disparate fisheries and scientific survey data to reconstruct baselines and long-term population trajectories of two dominant sharks. In 2012, we estimated 571,310 gray reef and 31,693 silvertip sharks, about 79 and 7% of their baseline levels. These species were exploited longer and more intensively than previously thought and responded to fishing and protection with variable and compensatory population trajectories. Our approach highlights the value of integrative and historical analyses to evaluate large marine ecosystems currently considered pristine.
科学监测仅记录了海洋变化历史的最近一部分。这使得我们对海洋生态系统的理解产生了偏差。由于鲨鱼丰富，偏远的珊瑚礁生态系统通常被认为是原始的。然而，考虑到捕鱼的悠久历史和全球性、鲨鱼的脆弱性以及鲨鱼数量减少的生态后果，这些状态可能并非自然状态。在查戈斯群岛，这是地球上最偏远的珊瑚礁系统之一，受到一个非常大的海洋保护区的保护，我们整合了不同的渔业和科学调查数据，以重建两种主要鲨鱼的基线和长期种群轨迹。在 2012 年，我们估计有 571310 条灰礁鲨和 31693 条银鳍鲨，约为其基线水平的 79%和 7%。这些物种的捕捞时间比以前认为的要长得多，强度也大得多，它们对捕捞和保护的反应是具有可变性和补偿性的种群轨迹。我们的方法强调了综合和历史分析的价值，用于评估目前被认为是原始的大型海洋生态系统。
