Universidad de Málaga, Andalucía Tech, Departamento de Ecología y Geología, Campus de Teatinos s/n, 29071, Málaga, Spain.
Universidad de Málaga, Andalucía Tech, Departamento de Ecología y Geología, Campus de Teatinos s/n, 29071, Málaga, Spain.
Mar Environ Res. 2018 Nov;142:190-207. doi: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2018.10.008. Epub 2018 Oct 16.
Europe's Blue Growth strategy promotes the intensification of human activities at sea and increases the environmental risk such as the decline of the provision of key ecosystem services and potential conflicts among human activities. The fishing sector, in the Alboran Sea, is economically and culturally one of the most important and relies on overexploited target species such as European hake (Merlucius merlucius). Here we identified and quantified the impact of human pressures on the capacity of marine habitats to support the provision of food as an important ecosystem service. We modelled the spatial distribution of nursery areas of European hake in the Alboran Sea, using General Additive Models (GAM) and overlaid those with European Nature Information System (EUNIS) habitats. A sensitivity analysis of hake nursery areas to cumulative human impacts identified the Bay of Malaga as the most sensitive area with trawling frequencies up to 60 times higher than the habitats recovery time. Further, we identified an increased conflict potential among human activities such as trawling and extraction with the presence of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), which provide MPAs a high vulnerability similar to that found in unprotected areas. Future scenarios considering the increase of renewable energy and alternative food production show conflicts between aquaculture and MPAs as well as offshore wind farms and offshore shipping. Hence, our results show strong arguments for an integrated spatial management approach, including benthic trawling. We also suggest restricting trawling activities inside MPAs to safeguard the habitats capacity to support ecosystem services. Our spatially explicit assessment framework is transparent and transferable to other Mediterranean regions. Thus, it can function as a model on how to incorporate cumulative effect assessments in marine spatial planning processes.
欧洲的蓝色增长战略促进了海洋人类活动的强化，增加了环境风险，如关键生态系统服务的下降和人类活动之间潜在的冲突。在阿尔沃兰海，渔业部门在经济和文化上是最重要的部门之一，依赖于过度开发的目标物种，如欧洲无须鳕（Merlucius merlucius）。在这里，我们确定并量化了人类压力对海洋生境提供食物这一重要生态系统服务能力的影响。我们使用广义加性模型（GAM）来模拟阿尔沃兰海欧洲无须鳕幼鱼区的空间分布，并将其与欧洲自然信息系统（EUNIS）生境重叠。对无须鳕幼鱼区对累积人类影响的敏感性分析表明，马拉加湾是最敏感的区域，拖网捕捞频率比生境恢复时间高出高达 60 倍。此外，我们还发现，随着海洋保护区（MPAs）的存在，拖网捕捞和开采等人类活动之间的冲突潜在增加，这使得 MPA 与未受保护地区一样具有高脆弱性。考虑到可再生能源和替代食物生产增加的未来情景表明，水产养殖和 MPAs 以及海上风电场和海上航运之间存在冲突。因此，我们的研究结果表明，需要采取综合的空间管理方法，包括底层拖网捕捞。我们还建议限制 MPAs 内的拖网捕捞活动，以保护生境支持生态系统服务的能力。我们的空间显式评估框架是透明的，可以转移到其他地中海地区。因此，它可以作为如何将累积效应评估纳入海洋空间规划过程的模型。
