University of Sydney, Coastal and Marine Ecosystems, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, NSW, 2006, Australia.
University of Sydney, Coastal and Marine Ecosystems, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, NSW, 2006, Australia.
Mar Environ Res. 2020 May;157:104861. doi: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2019.104861. Epub 2019 Dec 18.
The provision of temporary, specially designed artificial habitat may help support populations of the Endangered Whites' seahorse Hippocampus whitei in the face of rapid coastal urbanisation and declining natural habitats. Three designs of artificial habitat (Seahorse Hotels) were installed in Port Stephens, New South Wales, Australia, where natural habitats had significantly declined. Mark recapture surveys were used to assess seahorse site fidelity and population parameters, and the effect of Seahorse Hotel design on seahorse abundance, epibiotic growth and mobile epifaunal seahorse prey was determined. The Seahorse Hotels sustained a substantial population of seahorses (64; 57-72 95% confidence intervals) in comparison to recent local population estimates. There were no significant differences in seahorse abundance, mobile epifauna or epibiotic growth among the three different hotel designs. This research demonstrated that H. whitei will inhabit Seahorse Hotels in absence of natural habitat, and additional complexity in these artificial structures was not necessary to support seahorse populations. Temporary structures such as Seahorse Hotels will be a valuable tool in supporting H. whitei and other Syngnathid populations through infrastructure maintenance or habitat modification.
面对快速的沿海城市化和自然栖息地的减少，提供临时的、专门设计的人工栖息地可能有助于支持濒危白海马 Hippocampus whitei 的种群。在澳大利亚新南威尔士州的斯蒂芬斯港，安装了三种设计的人工栖息地（海马酒店），那里的自然栖息地已经显著减少。标记重捕调查用于评估海马的栖息地忠诚度和种群参数，并确定海马酒店设计对海马丰度、附着生物生长和移动的附着性海马猎物的影响。与最近的当地种群估计相比，海马酒店维持了大量的海马（64 只；57-72%置信区间）。三种不同的酒店设计在海马丰度、移动的附着生物或附着生物生长方面没有显著差异。这项研究表明，H. whitei 将栖息在没有自然栖息地的海马酒店中，这些人工结构中额外的复杂性对于支持海马种群并不是必要的。临时结构，如海马酒店，将是通过基础设施维护或栖息地改造来支持 H. whitei 和其他海龙种群的有价值的工具。
