National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Wellington, New Zealand; Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand.
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Wellington, New Zealand; Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand.
Mar Environ Res. 2020 Oct;161:105086. doi: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2020.105086. Epub 2020 Jul 25.
Despite bottom trawling being the most widespread, severe disturbance affecting deep-sea environments, it remains uncertain whether recovery is possible once trawling has ceased. Here, we review information regarding the resilience of seamount benthic communities to trawling. We focus on seamounts because benthic communities associated with these features are especially vulnerable to trawling as they are often dominated by emergent, sessile epifauna, and trawling on seamounts can be highly concentrated. We perform a meta-analysis to investigate whether any taxa demonstrate potential for recovery once trawling has ceased. Our findings indicate that mean total abundance can gradually increase after protection measures are placed, although taxa exhibit various responses, from no recovery to intermediate/high recovery, resistance, or signs of early colonisation. We use our results to recommend directions for future research to improve our understanding of the resilience of seamount benthic communities, and thereby inform the management of trawling impacts on these ecosystems.
尽管底拖网捕捞是最广泛、最严重的深海环境干扰方式，但目前仍不确定底拖网捕捞停止后是否有可能恢复。在这里，我们回顾了有关海山海底生物群落对拖网捕捞恢复能力的信息。我们专注于海山，是因为与这些特征相关的海底生物群落特别容易受到拖网捕捞的影响，因为它们通常以突出的、固着的后生动物为主，而且海山的拖网捕捞可能高度集中。我们进行了一项荟萃分析，以调查一旦停止拖网捕捞，任何类群是否有恢复的潜力。我们的研究结果表明，在采取保护措施后，总丰度平均值可以逐渐增加，尽管不同类群的反应不同，从没有恢复到中等/高度恢复、抵抗或早期定植的迹象。我们利用研究结果为未来的研究提供了建议，以提高我们对海山海底生物群落恢复能力的理解，从而为管理这些生态系统中的拖网捕捞影响提供信息。
