fishery-independent data reveal negative effect of human population density on caribbean predatory fish communitiesfishery-independent数据显示负面影响人类的人口密度在加勒比海食肉鱼类的社区.pdfVIP

Fishery-Independent Data Reveal Negative Effect of Human Population Density on Caribbean Predatory Fish Communities ¤ Christopher D. Stallings * Department of Zoology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, United States of America Abstract Background: Understanding the current status of predatory fish communities, and the effects fishing has on them, is vitally important information for management. However, data are often insufficient at region-wide scales to assess the effects of extraction in coral reef ecosystems of developing nations. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here, I overcome this difficulty by using a publicly accessible, fisheries-independent database to provide a broad scale, comprehensive analysis of human impacts on predatory reef fish communities across the greater Caribbean region. Specifically, this study analyzed presence and diversity of predatory reef fishes over a gradient of human population density. Across the region, as human population density increases, presence of large-bodied fishes declines, and fish communities become dominated by a few smaller-bodied species. Conclusions/Significance: Complete disappearance of several large-bodied fishes indicates ecological and local extinctions have occurred in some densely populated areas. These findings fill a fundamentally important gap in our knowledge of the ecosystem effects of artisanal fisheries in developing nations, and provide support for multiple approaches to data collection where they are commonly unavailable. Citation: Stallings CD (2009) Fishery-Independent Data Reveal Negative Effect of Human Population Density on Caribbean Predatory Fish Communities. PLoS ONE 4(5): e5333. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0005333 Editor: John F. Bruno, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,