In this International Year of Biodiversity and following reports of the success of the Glover’s Reef marine reserve in Belize, here’s some less heartening news:
Disappearing coral reefs are among a host of ecological markers that showcase how promises to protect the planet’s biodiversity are not being met, according to a new study this week in the journal Science.
Marine scientist John Bruno, Ph.D., from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is part of a team of international researchers who contributed to the paper, which represents the first global assessment of targets made by world leaders through the 2002 Convention on Biological Diversity.
The paper, published online at the Science Express website, includes information from Bruno and colleagues that shows the cover of live hard coral on reefs in the Indo-Pacific and Caribbean declined on average by almost 40 percent between 1980 and 2004.
“Coral reefs are a key canary in the coal mine for gauging the health of the oceans, one of our richest veins of biodiversity,” said Bruno, associate professor of marine sciences in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences. “Problem is, the canary’s singing a lot more quietly now than it was several decades ago.”
But maybe this cloud has a silver lining? An encouraging conclusion from the same study:
A new worldwide study shows marine protected areas (MPAs), underwater parks where fishing and other potentially harmful activities are regulated, provide an added bonus – helping coral reef ecosystems ward off and recover from threats to their health.
Researchers also found the protective effects of MPAs generally strengthen over time
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Such havens have proved successful in protecting fish, leading to optimism among researchers that they may also indirectly help corals by restoring reef-based food webs. Previous studies also suggested that such conservation zones can directly protect reefs from problems such as overfishing, anchor damage and sediment and nutrient runoff pollution from adjacent land.
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[John] Bruno, associate professor of marine sciences in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences, said the results also suggest the protective benefits of such areas increase with time. Initially, coral cover continued to decrease after protections were put in place. However, several years later, rates of decline slowed and then stopped.For example, in the Caribbean, coral cover declined for about 14 years after protection began – possibly due to the time it took for fisheries to rebound – but then stopped falling and began to increase. In the Indo-Pacific, cover kept declining for the first five years after protections were established, then began to improve, eventually reaching growth rates of two percent yearly after two decades.
“Given the time it takes to maximize these benefits, it makes sense to establish more marine protected areas. Authorities also need to strengthen efforts to enforce the rules in existing areas,” Bruno said.
You can read more in this article and this one, and you can download [PDF] the full text of the journal article A Global Analysis of the Effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas in Preventing Coral Loss.
[Photo: jayhem]
