Investigating the nursery function of the Alboran MPA on the Mediterranean coast of Morocco
Published:
Jul 12, 2024
Keywords:
Nursery habitats Yong of the year fish Juvenile fish nursery seascape conservation
Abstract
Coastal habitats provide shelter and food for juvenile fish, ensuring their survival and supporting a range of species that are both commercially and ecologically important. The Alboran Marine Protected Area (MPA) off the Mediterranean coast of Morocco has been identified as a nursery area, although this role has never been the subject of characterisation. This study investigates the nursery function of habitats at six sites, two of which have seasonally flooded rivers with small persistent lagoons (transition systems) actively connected to the sea. Mixed sand-and-gravel beaches and transition systems were surveyed using a beach seine (four hauls) during two consecutive summer periods (June 2019 and July 2020), and a beam trawl was used in July 2020 in order to survey shallow waters at three depths: 3, 5 and 7 m. The use of both fishing methods provided a comprehensive assessment of juvenile fish communities. Different habitats in these coastal areas supported juvenile fish of 31 different species, with higher species richness and densities of young-of-the-year (YOY; first year of life) fish in transition systems despite their limited surface area and depth. Shallow marine waters supported fish species with specific microhabitat requirements despite lower overall YOY fish densities. The Alboran MPA coast has a nursery function, with different habitats acting as nurseries for juveniles of different fish species, creating a seascape of interconnected nursery habitats. As low densities of juvenile fish were a common concern across species and habitats, protecting these nursery habitats through enforcement of their protection regime appears to be a priority.
Article Details
- How to Cite
-
MASSKI, H., SETTIH, J., RAGMANE, S., TAI, I., BENZIANE, M., & NAJI, M. (2024). Investigating the nursery function of the Alboran MPA on the Mediterranean coast of Morocco. Mediterranean Marine Science, 25(2), 441–452. https://doi.org/10.12681/mms.35798
- Section
- Research Article
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g. post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (preferably in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
References
Able, K.W., 2005. A re-examination of fish estuarine dependence: Evidence for connectivity between estuarine and ocean habitats. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 64 (1), 5‑17.
Adao, A.C., Bosch, N.E., Bentes, L., Coelho, R., Lino, P.G. et al., 2022. Complementary Sampling Methods to Improve the Monitoring of Coastal Lagoons. Diversity, 14, 849.
Arevalo, E., Cabral, H.N., Villeneuve, B., Possémé, C., Lepage, M., 2023. Fish larvae dynamics in temperate estuaries: A review on processes, patterns and factors that determine recruitment. Fish and Fisheries, 24 (3), 466‑487.
Bariche, M., Letourneur, Y., Harmelin-Vivien, M., 2004. Tem poral Fluctuations and Settlement Patterns of Native and Lessepsian Herbivorous Fishes on the Lebanese Coast (Eastern Mediterranean). Environmental Biology of Fishes, 70, 81-90.
Beck, M.W., Heck, K.L., Able, K.W., Childers, D.L., Eggleston, D.B. et al., 2001. The Identification, Conservation, and Management of Estuarine and Marine Nurseries for Fish and Invertebrates. BioScience, 51, 633.
Berkström, C., Gullström, M., Lindborg, R., Mwandya, A.W., Yahya, S.A.S. et al., 2012. Exploring ‘knowns’ and ‘unknowns’ in tropical seascape connectivity with insights from East African coral reefs. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 107, 1-21.
Biagi, F., Gambaccini, S., Zazzetta, M., 1998. Settlement and recruitment in fishes: The role of coastal areas. Italian Journal of Zoology, 65, 269-274.
Bussotti, S., Guidetti, P., 2011. Timing and habitat preferences for settlement of juvenile fishes in the Marine Protected Area of Torre Guaceto (south-eastern Italy, Adriatic Sea). Italian Journal of Zoology, 78, 243-254.
Cheminée, A., Francour, P., Harmelin-Vivien, M., 2011. Assessment of Diplodus spp. (Sparidae) nursery grounds along the rocky shore of Marseilles (France, NW Mediterranean). Sciencia Marina, 75, 181-188.
Cheminée, A., Merigot, B., Vanderklift, M.A., Francour, P., 2015. Does habitat complexity influence fish recruitment? Mediterranean Marine Science, 17, 39.
Cheminée, A., Le Direach, L., Rouanet, E., Astruch, P., Goujard, A. et al., 2021. All shallow coastal habitats matter as nurseries for Mediterranean juvenile fish. Scientific Reports, 11, 14631.
Childers, D.L., Day, J.W., Mckellar, H.N., 2002. Twenty More Years of Marsh and Estuarine Flux Studies: Revisiting Nixon (1980). p. 391-423. Ιn: Concepts and Controversies in Tidal Marsh Ecology. Weinstein, M.P., Kreeger, D.A. (Eds). Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht.
Cuadros, A., Basterretxea, G., Cardona, L., Cheminée, A., Hidalgo, M. et al., 2018. Settlement and post-settlement survival rates of the white seabream (Diplodus sargus) in the western Mediterranean Sea. PLoS ONE, 13, 1, 1-20.
Dahlgren, C.P., Eggleston, D.B., 2000. Ecological processes underlying ontogenetic habitat shifts in a coral reef fish. Ecology, 81, 2227-2240.
Dahlgren, C., Kellison, G., Adams, A., Gillanders, B., Kendall, M. et al., 2006. Marine nurseries and effective juvenile habitats: concepts and applications. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 312, 291-295.
Dahou, T., Marin, F., Masski, H., Naji, M., 2023. Savoirs experts vs savoirs territoriaux: Aux origines de l’ignorance dans l’aire marine protégée d’Alboran au Maroc. Developpement durable, 14, 1, 1-20.
Deegan, L.A., Hughes, J.E., Rountree, R.A., 2002. Salt Marsh Ecosystem Support of Marine Transient Species. p. 333- 365. Ιn: Concepts and Controversies in Tidal Marsh Ecology. Weinstein, M.P., Kreeger, D.A. (Eds). Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
Diouri, L., Baibai, T., Hassou, N., Abdelouahab, H., Ettahiri, O. et al., 2023. Spatial and seasonal fluctuations of Ichthyoplankton assemblage in the Mediterranean coast of Morocco (Southwestern Alboran Sea). Applied and Natural Science Foundation, 15, 890-899.
Dulčić, J., Kraljević, M., Grbec, B., Pallaoro, A., 1997. Composition and temporal fluctuations of inshore juvenile fish populations in the Kornati Archipelago, eastern middle Adriatic. Marine Biology, 129, 267-277.
Dulčić, J., Tutman, P., Matić-Skoko, S., Kraljević, M., Jug-Dujaković, J. et al., 2007. A list of Y-O-Y fish species found in the littoral shallows of the Neretva and Mala Neretva estuaries (Eastern Adriatic, Croatian coast). ACTA ADRIATICA. 48, 1, 89-94.
Félix-Hackradt, F.C., Hackradt, C.W., Treviño-Otón, J., Pérez-Ruzafa, A., García-Charton, J.A., 2013. Temporal patterns of settlement, recruitment and post-settlement losses in a rocky reef fish assemblage in the South-Western Mediterranean Sea. Marine Biology, 160, 2337-2352.
Félix-Hackradt, F.C., Hackradt, C.W., Treviño-Otón, J., Pérez-Ruzafa, A., García-Charton, J.A., 2014. Habitat use and ontogenetic shifts of fish life stages at rocky reefs in South-western Mediterranean Sea. Journal of Sea Research, 88, 67-77.
Franco, A., Pérez-Ruzafa, A., Drouineau, H., Franzoi, P., Koutrakis, E.T. et al., P., 2012. Assessment of fish assemblages in coastal lagoon habitats: Effect of sampling method. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 112, 115-125.
Froese, R., Pauly, D., 2023. FishBase. https://www.Fishbase. org (Accessed 20th May 2024). Gallon, R., Fournier, J., 2013. G2Sd: Grain-size statistics and description of sediment. R package version 2, 12.
García-Rubies, A., Macpherson, E., 1995. Substrate use and temporal pattern of recruitment in juvenile fishes of the Mediterranean littoral. Marine Biology, 124 (1), 35‑42.
Gunter, G., 1967. Some relationships of estuaries to the fisheries of the Gulf of Mexico. American Association for the Advancement of Science, 3, 621-638.
Halpern, B.S., Walbridge, S., Selkoe, K.A., Kappel, C.V., Micheli, F. et al., 2008. A Global Map of Human Impact on Marine Ecosystems. Science, 319 (5865), 948‑952.
Harmelin-Vivien, M.L., Harmelin, J.G., Leboulleux, V., 1995. Microhabitat requirements for settlement of juvenile sparid fishes on Mediterranean rocky shores. Hydrobiologia, 300, 309-320.
Herve, M., 2023. RVAideMemoire : Testing and Plotting Procedures for Biostatistics. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package= RVAideMemoire Jaafour, S., 2015. Fish assemblages of a shallow Mediterranean lagoon (Nador, Morocco): An analysis based on species and functional guilds. Acta Ichthyologia Piscatoria, 45, 115-124.
Kolde, R., 2019. pheatmap: Pretty Heatmaps. https:// CRAN.R-project.org/package=pheatmap
Macpherson, E., Biagi, F., Francour, P., García-Rubies, A., Harmelin, J. et al., 1997. Mortality of juvenile fishes of the genus Diplodus in protected and unprotected areas in the western Mediterranean Sea. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 160, 135-147.
Masski, H., 2015. Investigation of a subtidal fish community in a south-western Mediterranean settlement area of Morocco. Journal of Applied Ichthyology, 31, 208-210.
Matić-Skoko, S., Vrdoljak, D., Uvanović, H., Pavičić, M., Tutman, P. et al., 2022. Effects of Interannual Environmental Changes on Juvenile Fish Settlement in Coastal Nurseries: The Case of the Adriatic Sea. Frontiers in Marine Science, 9, 849092.
McHugh, J. L., 1976. Estuarine fisheries: are they doomed? p. 15-27. In: Estuarine processes. Academic press, Martin Wiley editor’s. Morocco, 2014. Decision of the Minister of Agriculture and Maritime Fisheries No. 336-14 of 3 Rabii II 1435 (February 3, 2014) regulating the fishing of certain fish species in the maritime area located in the Mediterranean between Oued Amtter and Tambrabet, BO no. 6322 of 9 rabii I 1436 of January 1, 2015, 126 pp.
Nagelkerken, I., Sheaves, M., Baker, R., Connolly, R.M., 2015. The seascape nursery: a novel spatial approach to identify and manage nurseries for coastal marine fauna. Fish and Fisheries, 16, 362-371.
Nicolas, D., Lobry, J., Lepage, M., Sautour, B., Le Pape, O. et al., 2010. Fish under influence: A macroecological analysis of relations between fish species richness and environmental gradients among European tidal estuaries. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 86, 137-147.
Oksanen, J., Simpson, G.L., Blanchet, F. G., Kindt, R., Legendre, P. et al., 2022. vegan: Community Ecology Package. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=vegan
Pankhurst, N.W., Munday, P.L. 2011. Effects of climate change on fish reproduction and early life history stages. Marine and Freshwater Research, 62 (9), 1015-1026.
Planes, S., Macpherson, E., Biagi, F., Garcia-Rubies, A., Harmelin, J. et al., 1999. Spatio-temporal variability in growth of juvenile sparid fishes from the Mediterranean littoral zone. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 79, 137-143.
R Core Team, 2021. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria.
Sala, E. 2004. The Past and Present Topology and Structure of Mediterranean Subtidal Rocky-shore Food Webs. Ecosystems, 7, 333-340.
Sala, E., Ballesteros, E., Dendrinos, P., Di Franco, A., Ferretti, F. et al., 2012. The Structure of Mediterranean Rocky Reef Ecosystems across Environmental and Human Gradients, and Conservation Implications. PLoS ONE, 7, 2, e32742.
Scharf, F.S., Manderson, J.P., Fabrizio, M.C., 2006. The effects of seafloor habitat complexity on survival of juvenile fishes: Species-specific interactions with structural refuge. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 335, 167-176.
Selfati, M., El Ouamari, N., Franco, A., Lenfant, P., Lecaillon, G. et al., 2019. Fish assemblages of the Marchica lagoon (Mediterranean, Morocco): Spatial patterns and environmental drivers. Regional Studies in Marine Science, 32, 100896.
Selleslagh, J., Amara, R., Laffargue, P., Lesourd, S., Lepage, M. et al., 2009. Fish composition and assemblage structure in three Eastern English Channel macrotidal estuaries: A comparison with other French estuaries. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 81, 149-159.
Sheaves, M. 2009. Consequences of ecological connectivity : The coastal ecosystem mosaic. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 391, 107‑115.
Sheaves, M., Baker, R., Nagelkerken, I., Connolly, R. M. 2015. True Value of Estuarine and Coastal Nurseries for Fish : Incorporating Complexity and Dynamics. Estuaries and Coasts, 38 (2), 401‑414.
Thioulouse, J., Dray, S., Dufour, A.-B., Siberchicot, A., Jombart, T. et al., 2018. Multivariate Analysis of Ecological Data with ade4. Springer New York, 329 pp.
Vigliola, L., Harmelin-Vivien, M., 2001. Post-settlement ontogeny in three Mediterranean reef fish species of the genus Diplodus. Bulletin of Marine Science, 68, 271-286.
Vigliola, L., Harmelin-Vivien, M., Biagi, F., Galzin, R., Garcia- Rubies, A. et al., 1998. Spatial and temporal patterns of settlement among sparid fishes of the genus Diplodus in the northwestern Mediterranean. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 168, 45-56.
Weinstein, M.P., 1979. Shallow marsh habitats as primary nurseries for fishes and shellfish, Cape Fear River, North Carolina. Fishery Bulletin, 77, 339-357.
Weinstein, M.P., Weiss, S.L., Walters, M., 1980. Multiple determinants of community structure in shallow marsh habitats, Cape Fear River Estuary, North Carolina, USA. Marine Biology, 58, 227-243.
Welsh, J.Q., Goatley, C.H.R., Bellwood, D.R., 2013. The ontogeny of home ranges: evidence from coral reef fishes. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 280, 20132066.
