Insights from the 2-year-long human confinement experiment in Grand Cayman reveal the resilience of coral reef fish communities.

ABSTRACT: In March 2020, the world went into lockdown to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), with immediate impacts on wildlife across ecosystems. The strict 2-year long lockdown in Grand Cayman provided an unprecedented opportunity to assess how the 'human confinement experiment' influenced the community composition of reef fish. Using a suite of multivariate statistics, our findings revealed a stark increase in reef fish biomass during the 2 years of lockdown, especially among herbivores, including parrotfish, with drastic increases in juvenile parrotfishes identified. Additionally, when comparing baseline data of the community from 2018 to the 2 years during lockdown, over a three-fold significant increase in mean reef fish biomass was observed, with a clear shift in community

SUBMITTER: Johnson JV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10710434 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature