Mangroves in the Gulf of California increase fishery yields.

ABSTRACT: Mangroves are disappearing rapidly worldwide despite their well documented biodiversity and the ecosystem services they provide. Failure to link ecological processes and their societal benefits has favored highly destructive aquaculture and tourism developments that threaten mangroves and result in costly "externalities." Specifically, the potentially irreparable damage to fisheries because of mangrove loss has been belittled and is greatly underestimated. Here, we show that, in the Gulf of California, fisheries landings are positively related to the local abundance of mangroves and, in particular, to the productive area in the mangrove-water fringe that is used as nursery and/or feeding grounds by many commercial species. Mangrove-related fish and crab species account for 32% of the small

SUBMITTER: Aburto-Oropeza O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2492483 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature