Marine protected area restricts demographic connectivity: Dissimilarity in a marine environment can function as a biological barrier.

ABSTRACT: The establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) can often lead to environmental differences between MPAs and fishing zones. To determine the effects on marine dispersal of environmental dissimilarity between an MPA and fishing zone, we examined the abundance and recruitment patterns of two anemonefishes (Amphiprion frenatus and A. perideraion) that inhabit sea anemones in different management zones (i.e., an MPA and two fishing zones) by performing a field survey and a genetic parentage analysis. We found lower levels of abundance per anemone in the MPA compared to the fishing zones for both species (n = 1,525 anemones, p = .032). The parentage analysis also showed that lower numbers of fishes were recruited from the fishing zones and outside of the study are

SUBMITTER: Sato M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5632639 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature