Changes in rocky reef fish assemblages across a protection gradient in the NW Mediterranean Sea

Abstract Fishing has historically altered marine ecosystems around the Mediterranean, so that present assessments often reveal a distorted representation of past, pristine marine assemblages and food webs. Marine protected areas (MPAs), where fishing is restricted or prohibited, could provide reference information about the structure of fish assemblages under healthier (protected) conditions. Here, we collected rocky reef fish data using visual census at three MPAs in the Ligurian Sea (Bergeggi Island, Portofino, and Cinque Terre; NW Mediterranean) across a protection gradient: fully and partially protected conditions within the MPAs, and conditions open to fishing outside MPAs. Results show that: (i) fish assemblages’ structures (i.e. taxa composition and relative biomasses) change with the protection level; (ii) total fish biomass and the biomass of high-level fish predators are positively correlated with the level of protection; (iii) biomass of target species (i.e. Epinephelus marginatus, Sciaena umbra, Diplodus sargus, and D. vulgaris) are positively correlated with the protection level. In conclusion, this study shows that: (i) effective protection against fishing may allow the recovery of rocky reef fish assemblages; (ii) MPAs may enable us to better understand the structure of coastal assemblages, which are dominated in terms of biomass by high-level fish predators under healthier (protected) conditions. This study thus offers grounds for discussion of how important is the adoption of systematic ecological monitoring to assess the effectiveness of each individual MPA, but also, more importantly, to properly effectively achieve international conservation targets, such as the ‘30×30’ target, agreed by the international community.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom

• Publication date

  2025-10-30

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1017/S0025315425100763
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Evidence of economic benefits from marine protected areas

  2024cited by this paper
• Ocean protection quality is lagging behind quantity: Applying a scientific framework to assess real marine protected area progress against the 30 by 30 target

  2024cited by this paper
• Marine protected areas are linked to higher predation rates by fish in shallow urbanised reefs, but only in no-take reserves

  2023cited by this paper
• Hypocrisy is threatening the future of the world’s oceans

  2023cited by this paper
• The Increasing Coastal Urbanization in the Mediterranean Environment: The State of the Art in Italy

  2023cited by this paper
• The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework: Business as usual or a turning point?

  2023cited by this paper
• Optimal fishing effort benefits fisheries and conservation

  2021cited by this paper
• Evaluating the social and ecological effectiveness of partially protected marine areas

  2021cited by this paper
• Exceptionally high but still growing predatory reef fish biomass after 23 years of protection in a Marine Protected Area

  2021cited by this paper
• Mediterranean rocky reefs in the Anthropocene: Present status and future concerns.

  2021cited by this paper
• The MPA Guide: A framework to achieve global goals for the ocean

  2021cited by this paper
• Brazil’s marine protected areas fail to meet global conservation goals

  2021cited by this paper
• Inconsistent relationships among protection, benthic assemblage, habitat complexity and fish biomass in Mediterranean temperate rocky reefs

  2021cited by this paper
• Protecting the global ocean for biodiversity, food and climate

  2021cited by this paper
• The Aichi Biodiversity Targets: achievements for marine conservation and priorities beyond 2020

  2020cited by this paper
• Towards a sustainable and equitable blue economy

  2019cited by this paper
• Marine partially protected areas: drivers of ecological effectiveness

  2018cited by this paper
• Permutational Multivariate Analysis of Variance (PERMANOVA)

  2017influential reference
• Ecological effects of full and partial protection in the crowded Mediterranean Sea: a regional meta-analysis

  2017influential reference
• The Science of Marine Protected Areas (3rd edition, Mediterranean)

  2016cited by this paper
• Perspectives on the link between ecosystem services and biodiversity: The assessment of the nursery function

  2016cited by this paper
• Large-Scale Assessment of Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas Effects on Fish Assemblages

  2014influential reference
• Marine Protected Area Networks: Assessing Whether the Whole Is Greater than the Sum of Its Parts

  2014cited by this paper
• Cumulative Human Impacts on Mediterranean and Black Sea Marine Ecosystems: Assessing Current Pressures and Opportunities

  2013cited by this paper
• The importance of high-level predators in marine protected area management: Consequences of their decline and their potential recovery in the Mediterranean context

  2013cited by this paper
• Integrating pelagic and coastal MPAs into large‐scale ecosystem‐wide management

  2013cited by this paper
• Biodiversity loss and its impact on humanity

  2012cited by this paper
• The Structure of Mediterranean Rocky Reef Ecosystems across Environmental and Human Gradients, and Conservation Implications

  2012cited by this paper
• Marine protected areas: a multidisciplinary approach.

  2011cited by this paper
• Large Recovery of Fish Biomass in a No-Take Marine Reserve

  2011cited by this paper
• Ancient art serving marine conservation

  2011cited by this paper
• Observational methods used in marine spatial monitoring of fishes and associated habitats: a review

  2010cited by this paper
• Marine reserves: fish life history and ecological traits matter.

  2010cited by this paper
• The Biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea: Estimates, Patterns, and Threats

  2010cited by this paper
• Evaluating effects of total and partial restrictions to fishing on Mediterranean rocky-reef fish assemblages

  2009cited by this paper
• Loss of Large Predatory Sharks from the Mediterranean Sea

  2008cited by this paper
• Effectiveness of European Atlanto-Mediterranean MPAs: Do they accomplish the expected effects on populations, communities and ecosystems?

  2008cited by this paper
• Community-wide effects of marine reserves in the Mediterranean Sea

  2007cited by this paper
• Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity

  2007cited by this paper
• Marine reserves reestablish lost predatory interactions and cause community changes in rocky reefs.

  2006cited by this paper
• The Past and Present Topology and Structure of Mediterranean Subtidal Rocky-shore Food Webs

  2004cited by this paper
• SLIDING BASELINES, GHOSTS, AND REDUCED EXPECTATIONS IN KELP FOREST COMMUNITIES

  1998cited by this paper
• Fishing, trophic cascades, and the structure of algal assemblages : evaluation of an old but untested paradigm

  1998cited by this paper
• Fishing down marine food webs

  1998cited by this paper
• FishBase

  1996influential reference
• Evaluation visuelle des peuplements et populations de poissons : méthodes et problèmes

  1985cited by this paper

• No citing papers are available for this paper.