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CRES: Component: Socio-Economic Coupling
OVERVIEW
OBJECTIVES
The goal of this research component is to create a flexible decision support system environment that allows managers to bring together a suite of biological, physical, ecological and socioeconomic data and models relevant for spatial multi-objective management decision making in the coral reef ecosystem of Puerto Rico. Scientific findings developed with CRES have and will be integrated using a relational database and GIS technologies housed within an interdisciplinary predictive Decision Support System (DSS). The objective of developing the DSS is to couple ecological and socio-economic results so that managers can predict or assess the impact of a management or suite of management strategies within and outside MPA boundaries. Most importantly, the DSS will provide managers not only the study results in a user-friendly format, but a capability to conduct impact scenario assessments from implementation of various management strategies. The system has been and will be formulated to address the overall goals of defining and understanding the causes of Caribbean coral reef ecosystem degradation and to stop or reverse the degradation based on the integrated research program.
The objectives of this study were to: (i) evaluate a series of length composition data from commercial, recreational, and scientific surveys for length-based estimation of stock mortality rates; (ii) use these data to compute sustainability benchmarks for the exploited reef fish community in Puerto Rico; and (iii) compare these estimates with those similarly derived from the Florida Keys. In application, fishing mortality estimates from fishery-dependent and fishery-independent size composition data were comparable. Our findings indicate that a majority of snapper-grouper species in Puerto Rico are currently fished at unsustainable levels (Figure EC1), and that overfishing may be altering community trophodynamic structure, and affect the time horizon of expected recovery for the coral reef ecosystem (Figure EC2).
CURRENT RESULTS
Simulation and empirical analyses have been conducted to evaluate sustainability benchmarks for Puerto Rico coral reef fishes (Ault et al. 2006) using average size ( Lbar , in length) of animals in the exploited part of the population as an indicator variable of exploitation computed from CRES-derived fishery-independent visual census work by Monaco et al. (2005), and from fishery-dependent statistics. Simulation results showed that an Lbar estimator of fishing mortality was relatively insensitive to trends in recruitment, and demonstrated favorable properties for detecting statistical differences between sustainable and non-sustainable rates of exploitation.
Figure EC1.- Comparative spawning potential ratio analysis for 29 exploited reef fish species from Puerto Rico (green) and Florida Keys (orange) coral reef ecosystems for the period 2000-2002. Dark bars indicate overfished stocks, open bars indicate stocks that are above the 30% SPR standard, and hatched bars indicate that stocks are within 3% of the SPR standard.
Figure EC2.- Plot of estimated spawning potential ratio (SPR) dependent on M/K (natural mortality rate divided by the growth rate) for 29 exploited groupers (blue), snappers (yellow), and grunts (green) from Puerto Rico and Florida Keys.
PUBLICATIONS
- During the past project period several scientific peer-reviewed journal papers derivative of our CRES research were recently published or are in review to be published.
- Ault, J.S., Smith, S.G., Luo, J., Monaco, M.E., and R.S. Appeldoorn. (2006). Length-based assessment of sustainability benchmarks for reef fishes in Puerto Rico. Environmental Management, submitted
- Ault, J.S., Smith, S.G., Bohnsack, J.A., Luo, J., Harper, D.E., and D.B. McClellan. (2006). Building sustainable fisheries in Florida’s coral reef ecosystem: positive signs in the Dry Tortugas. Bulletin of Marine Science, in press
- Ault, J.S., Smith, S.G., and J.A. Bohnsack. (2005a). Evaluation of average length as an indicator of exploitation status for the Florida coral reef fish community. ICES Journal of Marine Science 62:417-423.
- Ault, J.S., Bohnsack, J.A., Smith, S.G., and J. Luo. (2005b). Towards sustainable multispecies fisheries in the Florida USA coral reef ecosystem. Bulletin of Marine Science 76(2):595-622.
- Meester, G.A., Mehrotra, A., Ault, J.S., and E.K. Baker. (2004). Designing marine reserves for fishery management. Management Science 50(8):1031-1043.
- Bohnsack, J.A., Ault, J.S., and B. Causey. (2004). Why have no-take marine protected areas? American Fisheries Society Symposium 42:185-193.
CURRENT RESEARCH FOCUS
Current research is focused on synthesis modeling efforts to assist and direct decision making actions to build robust management systems that sustain the Puerto Rico coral reef ecosystem. To this end, we have developed quantitative framework methods for the design of marine reserves for fishery management in spatially heterogeneous coastal ocean environments (Ault et al. 2005a,b; Meester et al. 2004; Bohnsack et al. 2004). Much of this parallel development has been highly applicable to the Puerto Rico CRES study as data and methods have evolved. We have conducted the first-ever multispecies assessment of reef fishes in Puerto Rico and compared these results to the Florida Keys fishery (Ault et al. 2006). Preliminary meetings will be held to decide on the most appropriate manner in which results will be integrated. We will continue to conduct rigorous statistical analyses to identify key relationships with an eye on providing precise parameterizations and initial conditions for our pilot analytical models to be developed for management decision support. In project Year 5, we plan to complete the development and parameterization of analytical models for coupling biological, physical, ecological, and socioeconomic processes within a computer decision support system, and develop a user interface. We will use this modeling and decision-support interface to conduct management scenario evaluations of the multispecies reef fisheries in Puerto Rico, with particular emphasis of the region around La Paguera. This work is set to begin this fiscal year.
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