Abstract
Marine ecosystem-based management requires good spatial information on the distribution of marine species and habitats. Often, such information is limited to a few sampled locations, but modelling techniques can be applied to produce predictive distribution maps. A harmonized broad-scale seabed habitat map was recently produced for the archipelagos of Macaronesia under the EMODnet Seabed Habitats Programme. We use this new information to produce an extent-based evaluation of the representativeness and level of protection conferred by the current set of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Azores to the variety of benthic marine habitats found in this oceanic region. A more objective assessment of the protection effectively provided to the habitats is obtained by applying a scoring system to the MPAs based on the number of allowed extractive and non-extractive human activities and their potential impact on marine biodiversity and habitats. Results show that Azorean habitats within the MPAs are nearly entirely classified as highly protected. In total, 26 habitats (7 of which are endangered and 2 are rare) have at least 10% of their extent in the Azores EEZ protected by MPAs, but another 29 fail to meet this target (4 on-shelf habitats and 25 deep-sea habitats), highlighting the need to extend current protection of bathyal and abyssal habitats and applying adequate ecological coherence criteria. This approach sets a standard that can be used wherever similar information is available, be it in other European regions or beyond.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
adapted from Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 and Sydney Recommendation, respectively. The colour code represents level of protection: light grey as moderately protected, dark grey as highly protected and black as fully protected. Note the only fully protected area covers a mere 0.1% of the infralittoral
References
Abecasis RC, Afonso P, Colaço A et al (2015) Marine conservation in the Azores: evaluating marine protected area development in a remote island context. Front Mar Sci 2:104. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2015.00104
Afonso P, Schmiing M, Fontes J et al (2018) Effects of marine protected areas on coastal fishes across the Azores Archipelago, Mid-North Atlantic. J Sea Res 138:34–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seares.2018.04.003
Al-Hamdani Z, Reker J, Alanen U et al (2007) Towards marine landscapes in the Baltic Sea. BALANCE. BALANCE Interim Report, No. 10
Amorim P, Atchoi E, Berecibar E, Tempera F (2015) Infralittoral mapping around an oceanic archipelago using MERIS FR satellite imagery and deep kelp observations: a new tool for assessing MPA coverage targets. J Sea Res 100:141–151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seares.2014.10.002
Batista MI, Cabral HN (2016) An overview of Marine Protected Areas in SW Europe: factors contributing to their management effectiveness. Ocean Coast Manag 132:15–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2016.07.005
Braga-Henriques A, Porteiro FM, Ribeiro PA et al (2013) Diversity, distribution and spatial structure of the cold-water coral fauna of the Azores (NE Atlantic). Biogeosciences 10:4009–4036. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-4009-2013
Connor DW, Allen JH, Golding N et al (2004) The Marine Habitat Classification for Britain and Ireland. Version 04.05. Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Peterborough
Convention on Biological Diversity (2010) DecisionX/2—The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. In: Tenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan
Costello MJ, Ballantine B (2015) Biodiversity conservation should focus on no-take Marine Reserves: 94% of Marine Protected Areas allow fishing. Trends Ecol Evol 30:507–509. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2015.06.011
Davies CE, Moss D, Hill MO (2004) EUNIS habitat classification revised 2004. Interim Report of European Environment Agency. European Topic Centre on Nature Protection and Biodiversity, UK
Davies J, Young S (2008) MESH Guide to Habitat Mapping. MESH Project. Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Peterborough
Dudley N, Day J, Laffoley D et al (2017) Defining marine protected areas: a response to Horta e Costa et al. Mar Policy 77:191–192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2016.11.024
Dunn DC, Van Dover CL, Etter RJ et al (2018) A strategy for the conservation of biodiversity on mid-ocean ridges from deep-sea mining. Sci Adv 4:eaar4313. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aar4313
Dureuil M, Boerder K, Burnett KA et al (2018) Elevated trawling inside protected areas undermines conservation outcomes in a global fishing hot spot. Science 362:1403–1407. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aau0561
European Environmental Agency (EEA) (2018) https://eunis.eea.europa.eu/habitats-code-browser.jsp?expand=A#level_A. Accessed 14 Feb 2018
European Marine Observation Data Network (EMODnet) (2017) Seabed Habitats Project. https://www.emodnet-seabedhabitats.eu/access-data/download-data/. Accessed 17 Oct 2017
Fogarty MJ, McCarthy JJ (eds) (2014) Marine ecosystem-based management. In: The sea: ideas and observations on progress in the study of the seas, vol 16. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Fraschetti S, Guarnieri G, Bevilacqua S et al (2013) Protection enhances community and habitat stability: evidence from a Mediterranean Marine Protected Area. PLoS ONE 8(12):e81838. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0081838
GAMPA (2019) Relatório não técnico - Monitorização de áreas marinhas protegidas dos Açores com regulamentação de restrição à atividade da pesca – MONIZEC-ARP (in Portuguese)
García-Rubies A, Hereu B, Zabala M (2013) Long-term recovery patterns and limited spillover of large predatory fish in a Mediterranean MPA. PLoS ONE 8(9)e73922. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0073922
Gubbay S, Sanders N, Haynes T et al (2016) European Red List of Habitats—Part 1, marine habitats. European Union. https://doi.org/10.2779/032638
Halpern BS, Frazier M, Potapenko J et al (2015) Spatial and temporal changes in cumulative human impacts on the world’s ocean. Nat Commun 6:1–7. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms8615
Harris PT, Baker EK (eds) (2011) Seafloor geomorphology as benthic habitat: Geohab atlas of seafloor geomorphic features and benthic habitats. Elsevier, London
Horta e Costa B, Claudet J, Franco G et al (2016) A regulation-based classification system for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Mar Policy 72:192–198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2016.06.021
Horta e Costa B, Claudet J, Franco G et al (2017) A regulation-based classification system for marine protected areas: a response to Dudley et al. Mar Policy 77:193–195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2016.11.025
Horta e Costa B, Gonçalves JM, Franco G et al (2019) Categorizing ocean conservation targets to avoid a potential false sense of protection to society: Portugal as a case-study. Mar policy 108:103553. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2019.103553
Laffoley D, Gjerde K, Wood L (2008) Progress on marine protected areas since Durban and future directions. Parks 17(2):13–22
Lillebø AI, Pita C, Garcia Rodrigues J et al (2017) How can marine ecosystem services support the Blue Growth Agenda? Mar Policy 81:132–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2017.03.008
Malecha P, Heifetz J (2017) Long-term effects of bottom trawling on large sponges in the Gulf of Alaska. Cont Shelf Res 150:18–26
Menezes GM, Sigler MF, Silva HM, Pinho MR (2006) Structure and zonation of demersal fish assemblages off the Azores Archipelago (Mid-Atlantic). Mar Ecol Prog Ser 324:241–260
Morato T, Watson R, Pitcher TJ, Pauly D (2006) Fishing down the deep. Fish Fish 7:24–34
Morato T, Machete M, Kitchingman A et al (2008) Abundance and distribution of seamounts in the Azores. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 357:17–21. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps07268
OSPAR (2007) Background document to support the assessment of whether the OSPAR Network of Marine Protected Areas is ecologically coherent. OSPAR Biodiversity Series, 320
OSPAR (2008) OSPAR list of threatened and/or declining species & habitats. Reference Number: 2008–6. https://www.ospar.org/work-areas/bdc/species-habitats/list-of-threatened-declining-species-habitats. Accessed 20 Feb 2018
Peran AD, Pham CK, Amorim P et al (2016) Seafloor characteristics in the Azores region (North Atlantic). Front Mar Sci 3:2014–2017. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2016.00204
Populus J, Vasquez M, Albrecht J et al (2017) EUSeaMap. A European broad-scale seabed habitat map. https://doi.org/10.13155/49975
Quartau R, Trenhaile AS, Mitchell NC, Tempera F (2010) Development of volcanic insular shelves: Insights from observations and modelling of Faial Island in the Azores Archipelago. Mar Geol 275:66–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2010.04.008
Rebelo AC, Johnson ME, Quartau R et al (2018) Modern rhodoliths from the Insular Shelf of Pico in the Azores (Northeast Atlantic Ocean). Estuar Coast Shelf Sci 210:7–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2018.05.029
Roff JC (2014) Networks of marine protected areas—the demonstrability dilemma. Aquat Conserv Mar Freshw Ecosyst 24:1–4. https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.2429
Santos R, Hawkins S, Monteiro LR et al (1995) Marine research, resources and conservation in the Azores. Aquat Conserv Mar Freshw Ecosyst 5:311–354. https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.3270050406
Schmiing M, Diogo H, Santos RS, Afonso P (2014) Assessing hotspots within hotspots to conserve biodiversity and support fisheries management. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 513:187–199. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10924
Schmiing M, Diogo H, Santos RS, Afonso P (2015) Marine conservation of multispecies and multi-use areas with various conservation objectives and targets. ICES J Mar Sci 72:851–862. https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsu180
Tempera F (2008) Benthic habitats of the extended Faial Island Shelf and their relationship to geologic, oceanographic and infralittoral biological features. Dissertation, University of St Andrews
Tempera F, Atchoi E, Amorim P et al (2013) Atlantic Area Marine Habitats. Adding new Macaronesian habitat types from the Azores to the EUNIS Habitat Classification. Technical Report No. 4/2013. MESH-Atlantic, IMAR/DOP-UAç, Horta. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.3479.8808
UNEP-WCMC (2008) National and regional networks of Marine Protected Areas: a review of progress. United Nations Environment Programme, World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge
Van Hoof L, Van Leeuwen J, Van Tatenhove J (2012) All at sea; regionalisation and integration of marine policy in Europe. Marit Stud 11:14. https://doi.org/10.1186/2212-9790-11-9
Vasquez M, Mata Chacón D, Tempera F et al (2015) Broad-scale mapping of seafloor habitats in the north-east Atlantic using existing environmental data. J Sea Res 100:120–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seares.2014.09.011
Wallenstein FFMM, Neto AI (2006) Intertidal rocky shore biotopes of the Azores: a quantitative approach. Helgol Mar Res 60:196–206. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10152-006-0035-6
Wenzel L, Laffoley D, Caillaud A, Zuccarino-Crowe C (2016) Protecting the World’s ocean—the promise of Sydney. Aquat Conserv Mar Freshw Ecosyst 26:251–255. https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.2659
Acknowledgements
Mara Schmiing was supported by an Individual Research Grant from the Fundo Regional para a Ciência e Tecnologia (M3.1.a/F/044/2016). Barbara Horta e Costa was supported by national funds through FCT: Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., in the scope of Norma Transitória DL57/2016/CP1361/CT0038. Part of the seabed habitat data was obtained from the European Marine Observation Data Network (EMODnet) Seabed Habitats Project (www.emodnet-seabedhabitats.eu), funded by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE). Thanks are due to Project MESH-Atlantic (AA-10/1218525/BF) for co-financing Patrícia Amorim’s Contract. We acknowledge funds provided by the Portuguese Science & Technology Foundation (FCT) through individual contracts/grants to Pedro Afonso (IF/01640/2015) and to Fernando Tempera (Ref. SFRH/BPD/79801/2011) while at IMAR/DOP-UAz. CCMAR is supported by FCT through the strategic Project UID/Multi/04326/2019.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by David Hawksworth.
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This article belongs to the Topical Collection: Coastal and marine biodiversity.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Milla-Figueras, D., Schmiing, M., Amorim, P. et al. Evaluating seabed habitat representativeness across a diverse set of marine protected areas on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Biodivers Conserv 29, 1153–1175 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-019-01929-y
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-019-01929-y
Keywords
- Protected area network
- Representativeness
- Marine habitats
- EUNIS
- Regulation-based classification
- Azores