Data from: Size, age, and habitat determine effectiveness of Palau's Marine Protected Areas

Usage Notes: Palau_fishdata_Dryad Palau fish data Palau_benthicdata_DryadPalau has a rich heritage of conservation that has evolved from the traditional moratoria on fishing, or "bul", to more western Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), while still retaining elements of customary management and tenure. In 2003, the Palau Protected Areas Network (PAN) was created to conserve Palau's unique biodiversity and culture, and is the country's mechanism for achieving the goals of the Micronesia Challenge (MC), an initiative to conserve ?30% of near-shore marine resources within the region by 2020. The PAN comprises a network of numerous MPAs within Palau that vary in age, size, level of management, and habitat, which provide an excellent opportunity to test hypotheses concerning MPA design and function using multiple discreet sampling units. Our sampling design provided a robust space for time comparison to evaluate the relative influence of potential drivers of MPA efficacy. Our results showed that no-take MPAs had, on average, nearly twice the biomass of resource fishes (i.e. those important commercially, culturally, or for subsistence) compared to nearby unprotected areas. Biomass of non-resource fishes showed no differences between no-take areas and areas open to fishing. The most striking difference between no-take MPAs and unprotected areas was the more than 5-fold greater biomass of piscivorous fishes in the MPAs compared to fished areas. The most important determinates of no-take MPA success in conserving resource fish biomass were MPA size and years of protection. Habitat and distance from shore had little effect on resource fish biomass. The extensive network of MPAs in Palau likely provides important conservation and tourism benefits to the Republic, and may also provide fisheries benefits by protecting spawning aggregation sites, and potentially through adult spillover.Peer reviewe

Size, age, and habitat determine effectiveness of Palau's Marine Protected Areas.

Palau has a rich heritage of conservation that has evolved from the traditional moratoria on fishing, or "bul", to more western Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), while still retaining elements of customary management and tenure. In 2003, the Palau Protected Areas Network (PAN) was created to conserve Palau's unique biodiversity and culture, and is the country's mechanism for achieving the goals of the Micronesia Challenge (MC), an initiative to conserve ≥30% of near-shore marine resources within the region by 2020. The PAN comprises a network of numerous MPAs within Palau that vary in age, size, level of management, and habitat, which provide an excellent opportunity to test hypotheses concerning MPA design and function using multiple discreet sampling units. Our sampling design provided a robust space for time comparison to evaluate the relative influence of potential drivers of MPA efficacy. Our results showed that no-take MPAs had, on average, nearly twice the biomass of resource fishes (i.e. those important commercially, culturally, or for subsistence) compared to nearby unprotected areas. Biomass of non-resource fishes showed no differences between no-take areas and areas open to fishing. The most striking difference between no-take MPAs and unprotected areas was the more than 5-fold greater biomass of piscivorous fishes in the MPAs compared to fished areas. The most important determinates of no-take MPA success in conserving resource fish biomass were MPA size and years of protection. Habitat and distance from shore had little effect on resource fish biomass. The extensive network of MPAs in Palau likely provides important conservation and tourism benefits to the Republic, and may also provide fisheries benefits by protecting spawning aggregation sites, and potentially through adult spillover

Characteristics of Marine Protected Areas in Palau surveyed during the 2014 expedition.

<p>N is the number of transects at each MPA, divided equally between the two depth strata (10 and 20 m). An equal number of samples were conducted at adjacent areas open to fishing.</p

Biomass (t ha^-1, mean ± standard error) by fish trophic groups and management (open to fishing and MPA).

<p>The asterisk identifies significant differences between MPA and adjacent open area.</p

A. Results of redundancy analysis (RDA) on log-transformed, fish biomass data for trophic groups with MPA variables (size, age, distance from land, coral cover, PC1, and PC2).

<p>B. Conditional effects of Monte-Carlo permutation results on the redundancy analysis (RDA).</p

Biplot of results of redundancy analysis on fish biomass of trophic groups with MPA variables (MPA age, MPA size, distance from land, live coral cover, and benthic habitat [PC1, PC2]).

<p>Data were centered, standardized, and log transformed fish biomass for trophic groups by MPA. MPA characteristics were centered and standardized prior to analysis.</p

Comparison of resource fish biomass (t ha^-1, mean ± standard error) inside and outside MPAs.

<p>Asterisks denote MPA/open pairs that are significantly different.</p

Comparison of benthic community composition among MPAs and adjacent open areas based on permutation-based multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA).

<p>Comparison of benthic community composition among MPAs and adjacent open areas based on permutation-based multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA).</p

Principal component analysis (PCA) of major benthic groups from all sites.

<p>Percent cover data were arcsine square root transformed prior to analysis. Top figure shows site separation while lower figure shows drivers that explain the most variance in the principal components.</p

Nonmetric multidimensional scaling plot of mean fish biomass for each MPA and adjacent open areas.

<p>Arrows denote the direction and magnitude from open area to MPA in ordination space. Stress = 0.11.</p