Abstract
In the Mexican Caribbean, 15 marine protected areas (MPAs) have been established for managing and protecting marine ecosystems. These MPAs receive high anthropogenic pressure from coastal development, tourism, and fishing, all in synergy with climate change. To contribute to the MPAs’ effectiveness, it is necessary to provide a long-term observation system of the condition of marine ecosystems and species. Our study proposes the establishment of a new marine biodiversity monitoring program (MBMP) focusing on three MPAs of the Mexican Caribbean. Five conservation objects (COs) were defined (coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves, marine turtles, and sharks-rays) for their ecological relevance and the pressures they are facing. Coral reef, seagrass and mangroves have multiple biological, biogeochemical and physical interactions. Marine turtles are listed as endangered species, and the status of their populations is unknown in the marine area of the MPAs. Elasmobranchs play a key role as top and medium predators, and their populations have been poorly studied. Indicators were proposed for monitoring each CO. As a technological innovation, all information obtained from the MBMP will be uploaded to the Coastal Marine Information and Analysis System (SIMAR), a public, user-friendly and interactive web platform that allows for automatic data management and processing.
Highlights
Marine ecosystems provide essential goods and services to humans: food source, coastal protection and climate regulation, among others [1]
Our study focused on three selected Marine protected areas (MPAs), proposed as pilot protected areas of the GEF5-Resilience project due to their high priority, in terms of their potential vulnerability and the significance of their biodiversity or the ecosystem services which they provide [29]
According to the presence and relevance of the most important natural assets of the MPAs within the GEF5-Resilience project, five priority conservation objects were defined for the Mexican Caribbean region, including ecosystems and species (Figure 3; Table 2): The seagrass beds of the Nichupté Lagoon System are among the most affected by increasing tourism
Summary
Marine ecosystems provide essential goods and services to humans: food source, coastal protection and climate regulation, among others [1]. In the Mexican Caribbean, there are 15 federal marine protected areas (Table 1; Figure 1), which provide critical habitats for feeding, nesting and raising a large number of commercially important, threatened or endangered species [17] These MPAs include extensive regions of coral reefs, seagrass beds, coastal dunes and mangroves that maintain high ecological connectivity with each other. Given the relevance of the Mexican Caribbean, forming part of the largest coral reef in the western hemisphere [27], numerous monitoring initiatives have been implemented and developed, mainly in the last 20 years, promoted by government organizations, the civil society and academia This has led to an increasing number of databases produced using different monitoring methods, which makes comparability difficult and limits their usefulness in determining environmental policy measures [24]. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development”, as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
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