Composition and structure of the ichthyofauna in a marine protected area in the western equatorial Atlantic: A baseline to support conservation management

Abstract

In reef environments, fish assemblages are characterized by great species diversity in a vast spectrum of niches. In addition, many species constitute important resources for fisheries and tourism activities, with some included in lists of endangered species. In this socio-ecological context, data from fish assemblages has frequently subsidized the creation and/or management of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). With the purpose of providing a baseline assessment of reef fish to subsidize the management of Pedra da Risca do Meio Marine State Park (whose acronym in Portuguese is PEMPRM), we describe the composition and assemblages structure of the fishes in this MPA. To inventory the species, we conducted 112 SCUBA dives with the intensive search method at eight sites inside the PEMPRM during six years of sampling. In parallel, to assess the structure of the assemblages, we conducted 63 stationary visual censuses distributed among three of these sites during one year of sampling. In total, 131 taxa belonging to 54 families were identified representing approximately half of the regional diversity. Thirteen of these species (10%) are included in categories with some level of threat IUCN or Brazilian red list categories and six are considered endemic to the Brazilian Biogeographic Province. The assemblages of the three studied sites varied in species richness, number of endangered species, and trophic structure. These results were corroborated by multivariate analyses (PERMANOVA) that indicated significant differences among the assemblages of the three sites. Our results point to a spatial zoning approach for the management of PEMPRM.