Abstract
Towing gears are known to produce several kinds of effects on benthic ecosystems. As small organisms and benthic species with faster growth rates and shorter life histories can withstand the fishing mortality and benefit from reduced competition or predation, trawl fishing can enhance their proliferation. Thus, trawl fishing can lead to biomass loss and production increase, since smaller specimens are more productive than bigger ones. In the present study we evaluate the effects, if any, of trawling on benthic crustacean macrofaunal production rates. Sampling was carried out in two neighbouring sites in the central Adriatic Sea (central Mediterranean), one affected by fishing activity and one not. Production and production/biomass (P/B) ratio of 13 species of peracarid and eucarid crustaceans were estimated using the Hynes size-frequency method. Estimates measured at both sites were compared in order to test the hypothesis that higher production and P/B values should occur in the fished area rather than in the unfished one. Our results indicated that the effects on the species are more complex than expected in regard to this hypothesis, and that they depend on the ecological and behavioural characteristics of the selected species.
Highlights
Benthic secondary production is an important component in establishing the energy flow in marine ecosystems
Suprabenthos represents the Benthic Boundary Layer macrofaunal assemblage constituted by small-sized animals
This paper aims to estimate the effects of trawling activity on the production and P/B ratio of some of the most abundant crustacean species in the study area
Summary
Benthic secondary production is an important component in establishing the energy flow in marine ecosystems. Secondary production has economic relevance in demersal communities subject to fishery exploitation (Cartes and Sorbe 1999). Quantification of the energy flow through benthic communities has traditionally been based only on infauna and epifauna, while vagile macrofauna (suprabenthos or hyperbenthos) have received only little attention. La producción béntica secundaria es un componente importante para establecer el flujo energético en ecosistemas marinos. Más allá de su importancia ecológica, la producción secundaria tiene relevancia económica para las comunidades demersales sujetas a explotación pesquera (Cartes y Sorbe 1999). La cuantificación del flujo energético a través de las comunidades bénticas tradicionalmente se ha basado sólo en la infauna y epifauna, mientras que la macrofauna móbil (suprabentos o hiperbentos) ha recibido poca atención.
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