Fish Response to Multiple Anthropogenic Stressors in Mediterranean Coastal Lagoons: A Comparative Study of the Role of Different Management Strategies

Matteo Zucchetta,Fabrizio Capoccioni,Eleonora Ciccotti,Piero Franzoi,Chiara Leone

doi:10.3390/w13020130

Matteo Zucchetta, Fabrizio Capoccioni + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/w13020130

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Abstract

Transitional waters are among the most productive ecosystems of the world and their biotic communities show high diversity and complex mechanisms of self-regulation that provide valuable ecosystem services and societal goods and benefits. In this work a comparison of the fish assemblages of three non-tidal Mediterranean coastal lagoons is carried out in order to evaluate the impacts of alternative management strategies. The anthropogenic pressures acting on the lagoons were quantified by means of categorical indicators, while the characteristics of the fish assemblages were summarized in multi-metric indices (MMIs). Two MMIs were developed using data collected with a beach seine net and with fyke nets, following an empirical approach that selects, from a pool of 73 metrics, the combination that maximizes the MMI/pressure relationship. The two MMIs include four metrics each, most of which are based on feeding mode functional guilds and habitat use functional guilds, and they are sensitive to anthropogenic pressures. The human activities directly or indirectly affecting water quality are the ones that most influence the fish assemblage, while the presence of artisanal fisheries, a typical and relevant resource use in these lagoons, seems to play a beneficial role. Lagoon fisheries management relies on the maintenance of infrastructures that guarantee the hydraulic functioning of the lagoon, thus ensuring exchanges with the adjacent coastal sea, and therefore indirectly contributing to the habitat quality.

Highlights

Transitional waters are among the most productive ecosystems of the world
This study highlighted the effects of alternative management strategies in three nontidal coastal lagoons, the most typical transitional water body type of the Mediterranean ecoregion
This was achieved by comparing the structure of fish assemblages, synthetized in multi-metric indices (MMIs), against a wide range of anthropogenic pressures acting on the lagoons under study

Summary

Introduction

Transitional waters are among the most productive ecosystems of the world Their biotic communities show high diversity and complex mechanisms of self-regulation [1]. Estuarine, and lagoon environments are increasingly threatened by impacts due to anthropogenic pressures at the local scale, such as industrialization, urbanization, agriculture, and aquaculture expansion [3], and at the global scale, such as climate change and the invasion by exotic species or non-indigenous species [4]. These impacts often overlap, with cumulative effects [6,7] that will worsen in the future, and that lead to noticeable changes in the structure and functioning of coastal lagoon ecosystems. Successful and sustainable management of transitional habitats is based on an in-depth knowledge of these ecosystems, taking into account their environmental characteristics, their variability and complexity, and the connectivity degree between lagoon and sea [3]

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