Mangrove connectivity helps sustain coral reef fisheries under global climate change

Abstract

Introduction Severe impacts of global climate change on marine sheries resources are seemingly inevitable. Political and social pressures are not likely to bring about the necessary economic, societal, and resource use transformations soon enough to reverse damage to sheries (Hoegh-Guldberg and Bruno 2010). Resource managers seek to implement conservation measures that may allow at least some exploited sh populations on coral reefs to survive under altered ecosystem conditions. Conservation of coral reef sheries centers on the tropics, where people have traditionally relied on food from the sea. Thus, incentives to implement steps for offsetting losses due to climate change may be particularly valuable in those regions. This chapter presents an overview of climate change-induced impacts on two of the most important habitats in tropical sheries conservation: mangroves and coral reefs. After the potential benets of protecting mangrove habitats as an adaptive measure to conserve coral reef-associated sheries under global climate change are highlighted, two emerging areas of research are addressed: (1) quantifying the degree to which coral reef nsh populations of shery and conservation value depend on mangrove habitats as nurseries and (2) determining whether initiatives for protecting mangroves can mitigate the loss of coral reef habitat, thus helping to protect valuable sheries.