Event Abstract Back to Event Biodiversity, biomass, and community organization inside and outside marine protected areas Néstor S. Martínez1*, Jose A. Sanabria1, Natalí D. Lazzari1 and Mikel A. Becerro1 1 IPNA-CSIC, The Bites Lab, Spain Human activities associated with the rise of the world population are a major driver of ecological change and have a large toll in global biodiversity including that in world oceans. Marine protected areas are one of the main conservation actions to preserve marine biodiversity and recover fish stocks. Protected areas in the Spanish waters include marine protected areas, natural parks, and other conservation areas with a variety of status (MPAs, in general). Our study tested whether MPAs are effective tools to recover fish stocks in terms of richness, abundance, or biomass, and to preserve marine biodiversity as measured with the Shannon diversity index. We used standardized underwater visual censuses as specified by the citizen-based Reef Life Survey program to quantify the number and abundance of fish and invertebrates. Abundance and size information were used to calculate fish biomass. This species-level database allowed quantification of a number of biodiversity indicators inside and outside numerous MPAs distributed along the coasts of Spain and Portugal. We used an ANOVA design to test for differences in community organization inside and outside MPAs. We also used abundance data to calculate a number of metrics such as biomass, Shannon diversity or species richness. We ran a nested ANOVA to test for difference in these metrics as a function of 4 marine ecoregions of the world (Mediterranean, South Atlantic, Alboran Sea and Macaronesia), local geographic areas (nested within ecoregion), and level of protection of each point (protected and unprotected, orthogonal). Overall, protected areas have larger fish abundance and biomass. However, we observed significant differences between areas of the same ecoregion and between MPAs. Our results showed that protection efficiency varied between MPAs. At the community level, benthic invertivores, particularly wrasses and blennies, showed the most differences between protection levels. Despite some metrics showed higher values in protected than in unprotected areas, most metrics varied as a function of geographic area, which suggests for the need to create effective MPAs in multiple geographic locations should we aim to provide more efficient measures to preserve marine biodiversity. Keywords: Biodiversity, biomass, community organization, Marine Protected Areas (MPA), ecoregions Conference: XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies, Porto, Portugal, 5 Sep - 9 Sep, 2016. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: 1. ECOLOGY, BIODIVERSITY AND VULNERABLE ECOSYSTEMS Citation: Martínez NS, Sanabria JA, Lazzari ND and Becerro MA (2016). Biodiversity, biomass, and community organization inside and outside marine protected areas. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies. doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2016.05.00063 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 19 May 2016; Published Online: 02 Sep 2016. * Correspondence: Mr. Néstor S Martínez, IPNA-CSIC, The Bites Lab, San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 38206, Spain, nestorsanchezmartinez@gmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Néstor S Martínez Jose A Sanabria Natalí D Lazzari Mikel A Becerro Google Néstor S Martínez Jose A Sanabria Natalí D Lazzari Mikel A Becerro Google Scholar Néstor S Martínez Jose A Sanabria Natalí D Lazzari Mikel A Becerro PubMed Néstor S Martínez Jose A Sanabria Natalí D Lazzari Mikel A Becerro Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.