Marine Spatial Planning Efforts Research Articles

A Decade of South Africa’s Acoustic Tracking Array Platform: An Example of a Successful Ocean Stewardship Programme

The Blue Economy is a global initiative aimed at using marine resources to create economic viability and environmental sustainability. While successes have been reported, for example, in Europe and China, examples of African successes are notably missing. Abject poverty, unemployment and food insecurity are everyday concerns on the African continent; however, its large latitudinal coverage gives rise to extremely biodiverse marine fauna, which could promote socio-economic development of coastal communities through initiatives such as sustainably-managed fisheries. In order to improve sustainability via improved management, information on a species and its habitat is needed, particularly how it moves and in which areas it occurs. Acoustic telemetry is a powerful tool used to determine the movements of aquatic animals, the success of which has led to the development of several large-scale networks throughout the globe, including South Africa’s Acoustic Tracking Array Platform. This network, formally in place for the last decade, has now matured, and data are revealing insights into residency, habitat connectivity and transboundary movements of a multitude of animals, with some species having been continually detected for the past 10 years. These data are also actively being incorporated into marine spatial planning efforts, with the aim of protecting threatened and endemic species. Due to knowledge generation, successful benefit-sharing arrangements, and dedication to engage with the public and other stakeholder groups, the ATAP represents a highly successful example of ocean stewardship in Africa.

Potential impacts from simulated vessel noise and sonar on commercially important invertebrates.

Human usage of coastal water bodies continues to increase and many invertebrates face a broad suite of anthropogenic stressors (e.g., warming, pollution, acidification, fishing pressure). Underwater sound is a stressor that continues to increase in coastal areas, but the potential impact on invertebrates is not well understood. In addition to masking natural sound cues which may be important for behavioral interactions, there is a small but increasing body of scientific literature indicating sublethal physiological stress may occur in invertebrates exposed to high levels of underwater sound, particularly low frequency sounds such as vessel traffic, construction noise, and some types of sonar. Juvenile and sub-adult blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) and American lobsters (Homarus americanus) were exposed to simulated low-frequency vessel noise (a signal was low-pass filtered below 1 kHz to ensure low-frequency content only) and mid-frequency sonar (a 1-s 1.67 kHz continuous wave pulse followed by a 2.5 to 4.0 kHz 1-s linear frequency modulated chirp) and behavioral response (the animal’s activity level) was quantified during and after exposure using EthoVision XT™ from overhead video recordings. Source noise was quantified by particle acceleration and pressure. Physiological response to the insults (stress and recovery) were also quantified by measuring changes in hemolymph heat shock protein (HSP27) and glucose over 7 days post-exposure. In general, physiological indicators returned to baseline levels within approximately 48 h, and no observable difference in mortality between treatment and control animals was detected. However, there was a consistent amplified hemolymph glucose signal present 7 days after exposure for those animals exposed to mid-frequency sound and there were changes to C. sapidus competitive behavior within 24 h of exposure to sound. These results stress the importance of considering the impacts of underwater sound among the suite of stressors facing marine and estuarine invertebrates, and in the discussion of management actions such as protected areas, impact assessments, and marine spatial planning efforts.

Participatory GIS mapping highlights indirect use and existence values of coastal resources and marine conservation areas

Consideration of social and cultural dimensions in coastal and marine planning has increased and ecosystem services provide important framing to investigate values and priorities associated with these systems. Research efforts in coastal communities offer insights on social dimensions of ocean and coastal management decisions, but questions remain about how demographics and geographic residence affect perceptions of marine resources and management. We conducted and analyzed a public participation geographic information system (PPGIS) mapping survey of Oregon residents to capture uses and perceived values of coastal and marine areas. We measured coastal values, explored regional differences in those values, and identified a suite of coastal and marine ecosystem services that Oregonians prioritize from the recently established marine reserve network. Examining respondent demographics, conservation values, and coastal geographic features, we discovered values varied by region in Oregon, with regions demonstrating distinct value orientations. Regional differences in value orientation highlight the importance of incorporating multiple interpretations of value into coastal resource communication strategies, and the consequence of coastal proximity on attitudes and values about coastal resources. Incorporating use (indirect and direct) and non-use (existence) values into a Total Economic Value framework revealed that participants prioritized indirect use (scenic, recreation) over direct use and existence values coastwide. Spatial variation of participant’s use and value locations demonstrates the utility of participatory mapping in marine spatial planning efforts, both in documenting spatially explicit non-market values of coastal areas and identifying potential areas of conflict among coastal stakeholder groups. Within Oregon’s marine reserve network, which was not delineated in the mapping exercise, value preferences diverged from coastwide averages, wherein existence values (biodiversity/wildlife, wilderness, etc.) were elevated above other categories.

Long-term participation in collaborative fisheries research improves angler opinions on marine protected areas.

Recent marine spatial planning efforts, including the management and monitoring of marine protected areas (MPAs), increasingly focus on the importance of stakeholder engagement. For nearly 15 years, the California Collaborative Fisheries Research Program (CCFRP) has partnered volunteer anglers with researchers, the fishing industry, and resource managers to monitor groundfishes in California’s network of MPAs. While the program has succeeded in generating sustained biological observations, we know little about volunteer angler demography or the impact of participation on their perceptions and opinions on fisheries data or MPAs. In this study we surveyed CCFRP volunteers to learn about (a) volunteer angler demographics and attitudes toward groundfish management and stock health, (b) volunteer angler motivations for joining and staying in the program, and (c) whether participation in the program influenced volunteer angler opinions on the quality of fisheries data used in resource management and the establishment of MPAs in California. CCFRP volunteers were older and had higher fishing avidity than average within the California recreational angling community. Many self-identified as more conservation-minded than their peers in the recreational fishing community and had positive views of California groundfish management and stock health. Participation in science and giving back to fisheries resources were major motivating factors in their decision to become and remain CCFRP volunteers. Angler opinions toward MPAs were more positive after volunteering with CCFRP. Those who had volunteered for seven or more years with CCFRP were more likely than not to gain a positive opinion of MPAs. Our survey results provide evidence that long-term engagement of stakeholders in collaborative research positively influences stakeholder opinions regarding marine resource management, and highlights CCFRP’s success in engaging citizen science stakeholders in collaborative fisheries research.

A new machine learning approach to seabed biotope classification

Effective management in the marine environment requires a thorough understanding of the distribution of natural resources, including that of the benthos, the animals living in and on the seabed. Hitherto, it has been difficult to identify broadscale patterns in the benthos as the faunal clusters identified from individual surveys are not directly comparable. As a result, much reliance has been placed on one-off broadscale spatial surveys or matching samples to a common set of biotopes. In this study, new benthic macrofaunal data from discrete surveys are matched to existing broadscale cluster groups identified using unsupervised machine learning (k-means). This objective approach allows for continual improvements in our understanding of macrofaunal distribution patterns, thereby supporting ongoing conservation and marine spatial planning efforts. Other benefits are discussed. Finally, an R shiny web application is presented, allowing users to biotope match their own data.

Public perceptions of the marine environment and behavioral intentions to preserve it: The case of three coastal cities in Greece

This study explored public perceptions of the marine environment in three coastal communities in Greece and further investigated intentions to adopt behaviors that contribute to marine conservation. We used the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to study the psychological determinants of behavioral intentions. The findings indicated that respondents have positive attitudes, moderate knowledge of marine issues, and they value the marine environment for the multiple ecosystem services that it provides. Litter and pollution from industry were considered as the most important marine threats, followed by fishing and farming. Participants suggested that informing the public and giving prominence to environmental education can contribute to marine conservation efforts. They felt that research centers and scientific community were more competent than governmental authorities and the private sector concerning the management and protection of the marine environment. Intention to adopt environmental behaviors was influenced by normative considerations, attitudes toward marine biodiversity and perceived behavioral control beliefs. The results may: 1) help inform policymakers to improve marine resource management towards a more sustainable relationship between people and the sea; 2) support the development of marine strategies that fit the social preferences, needs, and priorities to increase the likelihood of public support; and 3) support marine spatial planning efforts to uncover the intrinsic complexity of societal interactions with the marine environment. The findings further support policymakers that wish to promote behavior change through communication strategies that deliver environmental messages that focus on enhancing normative considerations, behavioral control beliefs, and corresponding attitudes.

Fostering adaptive marine aquaculture through procedural innovation in marine spatial planning

Worldwide, as wild-caught commercial fisheries plateau and human demands for protein increase, marine aquaculture is expanding. Much marine aquaculture is inherently adaptable to changing climatic and chemical conditions. Nevertheless, siting of marine aquaculture operations is subject to competing environmental, economic, and social demands upon and priorities for ocean space, while some forms of marine aquaculture can also impose other externalities on marine systems, such as pollution from wastes (nutrients) and antibiotics, consumption of wild fish as food, and introduction of non-native or genetically modified species. As a result, governmental policy decisions to promote both marine aquaculture that can adapt to a changing ocean and adaptive governance for that aquaculture can become contested, requiring attention to their social legitimacy.This article explores how the law can promote the adaptability of marine aquaculture to climate change and ocean acidification—adaptive marine aquaculture—while still preserving key rule-of-law values, such as public participation and accountability. Perhaps most obviously, law can establish substantive requirements for marine aquaculture that minimize its impacts, promoting marine resilience overall. However, to foster truly adaptive marine aquaculture, including adaptive governance institutions, coastal nations should also procedurally reform their marine spatial planning efforts to legally connect the procedures for aquaculture permitting, marine spatial planning (MSP), and adaptive management. The goals for such connections, moreover, should be to mandate new forums for public participation and creative collaboration, promote experimentation with accountability that leads to increased knowledge, and foster the emergence of adaptive governance regarding the use of marine space.

Optimizing marine spatial plans with animal tracking data

Marine user–environment conflicts can have consequences for ecosystems that negatively affect humans. Strategies and tools are required to identify, predict, and mitigate the conflicts that arise between marine anthropogenic activities and wildlife. Estimating individual-, population-, and species-scale distributions of marine animals has historically been challenging, but electronic tagging and tracking technologies (i.e., biotelemetry and biologging) and analytical tools are emerging that can assist marine spatial planning (MSP) efforts by documenting animal interactions with marine infrastructure (e.g., tidal turbines, oil rigs), identifying critical habitat for animals (e.g., migratory corridors, foraging hotspots, reproductive or nursery zones), or delineating distributions for fisheries exploitation. MSP that excludes consideration of animals is suboptimal, and animal space-use estimates can contribute to efficient and responsible exploitation of marine resources that harmonize economic and ecological objectives of MSP. This review considers the application of animal tracking to MSP objectives, presents case studies of successful integration, and provides a look forward to the ways in which MSP will benefit from further integration of animal tracking data.

Addressing transboundary conservation challenges through marine spatial prioritization.

The Adriatic and Ionian Region is an important area for both strategic maritime development and biodiversity conservation in the European Union (EU). However, given that both EU and non-EU countries border the sea, multiple legal and regulatory frameworks operate at different scales, which can hinder the coordinated long-term sustainable development of the region. Transboundary marine spatial planning can help overcome these challenges by building consensus on planning objectives and making the trade-offs between biodiversity conservation and its influence on economically important sectors more explicit. We address this challenge by developing and testing 4 spatial prioritization strategies with the decision-support tool Marxan, which meets targets for biodiversity conservation while minimizing impacts to users. We evaluated these strategies in terms of how priority areas shift under different scales of target setting (e.g., regional vs. country level). We also examined the trade-off between cost-efficiency and how equally solutions represent countries and maritime industries (n = 14) operating in the region with the protection-equality metric. We found negligible differences in where priority conservation areas were located when we set targets for biodiversity at the regional versus country scale. Conversely, the prospective impacts on industries, when considered as costs to be minimized, were highly divergent across scenarios and biased the placement of protection toward industries located in isolation or where there were few other industries. We recommend underpinning future marine spatial planning efforts in the region through identification of areas of national significance, transboundary areas requiring cooperation between countries, and areas where impacts on maritime industries require careful consideration of the trade-off between biodiversity conservation and socioeconomic objectives.

Evaluating habitat, prey, and mesopredator associations in a community of marine birds

Abstract Offshore wind energy development on the US Atlantic Continental Shelf has brought attention to the need for marine spatial planning efforts to reduce potential conflict between wind turbines and marine animals, including seabirds. We evaluated the effects of marine mammals, fishes, and habitat characteristics on the distribution and relative abundance of marine birds off the coast of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. From May 2012 to 2014, we collected line transect data from 14 shipboard surveys, and novel high-resolution digital videography data from 14 aerial surveys. We compiled five habitat covariates: three static (distance to shore, sea floor slope, and sediment grain size), and two dynamic (sea surface temperature, salinity). We additionally analysed two seabird community covariates: the density of observed marine mammals and detected fish. Using zero-altered models, we tested our hypothesis that plunge-diving seabird species would show positive associations with marine mammals. Our results provide statistical evidence that, alongside competition, facilitative interactions occur among pelagic communities, where subsurface predators improve the detectability and accessibility of prey to surface-feeding seabirds. This study highlights the importance of quantifying community and ecological influences on avian abundance, particularly in predicting the potential exposure of marine birds and mammals to offshore development.

Harvest the Wind, Harvest Your Dinner: Using Law to Encourage an Offshore Energy-Food Multiple-Use Nexus

Most scholars discuss the food-water-energy-climate nexus as it emerges on land. Less attention has been paid to the food-water-energy-climate nexus as it exists in the ocean, but that nexus exists—and it is beginning to be strained. This Article, a companion piece to the forthcoming “It’s Not Just an Offshore Wind Farm,” explores the international drive to combine offshore wind facilities with marine aquaculture, an emerging example of the water-energy-food nexus in the marine environment. Many nations are becoming increasingly interested in both offshore wind farms and open ocean marine aquaculture, but both enterprises take up considerable space in the marine environment. The resulting actual and potential crowding creates and threatens conflicts both with other uses, such as fishing, ecotourism, and shipping, and with marine protection and biodiversity goals. In Europe, where offshore wind facilities have become quite extensive, co-location of facilities has emerged as a strategy to reduce competition for offshore space that might simultaneously benefit marine aquaculture and enhance food security. This article examines the increasing drive toward co-locating offshore wind and open ocean aquaculture facilities and offers suggestions for how law might better promote this form of co-location through ongoing marine spatial planning efforts.

Quantifying marine mammal hotspots in British Columbia, Canada

AbstractGlobal biodiversity is undergoing rapid decline due to direct and indirect anthropogenic impacts to species and ecosystems. Marine species, in particular, are experiencing accelerated population declines leading to many species being considered at risk by regional, national, and international standards. As one conservation approach, decisions made using spatially explicit information on marine wildlife populations have the potential to facilitate recovery and contribute to national and international commitments toward conservation targets. Delineating areas of intense use by species at risk can inform future marine spatial planning and conservation efforts, including the identification of marine protected areas. Methods for detecting hotspots (e.g., areas with high density and/or abundance) enable categorical mapping of the most intensely used areas. Yet, many of the current methods for delineating hotspots, such as the top 5% threshold, are subjective and fail to account for spatial patterns. Our goal was to map spatially continuous distributions of marine mammal densities and employ quantitative statistical methods to extract hotspot locations on the northern coast of British Columbia. We integrated systematically surveyed species information with environmental variables using generalized additive models to predict marine mammal distribution and density. Hotspots were identified from the density surfaces using two approaches: aspatial top 5% method and spatially local Gi* statistic using three neighborhood definitions. Heterogeneous density patterns were observed for all species, and high‐density regions were generally clustered in areas exhibiting oceanographic characteristics that may promote concentrated food resources. Combining species density surfaces and extracting hotspot locations identified regions important to multiple species and present candidate locations for future conservation efforts. Contributions from this research provide robust statistical methods to objectively map hotspot locations and generate GIS data products for informing coastal conservation decisions.

It is the time for oceanic seabirds: Tracking year‐round distribution of gadfly petrels across the Atlantic Ocean

AbstractAimAnthropogenic activities alter and constrain the structure of marine ecosystems with implications for wide‐ranging marine vertebrates. In spite of the environmental importance of vast oceanic ecosystems, most conservation efforts mainly focus on neritic areas. To identify relevant oceanic areas for conservation, we assessed the year‐round spatial distribution and spatio‐temporal overlap of eight truly oceanic seabird species of gadfly petrels (Pterodroma spp.) inhabiting the Atlantic Ocean.LocationAtlantic Ocean.MethodsUsing tracking data (mostly from geolocators), we examined year‐round distributions, the timing of life‐cycle events, and marine habitat overlap of eight gadfly petrel species that breed in the Atlantic Ocean.ResultsWe compiled 125 year‐round tracks. Movement strategies ranged from non‐migratory to long‐distance migrant species and from species sharing a common non‐breeding area to species dispersing among multiple non‐breeding sites. Gadfly petrels occurred throughout the Atlantic Ocean but tended to concentrate in subtropical regions. During the boreal summer, up to three species overlapped spatio‐temporally over a large area around the Azores archipelago. During the austral summer, up to four species coincided in a core area in subtropical waters around Cape Verde, and three species shared habitat over two distinct areas off Brazil. The petrels used many national Exclusive Economic Zones, although they also exploited offshore international waters.Main conclusionsTracking movements of highly mobile vertebrates such as gadfly petrels can provide a powerful tool to evaluate and assess the potential need for and location of protected oceanic areas. As more multispecies, year‐round data sets are collected from wide‐ranging vertebrates, researchers and managers will have greater insight into the location of biodiversity hotspots. These can subsequently inform and guide marine spatial planning efforts that account for both conservation and sustainable use of resources such as commercial fisheries.

Use of local ecological knowledge to investigate endangered baleen whale recovery in the Falkland Islands

Baleen whale populations have increased around the world after the end of commercial whaling in the 1980s. Anecdotes from local inhabitants of the Falkland Islands tell of an increase in whale sightings after an almost complete absence. However, no long-term monitoring exists to assess such recovery. With increasing maritime activities around the Islands, local managers need to understand the status and distribution of baleen whales to avoid impeding the potential recovery process. In the complete absence of scientific data, harvesting local ecological knowledge (LEK) from residents could provide means to assess whether whale numbers are increasing. We collected historical knowledge and mapped historical observations through structured interviews with 58 inhabitants and filtered observations for the highest reliability. We also collated existing historical catch and sighting data to compare species composition in inshore and offshore waters. A total of 3842 observations were compiled from the 1940s to 2015. This collation of information provided first-time evidence on the return of the whales in the Falkland Islands' waters. There was a clear increase in numbers of whales sighted, from no observations in the 1970s to 350 observations between 2010 and 2015 for similar effort, mostly of endangered sei whales (Balaenoptera borealis) and fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus). We mapped contemporary whale sighting hotspots to inform current marine spatial planning efforts. The use of LEK is highlighted here as a useful way to gain a better understanding of changes in the status of threatened species when no scientific monitoring has been conducted.

Marine Spatial Planning in the Middle East: Crossing the Policy-Planning Divide

Many countries have begun marine spatial planning (MSP) efforts in the past decade and much academic and professional literature reviews and analyzes these processes. Relevant research that can contribute greatly to new efforts at MSP compares efforts, both recent and historical, with ideals set for spatial planning processes. This research addresses the extent to which paradigms from the planning practice and the policy field can be relevant for the MSP context. It does so by analyzing the interim products of an MSP process addressing the Mediterranean Sea area in the waters adjacent to the State of Israel. Results emphasize the potential contribution of public policy analysis and planning to critique outcomes of the MSP process with the aim of improving outcomes and devising best practices. This type of analysis can inform MSP as it becomes an accepted practice as a mainstream tool in the field of environmental planning. The complexity and challenge of spatial planning when policy foundations are minimal is highlighted in the results.

Cumulative impact of bottom fisheries on benthic habitats: A quantitative spatial assessment in British Columbia, Canada

Ecosystem-based approaches to fisheries management to date have lacked a quantitative spatial understanding of habitat impacts from fishing. Understanding such ecological impacts in part requires knowledge of benthic structure and sensitivity. We compared two approaches to calculate and map spatially explicit habitat impacts for twelve different fisheries in 21 broad benthic classes in Canada's Pacific. By fishery, bottom trawling had the highest sum impact score across benthic classes, and bottom trawl and bottom longline generally scored highest per unit area. Soft shelf, which was the most extensively fished benthic class (33,373 km2 of a total 454,183 km2 study area), had the highest cumulative impact score, followed by the slope benthic classes (16,315 km2). Canyons and slope benthic classes had the highest impact scores per unit area. We recommend our approach as one that facilitates a regional understanding of benthic habitat impact by individual fisheries, as well as of cumulative impact for all bottom and demersal fishing activities. This assessment also highlights the regional paucity of habitat data required for more detailed analyses. Such habitat impact assessments have utility in informing fisheries assessments for eco-certification schemes, and in the mitigation of benthic habitat impacts through marine spatial planning efforts.

Marine spatial planning in the Middle East: Crossing the policy-planning divide

Many countries have begun marine spatial planning (MSP) efforts in the past decade and much academic and professional literature reviews and analyzes these processes. Relevant research that can contribute greatly to new efforts at MSP compares efforts, both recent and historical, with ideals set for spatial planning processes. This research addresses the extent to which paradigms from the planning practice and the policy field can be relevant for the MSP context. It does so by analyzing the interim products of an MSP process addressing the Mediterranean Sea area in the waters adjacent to the State of Israel. Results emphasize the potential contribution of public policy analysis and planning to critique outcomes of the MSP process with the aim of improving outcomes and devising best practices. This type of analysis can inform MSP as it becomes an accepted practice as a mainstream tool in the field of environmental planning. The complexity and challenge of spatial planning when policy foundations are minimal is highlighted in the results.

Linking macrobenthic communities structure and zonation patterns on sandy shores: Mapping tool toward management and conservation perspectives in Northern France

In a context of intensifying anthropogenic pressures on sandy shores, the mapping of benthic habitat appears as an essential first step and a fundamental baseline for marine spatial planning, ecosystem-based management and conservation efforts of soft-sediment intertidal areas. Mapping allows representing intertidal habitats that are basically characterised by abiotic (e.g sediments, exposure to waves…) and biotic factors such as macrobenthic communities. Macrobenthic communities are known to show zonation patterns across sandy beaches and many studies highlighted the existence of three biological zones. We tested this general model of a tripartite biological division of the shore at a geographical scale of policy, conservation and management decisions (i.e. Northern France coastline), using multivariate analyses combined with the Direct Field Observation (DFO) method. From the upper to the lower shores, the majority of the beaches exhibited three macrobenthic communities confirming the existence of the tripartite biological division of the shore. Nevertheless, in some cases, two or four zones were found: (1) two zones when the drying zone located on the upper shore was replaced by littoral rock or engineering constructions and (2) four zones on beaches and estuaries where a muddy-sand community occurred from the drift line to the mid shore. The correspondence between this zonation pattern of macrobenthic communities and the EUNIS habitat classification was investigated and the results were mapped to provide a reference state of intertidal soft-sediment beaches and estuaries. Our results showed evidence of the applicability of this EUNIS typology for the beaches and estuaries at a regional scale (Northern France coastline) with a macroecological approach. In order to fulfil the requirements of the European Directives (WFD and MFSD), this mapping appears as a practical tool for any functional study on these coastal ecosystems, for the monitoring of anthropogenic activities and for the implementation of management plans concerning effective conservation strategies.

Predicting the spatial distribution of a seabird community to identify priority conservation areas in the Timor Sea.

Understanding spatial and temporal variability in the distribution of species is fundamental to the conservation of marine and terrestrial ecosystems. To support strategic decision making aimed at sustainable management of the oceans, such as the establishment of protected areas for marine wildlife, we identified areas predicted to support multispecies seabird aggregations in the Timor Sea. We developed species distribution models for 21 seabird species based on at-sea survey observations from 2000-2013 and oceanographic variables (e.g., bathymetry). We applied 4 statistical modeling techniques and combined the results into an ensemble model with robust performance. The ensemble model predicted the probability of seabird occurrence in areas where few or no surveys had been conducted and demonstrated 3 areas of high seabird richness that varied little between seasons. These were located within 150 km of Adele Island, Ashmore Reef, and the Lacepede Islands, 3 of the largest aggregations of breeding seabirds in Australia. Although these breeding islands were foci for high species richness, model performance was greatest for 3 nonbreeding migratory species that would have been overlooked had regional monitoring been restricted to islands. Our results indicate many seabird hotspots in the Timor Sea occur outside existing reserves (e.g., Ashmore Reef Marine Reserve), where shipping, fisheries, and offshore development likely pose a threat to resident and migratory populations. Our results highlight the need to expand marine spatial planning efforts to ensure biodiversity assets are appropriately represented in marine reserves. Correspondingly, our results support the designation of at least 4 new important bird areas, for example, surrounding Adele Island and Ashmore Reef.

Fine-scale spatial patterns in the demersal fish and invertebrate community in a northwest Atlantic ecosystem

The abundance, biomass, diversity, and species composition of the demersal fish and invertebrate community in Rhode Island Sound and Block Island Sound, an area identified for offshore renewable energy development, were evaluated for spatial and seasonal structure. We conducted 58 otter trawls and 51 beam trawls in the spring, summer and fall of 2009–2012, and incorporated additional data from 88 otter trawls conducted by the Northeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program. We used regionally-grouped abundance, biomass, diversity, and size spectra to assess spatial patterns in the aggregate fish community, and hierarchical cluster analysis to evaluate trends in species assemblages. Our analyses revealed coherent gradients in fish community biomass, diversity and species composition extending from inshore to offshore waters, as well as patterns related to the differing bathymetry of Rhode Island and Block Island Sounds. The fish communities around Block Island and Cox's Ledge are particularly diverse, suggesting that the proximity of hard bottom habitat may be important in structuring fish communities in this area. Species assemblages in Rhode Island and Block Island Sounds are characterized by a combination of piscivores (silver hake, summer flounder, spiny dogfish), benthivores (American lobster, black sea bass, Leucoraja spp. skates, scup) and planktivores (sea scallop), and exhibit geographic patterns that are persistent from year to year, yet variable by season. Such distributions reflect the cross-shelf migration of fish and invertebrate species in the spring and fall, highlighting the importance of considering seasonal fish behavior when planning construction schedules for offshore development projects. The fine spatial scale (10 s of kms) of this research makes it especially valuable for local marine spatial planning efforts by identifying local-scale patterns in fish community structure that will enable future assessment of the ecological impacts of offshore development. As such, this knowledge of the spatial and temporal structure of the demersal fish community in Rhode Island and Block Island Sounds will help to guide the placement of offshore structures so as to preserve the ecological and economic value of the area.