|
Vol. 50 No. 4, 2011
Establishment of a No-take Area (NTA) could not Guarantee the
Preservation of Coral Communities in Chinwan Inner Bay, Penghu, Taiwan
Hernyi
J. Hsieh1, Kao-Song Chen2, Yihan I. Lin1,
Yuanchao A. Huang3,4, Andrew H. Baird5, WanSen
Tsai1, Wei-Cheng Su2, and Chaolun A. Chen3,4,5,*
1Penghu
Marine Biology Research Center, Fisheries Research Institute, Council
of Agriculture, Penghu 880, Taiwan
2Fisheries Research Institute, Council of Agriculture,
Keelung 202, Taiwan
3Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica,
Nankang, Taipei 115, Taiwan
4Institute of Oceanography, National Taiwan
University, Taipei 106, Taiwan
5ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies,
James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4810, Australia
Hernyi
J. Hsieh, Kao-Song Chen, Yihan I. Lin, Yuanchao A.
Huang, Andrew H. Baird, WanSen Tsai, Wei-Cheng Su, and Chaolun
A. Chen (2011) No-take areas (NTAs) are an increasingly
prevalent approach to conserve coral reefs, but are not always a
guarantee of preserving pristine conditions if the area lacks
ecological resilience, proper management, or both. In this study, the
NTA of a subtropical coral community at Chinwan Inner Bay (CIB),
Penghu, Taiwan, established in 2005, showed a 5-fold decline in living
coral cover from 80.9% ± 10.8% in 2001 to 16.3% ± 8.4% by 2008 with the
dominant coral functional group shifting from branching species to
columnar and massive species. Analyses of fish functional groups and
macroinvertebrates showed strong signs of overharvesting. In addition,
an outbreak of and nearly 4-fold increase in the corallivorous
gastropod, Drupella spp.,
from 5.5 individuals (ind.)/m2 in 2003 to 22.7 ind./m2 in 2009, was believed to be responsible
for the disappearance of major coral functional groups at CIB.
Depletion of fish and invertebrate functional groups, the outbreak of a
corallivorous gastropod, and previously existing and continuing
anthropogenic-induced degradation of the marine environment suggest
that the overall loss of ecological resilience provided little chance
for the coral community to bounce back to the pristine status described
in 2001, even after the CIB NTA was formally established in 2005.
Key words: Chinwan
Inner Bay, No-take area, Functional group, Coral community, Outbreak of
Drupella.
*Correspondence: Tel: 886-2-27899549 Fax: 886-2-27858059.
E-mail:cac@gate.sinica.edu.tw
|
