Search results for "protected"
showing 10 items of 238 documents
Effects of fish feeding by snorkellers on the density and size distribution of fishes in a Mediterranean marine protected area
2005
Although there is a great deal of evidence to show that supplementary feeding by humans in terrestrial environments causes pronounced changes in the distribution and behaviour of wild animals, at present very little is known about the potential for such effects on marine fish. This study evaluated the consequences of feeding by snorkellers on fish assemblages in the no-take area of the Ustica Island marine protected area (MPA; western Mediterranean) by (1) determining if reef fish assemblage structure is affected in space and time by tourists feeding the fish; (2) assessing the effects of feeding on the abundance of the most common fish species; and (3) assessing the effects of feeding on t…
Recreational fish feeding affects coastal fish behavior and increases frequency of predation on damselfish (Chromis chromis) nests
2006
Wildlife feeding has become an integral part of the range of activities offered to protected area visitors. In marine protected areas (MPAs), fish feeding may cause changes in the behavior, and thus the density and distribution, of coastal fish species. We evaluated spatial variability in human-positive fish behavior around the Ustica Island MPA (Italy) and the potential indirect effects of behavioral change on other species. Two mensurative experiments demonstrated that ca. 1/3 of the species present in fish-feeding areas exhibited human-positive behavior, losing instinctive fear in the presence of humans and encircling people in the water even when food was not provided. A manipulative ex…
The Impact of Human Recreational Activities in Marine Protected Areas: What Lessons Should Be Learnt in the Mediterranean Sea?
2002
. The aesthetic appeal of marine reserves and the facilities provided, together with the increased public awareness of nature, all contribute to creating massive tourism in MPAs. Human activities are being changed inside MPAs in two ways: humans as top predators are generally being removed, but in turn they could come back at great numbers as visitors. Many authors have studied the impact of visitors, and the results highlight that the consequences can be very substantial and may represent a severe threat to the overall diversity of marine communities. To date, the documented effects of human recreational activities on natural communities are restricted to assessing the consequences of tram…
Shading Net and Partial Covering Plastic Film Do Not Affect Phenology, Photosynthetic Activity or Fruit Quality Traits of Kensington Pride Mango
2022
Mango cultivation in a protected environment is becoming widespread in the Mediterranean basin where the species has to face unfavorable weather conditions which do not occur in its native cultivation areas. Besides open-air cultivation, greenhouses—and other protection systems such as shading nets and partial covering of plastic films—have been tested recently. In this study, we focused on assessing the effect of a shading net, and a partially covering plastic film, on the development of “Kensington Pride” mango fruit skin-color, its final quality, and the plants’ photosynthetic activity. A new method of measuring mango skin-color on different sides of the fru…
Does a voluntary conservation program result in a representative protected area network?
2009
Abstract Conservation contracting has attained growing interest worldwide as a tool for protecting biodiversity in privately owned lands. In this policy, landowners receive payments from an environmental agency in exchange for land use practices that contribute to the supply of biodiversity. This approach may result in a conservation network which does not cover all focal ecological characteristics, because landowners determine the supply of potential targets. In addition, the contracts are typically allocated by using a scoring method that is not giving information on the representativeness of the species composition of the sites. In this study, we investigated what is the performance of a…
Fire in Protected Areas - the Effect of Protection and Importance of Fire Management
2012
Fires are important but socially and economically unwanted disturbances of the ecosystems. They cannot be considered as a problem, they are global phenomena. Protected areas are created to protect biodiversity, and strict protection is often applied, forgetting that fire had shaped that that we aim to protect. This harsh protection is producing important changes in the protected habitats and is increasing their vulnerability to destructive wildfires. Thus, it is of major interest to incorporate fire management in the protected areas plan, including the (re)use of prescribed fire and traditional burning in order to reintroduce fire regimens, fundamental to the landscape sustainability. This …
Economic development and agriculture: Managing protected areas and safeguarding the environment
2017
Abstract The establishment of protected areas has been one of the most important interventions to protect biodiversity from the threat of human activities and in particular from the agricultural traditional activities where they have been restricted at the expense of the economy of the territory sparking in literature a heated debate between those who argue the these hinder the socio-economic development and on the other hand are those who argue that is able to advance social welfare. On the basis of these considerations, the weight of agricultural sector of a country is highly linked to the percentage of protected areas even though the trend of the weight of agriculture in the overall econ…
Domestic tourists’ experience in protected natural parks: A new trend in pandemic crisis?
2021
International audience; Since December 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic crisis has led to profound changes around the world with a lot of interdictions or constraints to travel outside one's own country. One of the major consequences has been the development of proximity tourism in outdoor spaces less conducive to the spread of the virus. From a study preceding this pandemic, this article seeks to better understand the experiences lived by domestic tourists when they visited protected natural parks in their country. Beyond the health risks, it analyses the dimensions and the influences of experiences lived in these parks by French domestic tourists (n = 500) using Pine and Gilmore's 4Es model (1…
Demographic effects of full vs. partial protection from harvesting: inference from an empirical before-after control-impact study on Atlantic cod
2015
Summary In recent years, marine protected areas (MPAs) excluding all or some fishing activities have become widely applied as a tool to rebuild marine ecosystems and fisheries, but still, our knowledge of the effects of MPAs on the demography of harvested populations remains scarce, especially in cases where partly protected areas are still supporting some fishing activities. Here, we investigated the influence of partial protection – excluding fixed gears such as gillnets and traps but still allowing a hook and line fishery – on the demography of Atlantic cod Gadus morhua along the Norwegian Skagerrak coast. To do so, we applied novel multi-event models to a 9-year data set containing both…
Lessons on Marine Protected Area Management in Northern Boreal Regions from the United States and Norway
2017
In comparison to tropical reef systems, relatively few marine protected areas (MPA’s) exist in temperate or subarctic systems (e.g., North Pacific and North Atlantic) where species diversity is lower, abundance of individual species is often higher, and many fish species exhibit large amounts of movement during one or more of their life stages, especially as adults. A review of MPA’s in three northern areas—the Northwest Atlantic, Northeast Atlantic, and the Northeast Pacific—indicates that MPA’s can be useful management tools towards fisheries management and habitat conservation. However, achieving fishery goals, such as sustainable use of the fisheries resources, will depend on population…