美國科學(xué)家的最新研究顯示,，隨著加勒比海地區(qū)人口數(shù)量增加,，生活在加勒比海域珊瑚礁水域的鯊魚、梭魚和其他大型魚類正在消失,，從而威脅該區(qū)域的海洋食物鏈和生物多樣性,，并可能最終危及珊瑚礁自身以及地區(qū)漁業(yè)。
據(jù)新一期的美國《公共圖書館·綜合》雜志報道,，在加勒比海海域從事研究的科學(xué)家近幾十年來不斷報告說,，該海域大型魚類數(shù)量不斷下降。美國俄勒岡州立大學(xué)海岸和海洋實驗室科學(xué)家斯托林斯等人對加勒比海地區(qū)的20種大型魚類進(jìn)行了研究,，證明人類活動造成珊瑚礁水域大型魚類數(shù)量下降,。
斯托林斯說：“我發(fā)現(xiàn)擁有珊瑚礁的國家中，如果人口較多,，則當(dāng)?shù)睾Ｓ虼笮汪~類數(shù)量較少,。因為隨著人口數(shù)量的上升，他們對海產(chǎn)品的需求量也隨之上升,。漁民通常情況下先捕撈大型魚類,，當(dāng)大魚被捕盡時就會轉(zhuǎn)而捕撈較小的魚類，從而逐漸威脅到整個漁業(yè)資源的穩(wěn)定,。”
在全球海洋中,，珊瑚礁所占面積不足0．25％，而有超過四分之一的已知海洋魚類是靠珊瑚礁生活的,，二者相互依存,。堅硬的珊瑚礁可保護(hù)陸地和島嶼免遭海浪侵蝕，被認(rèn)為是地球上最古老,、最多姿多彩,、也是最珍貴的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)之一。
斯托林斯認(rèn)為,，由于世界近一半人口生活在沿海區(qū)域,，隨著世界總?cè)丝诘牟粩嗯噬祟悓．a(chǎn)蛋白質(zhì)的需求也會不斷增加。他認(rèn)為,，要想在滿足這些需求的同時保護(hù)珊瑚礁及珊瑚礁水域魚類,，人們必須制訂新的海洋漁業(yè)規(guī)劃。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
PLoS ONE 4(5): e5333. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0005333
Fishery-Independent Data Reveal Negative Effect of Human Population Density on Caribbean Predatory Fish Communities
Christopher D. Stallings
Department of Zoology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, United States of America
Background
Understanding the current status of predatory fish communities, and the effects fishing has on them, is vitally important information for management. However, data are often insufficient at region-wide scales to assess the effects of extraction in coral reef ecosystems of developing nations.
Methodology/Principal Findings
Here, I overcome this difficulty by using a publicly accessible, fisheries-independent database to provide a broad scale, comprehensive analysis of human impacts on predatory reef fish communities across the greater Caribbean region. Specifically, this study analyzed presence and diversity of predatory reef fishes over a gradient of human population density. Across the region, as human population density increases, presence of large-bodied fishes declines, and fish communities become dominated by a few smaller-bodied species.
Conclusions/Significance
Complete disappearance of several large-bodied fishes indicates ecological and local extinctions have occurred in some densely populated areas. These findings fill a fundamentally important gap in our knowledge of the ecosystem effects of artisanal fisheries in developing nations, and provide support for multiple approaches to data collection where they are commonly unavailable.
