Miss Ella Clausius1
1Institute For Marine & Antarctic Studies, ,
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are increasingly implemented to reduce human impacts on reef communities, with positive conservation outcomes possible if MPAs are well designed, managed and enforced. Despite best-practice design, management and enforcement efforts, however, maximum conservation outcomes for reef communities may not be possible without additional intervention in circumstances where reef habitat is degraded by external pressures. In southern Australia, the kelp forest habitat that underpins the Great Southern Reef (GSR) ecosystem is under threat from land-based pollution and sedimentation, ocean warming, and invasive warm-water herbivores, with potentially significant implications for the success of the network of MPAs scattered along its extent.
To determine the role kelp cover and habitat quality play in mediating fish biomass recovery inside MPAs, we use the most extensive long-term dataset of standardized surveys of reef fishes and habitat inside and outside MPAs across southern Australia. Using Random Forest models & a multi-model inference approach, we investigate which components of kelp forest habitat are most important for supporting fish biomass, and determine how these components interact with MPA design, management, and enforcement to drive recovery of reef communities across the Great Southern Reef. Preliminary results suggest MPA protection and other human factors have a greater effect on fish biomass across temperate Australian reef sites than physical and biogenic habitat factors. The results of this analysis will be presented in this talk.
Presentation Slides – Ella Clausius
Biography:
Ella is a PhD student at the Institute for Marine & Antarctic Studies in Hobart, researching the effectiveness of the global network of Marine Protected Areas.
