[en] In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a reduction in human activities and restriction of all but essential movement for much of the world's population. A large, but temporary, increase in air and water quality followed, and there have been several reports of animal populations moving into new areas. Extending on long-term monitoring efforts, we examined how coral reef fish populations were affected by the government-mandated lockdown across a series of Marine Protected Area (MPA) and non-Marine Protected Area (nMPA) sites around Moorea, French Polynesia. During the first six-week lockdown that Moorea experienced between March and May 2020, increases (approx. two-fold) in both harvested and non-harvested fishes were observed across the MPA and nMPA inner barrier reef sites, while no differences were observed across the outer barrier sites. Interviews with local amateur and professional fishers indicated that while rules regarding MPA boundaries were generally followed, some subsistence fishing continued in spite of the lockdown, including within MPAs. As most recreational activities occur along the inner reef, our data suggest that the lockdown-induced reduction in recreational activities resulted in the recolonization of these areas by fishes, highlighting how fish behaviour and space use can rapidly change in our absence.
Disciplines :
Environmental sciences & ecology
Author, co-author :
Feeney, William E ; Department of Biosciences, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, UK ; Department of Behavioural Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute of Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany ; Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security, Griffith University, Nathan 4111, Australia ; Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, Key Laboratory of Tropical Animal and Plant Ecology of Hainan Province, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou 571158, People's Republic of China
Cowan, Zara-Louise ; Department of Zoology, The David Attenborough Building, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3QZ, UK
Bertucci, Frédéric ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Biologie, Ecologie et Evolution > Morphologie fonctionnelle et évolutive ; PSL Université Paris, EPHE-UPVD-CNRS, UAR3278 CRIOBE, 98729 Moorea, French Polynesia
Brooker, Rohan M ; Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Queenscliff 3225, Australia
Siu, Gilles; PSL Université Paris, EPHE-UPVD-CNRS, UAR3278 CRIOBE, 98729 Moorea, French Polynesia ; Laboratoire d'Excellence 'CORAIL', 66100 Perpignan, France
Jossinet, Frédérique; PSL Université Paris, EPHE-UPVD-CNRS, UAR3278 CRIOBE, 98729 Moorea, French Polynesia ; Laboratoire d'Excellence 'CORAIL', 66100 Perpignan, France
Bambridge, Tamatoa; PSL Université Paris, EPHE-UPVD-CNRS, UAR3278 CRIOBE, 98729 Moorea, French Polynesia ; Laboratoire d'Excellence 'CORAIL', 66100 Perpignan, France
Galzin, René; PSL Université Paris, EPHE-UPVD-CNRS, UAR3278 CRIOBE, 98729 Moorea, French Polynesia ; Laboratoire d'Excellence 'CORAIL', 66100 Perpignan, France
Lecchini, David; PSL Université Paris, EPHE-UPVD-CNRS, UAR3278 CRIOBE, 98729 Moorea, French Polynesia ; Laboratoire d'Excellence 'CORAIL', 66100 Perpignan, France
Language :
English
Title :
COVID-19 lockdown highlights impact of recreational activities on the behaviour of coral reef fishes.
Bloomberg Philanthropies [US-NY] [US-NY] ANR - Agence Nationale de la Recherche [FR] Fondation de France [FR] AvH - Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung [DE]
Funding text :
This work was supported by several grants: French Polynesia government (DRM & DIREN), Fondation de France (grant no. 2019-08602), LabEx CORAIL (project 2018 Emul), ANR-19-CE34-0006-Manini, ANR-19-CE14-0010-SENSO, the Rāhui Forum and Resource Center supported by Bloomberg's Philanthropy, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Acknowledgements
López L, Rodó X. 2020 The end of social confinement and COVID-19 re-emergence risk. Nat. Hum. Behav. 4, 746-755. (doi:10.1038/s41562-020-0908-8)
Le Quéré C et al,. 2020 Temporary reduction in daily global CO 2 emissions during the COVID-19 forced confinement. Nat. Clim. Change 10, 647-653. (doi:10.1038/s41558-020-0797-x)
Muhammad S, Long X, Salman M. 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and environmental pollution: a blessing in disguise? Sci. Total Environ. 728, 138820. (doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138820)
Zambrano-Monserrate MA, Ruano MA, Sanchez-Alcalde L. 2020 Indirect effects of COVID-19 on the environment. Sci. Total Environ. 728, 138813. (doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138813)
Behera AK, Kumar PR, Priya MM, Ramesh T, Kalle R. 2022 The impacts of COVID-19 lockdown on wildlife in Deccan Plateau, India. Sci. Total Environ. 822, 153268. (doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153268)
China V, Zvuloni A, Roll U, Belmaker J. 2021 Reduced human activity in shallow reefs during the COVID-19 pandemic increases fish evenness. Biol. Conserv. 257, 109103. (doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2021.109103)
Buckley R. 2020 Conservation implications of COVID19: effects via tourism and extractive industries. Biol. Conserv. 247, 108640. (doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108640)
Rutz C et al,. 2020 COVID-19 lockdown allows researchers to quantify the effects of human activity on wildlife. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 4, 1156-1159. (doi:10.1038/s41559-020-1237-z)
Perrottet JG, Garcia AF. 2016. Tourism, Pacific Possible Series (English). Background paper no. 4.
Bennett NJ et al,. 2020 The COVID-19 pandemic, small-scale fisheries and coastal fishing communities. Coast. Manage. 48, 336-347. (doi:10.1080/08920753.2020.1766937)
Campbell SJ et al,. 2021 Immediate impact of COVID-19 across tropical small-scale fishing communities. Ocean Coast. Manag. 200, 105485. (doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2020.105485)
2020. French Polynesia Tourism Department. Tahiti et ses îles.
2020. World Health Organisation. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Pacific.
de Loma TL, Osenberg CW, Shima JS, Chancerelle Y, Davies N, Brooks AJ, Galzin R. 2008 A framework for assessing impacts of marine protected areas in Moorea (French Polynesia). Pacific Sci. 62, 431-441. (doi:10.2984/1534-6188(2008)62[431:AFFAIO]2.0.CO;2)
Lecchini D et al,. 2021 Effects of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on coral reef fishes at eco-tourism sites in Bora-Bora, French Polynesia. Mar. Environ. Res. 170, 105451. (doi:10.1016/j.marenvres.2021.105451)
Edward JP et al,. 2021 COVID-19 lockdown improved the health of coastal environment and enhanced the population of reef-fish. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 165, 112124. (doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112124)
Galzin R, Lecchini D, Lison de Loma T, Moritz C, Parravicini V, Siu G. 2016 Long term monitoring of coral and fish assemblages (1983-2014) in Tiahura reefs, Moorea, French Polynesia. Cybium 40, 31-41. (doi:10.26028/CYBIUM/2016-401-003)
Galzin R. 1987 Structure of fish communities of French Polynesian coral reefs. I. Spatial scales. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 41, 129-136.
Galzin R, Marfin J, Salyat B. 1993 Long term coral reef monitoring program: heterogeneity of the Tiahura barrier reef (Moorea). Galaxea 11, 73-91.
Siu G et al,. 2017 Shore fishes of French Polynesia. Cybium 41, 245-278. (doi:10.26028/CYBIUM/2017-413-003)
Viviani J, Moritz C, Parravicini V, Lecchini D, Siu G, Galzin R, Viriot L. 2019 Synchrony patterns reveal different degrees of trophic guild vulnerability after disturbances in a coral reef fish community. Divers. Distrib. 25, 1210-1221. (doi:10.1111/ddi.12931)
R Core Team. 2020 R: a language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing.. See https://www.R-project.org/.
RStudio Team.. In press. RStudio: integrated development environment for R. Boston, MA: RStudio, PBC.. See http://www.rstudio.com/.
Bates D, Mächler M, Bolker B, Walker S. 2015 Fitting linear mixed-effects models using {lme4}. J. Stat. Soft. 67, 1-48. (doi:10.18637/jss.v067.i01)
Florian H. 2003 DHARMa: residual diagnostics for hierarchical (multi-level / mixed) regression models.. See http://florianhartig.github.io/DHARMa/.
Russell VL. 2021 Emmeans: estimated marginal means, aka least-squares means.. See Https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=emmeans.
Hadley W. 2016 Ggplot2: elegant graphics for data analysis.. See https://ggplot2.tidyverse.org.
He G, Pan Y, Tanaka T. 2020 The short-term impacts of COVID-19 lockdown on urban air pollution in China. Nat. Sustain. 3, 1005-1011. (doi:10.1038/s41893-020-0581-y)
Venter ZS, Aunan K, Chowdhury S, Lelieveld J. 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns cause global air pollution declines. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 117, 18 984-18 990. (doi:10.1073/pnas.2006853117)
Yunus AP, Masago Y, Hijioka Y. 2020 COVID-19 and surface water quality: improved lake water quality during the lockdown. Sci. Total Environ. 731, 139012. (doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139012)
Derryberry EP, Phillips JN, Derryberry GE, Blum MJ, Luther D. 2020 Singing in a silent spring: birds respond to a half-century soundscape reversion during the COVID-19 shutdown. Science 370, 575-579. (doi:10.1126/science.abd5777)
Madhok R, Gulati S. 2020 Ruling the roost: avian species reclaim urban habitat during India's COVID lockdown. Biol. Conserv. 271, 109957. (doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109597)
Januchowski-Hartley FA, Graham NAJ, Cinner JE, Russ GR. 2015 Local fishing influences coral reef fish behavior inside protected areas of the Indo-Pacific. Biol. Conserv. 182, 8-12. (doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2014.11.024)
Wong BBM, Candolin U. 2015 Behavioral responses to changing environments. Behav. Ecol. 26, 665-673. (doi:10.1093/beheco/aru183)
Macura B, Lönnstedt OM, Byström P, Airoldi L, Eriksson BK, Rudstam L, Støttrup J. 2016 What is the impact on fish recruitment of anthropogenic physical and structural habitat change in shallow nearshore areas in temperate systems? A systematic review protocol. Environ. Evid. 5, 10. (doi:10.1186/s13750-016-0061-z)
Ruppert JLW, Vigliola L, Kulbicki M, Labrosse P, Fortin M-J, Meekan MG. 2018 Human activities as a driver of spatial variation in the trophic structure of fish communities on Pacific coral reefs. Glob. Change Biol. 24, e67-e79. (doi:10.1111/gcb.13882)
Weiss J, Burghardt W, Gausmann P, Haag R, Haeupler H, Hamann M, Leder B, Schulte A, Stempelmann I. 2005 Nature returns to abandoned industrial land: monitoring succession in urban-industrial woodlands in the German Ruhr. In Wild urban woodlands: new perspectives for urban forestry (eds I Kowarik, S Körner), pp. 143-162. Berlin, Germany: Springer.
Feeney WE, Cowan Z-L, Bertucci F, Brooker RM, Siu G, Jossinet F, Bambridge T, Galzin R, Lecchini D. 2022 COVID-19 lockdown highlights impact of recreational activities on the behaviour of coral reef fishes. Figshare. (doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6266173)
