Food web structure and the strength of trophic interactions in the Western Gulf of Maine Closure Area ...

• Main Authors: Meyer, John, Byers, James
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: ASC 2004 - Y - Theme session 2024
• Subjects: Fisheries and aquaculture; Pressures, impacts, conservation, and management; Northwest Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.25349917.v1; https://ices-library.figshare.com/articles/conference_contribution/Food_web_structure_and_the_strength_of_trophic_interactions_in_the_Western_Gulf_of_Maine_Closure_Area/25349917/1

No abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author.Recent studies indicate that the establishment of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) can rapidly influence local populations of large, predatory fish. There is far less theoretical and empirical understanding of how local increases in the size and abundance of these predators may influence food web structure and trophic dynamics within a reserve. Basic questions, such as whether the demographics of groundfish prey populations alter inside protected areas in response to predator changes, have rarely been addressed. The Western Gulf of Maine Closure Area (WGoMCA) in the northwest Atlantic, the largest MPA in the United States, has been closed to commercial bottom trawling and gillnetting for groundfish (e.g. cod, haddock, pollock, hake, flounder) since 1997. We conducted paired comparisons of contiguous open and closed fishing grounds to assess the effects of a fishery closure on the structure of the epibenthic invertebrate community. Specifically, ...