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Ecological role and historical trends of large pelagic predators in a subtropical marine ecosystem of the South Atlantic

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Abstract

Large pelagic predators occupy high positions in food webs and could control lower trophic level species by direct and indirect ecological interactions. In this study we aimed to test the hypotheses: (1) pelagic predators are keystone species, and their removals could trigger impacts on the food chain; (2) higher landings of pelagic predators could trigger fishing impacts with time leading to a drop in the mean trophic level of catches; and (3) recovery in the pelagic predators populations, especially for sharks, could be achieved with fishing effort reduction. We performed a food web approach using an Ecopath with Ecosim model to represent the Southeastern and Southern Brazil, a subtropical marine ecosystem, in 2001. We then calibrated the baseline model using catch and fishing effort time series from 2001 to 2012. Afterwards, we simulated the impact of fishing effort changes on species and assessed the ecological impacts on the pelagic community from 2012 to 2025. Results showed that the model was well fitted to landing data for the majority of groups. The pelagic predators species were classified as keystone species impacting mainly on pelagic community. The ecosystem was resilient and fisheries seem sustainable at that time. However, the temporal simulation, from 2001 to 2012, revealed declines in the biomass of three sharks, tuna and billfish groups. It was possible observe declines in the mean trophic level of the catch and in the mean total length of landings. Longline fisheries particularly affected the sharks, billfish and swordfish, while hammerhead sharks were mostly impacted by gillnet fishery. Model simulations showed that large sharks’ biomasses could be recovered or maintained only after strong fishing effort reduction.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Jeffrey Muehlbauer for English reviewing, the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP—2013/25930-0) and the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) for scholarships to HB, and the National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq) for a research grant to RB. CAPES supported M. Coll (Proc. PVE A063/2013, Ed.71/2013). Thanks also to Ministry of Agriculture (Brazilian Government) and University of Vale do Itajaí (UNIVALI) for organizing the dataset of the Landing Statistics Program. Two anonymous reviewers contributed to increase quality of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Estudos do Mar, Universidade Federal do Paraná, P.O. Box 61, Pontal do Paraná, 83.255-976, Brazil

    Hugo Bornatowski

  2. Departamento de Engenharia Civil, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, CP 1524, Campus Universitário Lagoa Nova, Natal, RN, CEP 59078-970, Brazil

    Ronaldo Angelini

  3. Institute of Marine Science (ICM), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta, 37-49.08003, Barcelona, Spain

    Marta Coll

  4. Ecopath International Initiative Research Association, Barcelona, Spain

    Marta Coll

  5. Centro de Pesquisa e Conservação da Biodiversidade Marinha do Sudeste e Sul- CEPSUL, Avenida Carlos Ely Castro, 195, Itajaí, SC, CEP 88301-445, Brazil

    Rodrigo R. P. Barreto

  6. Instituto de Pesca, Avenida Bartolomeu de Gusmão, 192, Santos, SP, CEP 11030-906, Brazil

    Alberto F. Amorim

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Correspondence to Hugo Bornatowski.

Electronic supplementary material

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11160_2017_9492_MOESM1_ESM.docx

Online Resource 1 List of input data and references used to build the Ecopath model of the southeastern and southern Brazil (SSB) ecosystem. (DOCX 32 kb)

Online Resource 2 Supplementary Tables and Figures. (DOCX 7410 kb)

11160_2017_9492_MOESM3_ESM.xlsx

Online Resource 3 Sections 1 to 3—Section 1: references used to construct the diet composition (DC) matrix; Section 2: original diet composition matrix for the SSB model; Section 3: diet composition matrix adjusted to balance the SSB model. (XLSX 32 kb)

11160_2017_9492_MOESM4_ESM.xlsx

Online Resource 4 Landing data (value in tons); Trophic Level and Maximum Length (cm) used to calculate the Marine Trophic Level Index (MTLI) and the Maximum Total Length (MaxT) for the SSB ecosystem. (XLSX 17 kb)

Online Resource 5 Time series and fishing effort used in model calibration. (XLSX 12 kb)

Online Resource 6 Vulnerabilities after fitting time series. (XLSX 16 kb)

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Bornatowski, H., Angelini, R., Coll, M. et al. Ecological role and historical trends of large pelagic predators in a subtropical marine ecosystem of the South Atlantic. Rev Fish Biol Fisheries 28, 241–259 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11160-017-9492-z

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