Quantifying and Monitoring Ecological Response to No-Take Marine Reserves

Abstract

The primary goal of the paper is to review techniques for measuring ecosystem response and determining if a no-take reserve can meet natural resource conservation or fisheries management goals. Recently, the increasing role of MPAs in the management of coastal resources, has prompted increased consideration of MPAs in the northeast US. The paper also considers methods associated with reserve design, and monitoring. This paper recommends that traditional sampling and monitoring methods be integrated with more recently developed methodology, and reviews successful and unsuccessful marine reserve applications of techniques such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Indexes of Biotic Integrity (IBI), and indicator species assessments, as well as commenting on the use of simple and spatially explicit models in a reserve context.