The study, recently published in the prestigious scientific journal ‘Ecological Indicators’, provides an understanding of how organisms form from their primary state in these events
Research by the Biodiversity and Conservation Group (BIOCON) of the ECOAQUA Institute of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), carried out during the primary colonisation event of marine species following the eruption of the Tajogaite Volcano on La Palma in September 2021, has managed to apply a novel conceptual framework to improve the management of marine communities after natural disasters.
This study, which has direct application to the sustainable management of the marine environment of the Canary Islands, can contribute to the design of conservation strategies that help to meet the objectives outlined in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the European Union's 2030 strategy for the conservation of the oceans.
The main objective of the research, led by BIOCON researcher Néstor E. Bosch, was to understand how communities of organisms form from a primary state, known as the primary succession process, in the submarine lava flows of the Tajogaite volcano. To this end, fish biodiversity and benthic habitats were surveyed by means of scientific diving techniques, which were carried out quarterly for a period of 14 months.
The main novelty of this study for the scientific community is that it was based on the application of a conceptual framework based on the quantification of dynamic ecological indicators, which are those that take into account not only the number of species - their richness -, the quantity - their abundance - and the weight - their biomass - of organisms present (static indicators), but also the rate, the speed, at which they are produced and regenerated during the process of primary succession.
The article that includes this study, which also involves researchers from the University Institute for Research in Sustainable Aquaculture and Marine Ecosystems (ECOAQUA), Sandra Navarro Mayoral, Fernando Espino, Francisco Otero-Ferrer, Ricardo Haroun and Fernando Tuya, is entitled ‘Process-based Metrics Inform Sustainable Marine Management after a Catastrophic Natural Event’ and has recently been published in ‘Ecological Indicators’.
This is a prestigious international high-impact journal (Factor 7) that provides a forum for new scientific advances that contribute to the monitoring and assessment of ecological communities with direct implications for their management. This publication is in the first quartile (Q1) in the Environmental Sciences category, in 25th position out of a total of 359 journals.
More production, less weight
The study, which compares the succession of fish communities following a catastrophic natural event, a volcanic eruption, and the formation of incipient reefs using complementary metrics, reveals that during the early stages of community development, fish productivity increased exponentially, while the recovery of their biomass, their weight, was significantly delayed.
This finding highlights the high rates of biomass replacement, i.e. turnover in the system. This buffering response (higher production per unit biomass) was best predicted by the average body size of the community, highlighting the role of compensatory ecological mechanisms during primary ecological succession.
Traits related to resource acquisition, in particular the exploitation of planktonic energy subsidies, further enhanced predicted fish biomass and productivity at the local scale.
This study is thus very important in view of the growing demand for information for conservation and management planning through complementary metrics that provide a nuanced understanding of ecosystem functioning.
In the words of researcher Néstor E. Bosch, the eruption of the Tajogaite volcano on La Palma, which was a ‘unique opportunity for scientists’ by providing a ‘natural laboratory’ to understand the temporal dynamics of ecological communities, is a clear example of ‘how these events can transform the lives of local communities that depended heavily on activities that were directly and indirectly damaged by the volcanic flows, such as agriculture, fishing and tourism’.
The results indicate that, during primary succession processes, the trajectory of these dynamic indicators differs greatly from the static ones traditionally used to inform sustainable ecosystem management after natural disasters.
'This discordance,’ says the scientist, ’has significant implications for reporting on the management of these areas, since, for example, the establishment of an exclusion zone, as is currently the case, entails socio-economic costs, as activities such as fishing or tourism are not allowed. On the other hand, Bosch explains, ‘opening up this area to these activities could negatively affect its capacity for recovery’.
Therefore, concludes the researcher, considering the complementarity of static and dynamic indicators, ‘our conceptual framework allows us to report on when socio-economic activities such as fisheries have the most potential to be sustainable in the medium and long term’.