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Parrotfish population dynamics from the Marianas Islands, with a description of the demographic and reproductive characteristics of Chlorurus sordidus final report to the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council
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2009
[PDF-1.46 MB]
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Description:"Parrotfish (family Scaridae) are an important group of fish both from a commercial and ecological perspective. As well as supporting numerous artisanal and commercial fisheries worldwide, parrotfish play a critical role in the food chain of coral reef ecosystems. They have been implicated in several important processes on reefs by providing the link for energy flow to other reef consumers, as well as influencing the distribution and rates of production of marine plats (Choat 1991). More recently it has been realised large bodied parrotfish like Chlorurus microrhinos are important to bioerosion on coral reefs, and have been shown to be a critical factor in determining the rate of sedimentation in the Indo-Pacific (Bellwood 1995; Alwany et al. 2009). Numerous exclusion experiments have also demonstrated their importance in exerting top-down control on the standing stock of algae (Mumby et al. 2006). In a system where parrotfish are unexploited, a substantial part of the reef is permanently grazed by scraping dead coral surfaces thereby facilitating settlement of scleractinian corals (Mumby et al. 2006; Lokrantz et al 2008). However when overfishing of these important grazers occurs, biomass of macroalgae increases dramatically causing a phase shift towards algal dominated reefs. In the absence of fishing an increase in grazing pressure allows for the regeneration and maintenance of these same reefs (Bellwood et al. 2004)"--Intro.
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