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Occurrence of Larval and Juvenile Fish in Mangrove Habitats in the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve, Quintana Roo, Mexico

2008; University of Southern Mississippi; Volume: 20; Linguagem: Inglês

10.18785/gcr.2001.11

2572-1410

Matthew Campbell, Kim Withers, James M. Tolan,

Marine and coastal plant biology

Mangrove forests are ubiquitous in low lying coastal areas of tropical and subtropical zones of the world, including the lagoons of the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Mangroves are habitat for juvenile fish of both oceanic and estuarine origin (Vásquez-Yoemans 1992, Vásquez-Yoemans et al. 1992, Laegdsgaard and Johnson 1995). Development of the Caribbean coast of Mexico north and south of the Sian Ka'an Reserve is in large part focused on tourism-related endeavors such as destination resorts, scuba diving and fishing. While some of the development is innocuous, land acquisition for development of resorts has fragmented mangrove habitats in the region and likely altered their function. It has been shown in other mangrove estuaries that habitat fragmentation negatively impacts fish assemblages (Layman et al. 2004). Because of the importance of mangrove estuaries as juvenile fish habitat, loss of mangrove habitat may result in noticeable effects on adult recruitment to fisheries in tropical regions. Very little is known about the composition of larval and juvenile fish communities within the reserve.