Predicting occurrence of juvenile shark habitat to improve conservation planning

摘要: Fishing and habitat degradation have increased the extinction risk of sharks, conservation strategies recognize that survival juveniles is critical for effective management shark populations. Despite rapid expansion marine protected areas (MPAs) globally, paucity shark-monitoring data on large scales (100s–1000s km) means effectiveness MPAs in halting declines remains unclear. Using collected by baited remote underwater video systems (BRUVS) northwestern Australia, we developed generalized linear models to elucidate ecological drivers occurrence juvenile habitat. We assessed patterns at order species levels. included all sharks sampled 3 most abundant separately (grey reef [Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos], sandbar plumbeus], whitetip [Triaenodon obesus]. predicted across 490,515 km2 coastal waters quantified representation highly suitable habitats within MPAs. Our species-level had higher accuracy (ĸ ≥ 0.69) deviance explained (≥ 48 %) than our order-level model = 0.36 10 %). Maps revealed different species-specific These differences likely reflect physiological or resource requirements between individual validate concerns over utility targets based aggregate groups as opposed a species-focused approach. Highly were poorly represented with restrictions extractive activities. This spatial mismatch possibly indicates lack explicit information distribution during planning process. The nonextractive BRUVS provided useful platform building suitability assist multiple maritime jurisdictions, approach provides simple method testing MPAs. This article copyright. All rights reserved