Artisanal fisheries in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique: rural vs urban fishing centers

This working paper investigates the relationship between gear, catch and income generated by the fishers in different seasons. SPACES researchers collected data using fish catch surveys at landing sites in Pemba town, Vamizi and Lalane. A standard questionnaire was used to collect the effort and location of the fishery. The fishery shows a wide range in both gears and profitability, and the surveys in conjunction with ecological surveys conducted by other SPACES team members revealed higher catch per unit effort (CPUE) values in Vamizi and Lalane when compared to Pemba, associated with higher fish diversity and fish biomass at Vamizi and Lalane when compared to Pemba. This suggests that the near shore coral reef environment in Pemba is overexploited.

New publication drawing on SPACES data shows East African reefs particularly susceptible to coral bleaching

SPACES team members, Tim McClanahan and Nyawira Muthiga have used SPACES coral reef survey data in an analysis of the factors affecting coral’s susceptibility to coral bleaching in the face of warmer climates. The analysis based on surveys from E. Africa to Fiji during the 2016 El Nino event showed that bleaching is caused by […]

New Publication: Kenyan and Mozambican coral reef ‘carbonate budgets’ contribute to international picture of corals under sea-level rise.

SPACES coral reef surveys have contributed to an international picture of how reefs might be able to grow to keep up with sea-level rise, recently published in Nature. The growth of coral reefs is strongly influenced by the amount and types of coral living on the reef surface, but across both regions this growth is […]

Perceptions of degradation of Ecosystem services in a estuarine zone, center of Mozambique – Eunice Ribeiro et al.(1.0 MB)

Coastal habitats such as mangroves and estuaries provide important ecosystem services for human communities. These habitats are also some of the most heavily exploited by humans and therefore threaten natural systems. Nova Mambone village, established in 1957, is adjacent to an estuary, forming extensive mangrove forests, and the livelihood of the villagers are linked with […]

Artisanal fisheries at Pemba Town, Cabo Delgado: Structure, dynamics and contribution of catch for livelihood in a urban environment – Vera Julien et al.(1.8 MB)

Artisanal fisheries are a key subsistence activity of coastal populations of East Africa. Significant numbers of local communities depend on artisanal fisheries for food and income. Northern Mozambique is changing rapidly due to oil and gas industry and tourism. This presentation looks at the increased pressure on fisheries, other opportunities for coastal communities, and the […]

Changing dynamics of reef framework production in the Western Indian Ocean – Fraser Januchowski-Hartley et al.(1.2 MB)

Fraser Januchowski-Hartley’s presentation at the 2015 WIOMSA symposium on carbonate budget and current coral condition at SPACES sites, Mombasa, Shimoni, Vamizi, and Pemba.

Linking reef ecology to island building: Parrotfish identified as major producers of island-building sediment in the Maldives. Geology 2015

Reef islands are unique landforms composed entirely of sediment produced on the surrounding coral reefs. Despite the fundamental importance of these ecological-sedimentary links for island development and future maintenance, reef island sediment production regimes remain poorly quantified. Using census and sedimentary data from Vakkaru island (Maldives), a sand-dominated atoll interior island, we quantify the major […]

Remote coral reefs can sustain high growth potential and may match future sea-level trands. Nature Scientific Reports 2015

Climate-induced disturbances are contributing to rapid, global-scale changes in coral reef ecology. As a consequence, reef carbonate budgets are declining, threatening reef growth potential and thus capacity to track rising sea-levels. Whether disturbed reefs can recover their growth potential and how rapidly, are thus critical research questions. Here we address these questions by measuring the […]

Similar impacts of fishing and environmental stress on calcifying organisms in Indian Ocean coral reefs. Marine Ecology Press Series 2016

Calcification and reef growth processes dominated by corals and calcifying algae are threatened by climate and fishing disturbances. Twenty-seven environmental, habitat, and species interaction variables were tested for their influence on coral and calcifier cover in 201 western Indian Ocean coral reefs distributed across ~20° of latitude and longitude and up to 20 m deep. […]

Environmental variability indicates a climate-adaptive center under threat in northern Mozambique coral reefs. Ecosphere 2017

A priority for modern conservation is finding and managing regions with environmental and biodiversity portfolio characteristics that will promote adaptation and the persistence of species during times of rapid climate change. The latitudinal edges of high-diversity biomes are likely to provide a mixture of environmental gradients and biological diversity that meet the portfolio criteria needed […]

Drivers and predictions of coral reef budget trajectories. Proceedings Of The Royal Society B-biological Sciences 2017

Climate change is one of the greatest threats to the long-term maintenance of coral-dominated tropical ecosystems, and has received considerable attention over the past two decades. Coral bleaching and associated mortality events, which are predicted to become more frequent and intense, can alter the balance of different elements that are responsible for coral reef growth […]

Ecological Underwater Surveys

All information including publications, conference presentations and news items related to underwater ecological surveys is tagged below.

Landings Data

All information including publications, conference presentations and news items related to landings data is tagged below.

New paper from SPACES team members shows the positive correlation between the orange-lined triggerfish and calcifier cover

SPACES Co-investigators, Tim McClanahan and Nyawira Muthiga, have recently published the paper, Similar impacts of fishing and environmental stress on calcifying organisms in Indian Ocean coral reefs (Open Access– free to read) in the Marine Ecology Progress Series. They investigated coral and calcifier cover in 201 western Indian Ocean reefs. McClanahan and Muthiga found that coral and calcifier cover […]

SPACES at the ESPA 2016 Annual Science Conference

The ESPA Annual Science Conference was held in Nairobi, Kenya from the 17th to the 18th of November. Several members of the SPACES team were in attendance, including Tim Daw, Kate Brown, Caroline Abunge, Salomao Bandeira, Caroline Abunge, Christopher Cheupe, Julio Machele, Vera Julien, Bernard Owuor, Tomas Chaigneau, Kate Brown, and Kairo Gitundu. Tim, Kate, […]

Aligning Global Indicators for Coral Reef Fisheries Monitoring in the Western Indian Ocean Workshop

Recently, a member of the SPACES team attended a regional workshop in Nosy Be, Madagascar from 27 to 28 April, 2015. The workshop was convened by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Dr Emily Darling with the aim to bring together various researchers working on coral reef fisheries in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO). The workshop […]

How important are parrotfish for coral reef islands?

Parrotfishes are a beautiful, colourful and ubiquitous group of fishes that are present on coral reefs around the world. They’ve received a lot of attention due to their importance in both fisheries, and in how they can help to maintain coral reef health through preventing outbreaks of fleshy macroalgae, that can overgrow and out-compete corals. […]