■可持续管理需要对物种分布和人类活动进行空间映射,以确定潜在的冲突风险。常见的宽吻海豚(Tursiopstruncatus)是欧盟人居指令的优先物种,因此,为了促进它的保护,对栖息地使用和分布的理解,以及可能直接影响种群特征的人类活动的识别和空间趋势,是关键的。
■应用了MaxEnt建模方法,以预测撒丁岛西北部(地中海)的少量宽吻海豚的季节性(从4月到9月)栖息地的使用。环境变量以及船和渔网存在的可能性。然后,海豚之间的重叠区域,确定了渔网和船只的存在,为该地区的海洋空间管理提供了见解。
■影响该地区宽吻海豚季节性分布的三个主要因素直接(划船和捕鱼)或间接(海洋变暖)与人类活动有关。此外,最适合海豚的区域几乎有一半与钓鱼和划船的区域重叠。最后,依靠捕鱼分配模式,我们还揭示了捕鱼对波西多尼亚海床的潜在影响,受保护的栖息地,比其他栖息地类型获得更高的捕捞努力。
■模拟人为活动的空间格局对于了解鲸目动物栖息地使用和受保护栖息地的生态影响至关重要。建议进行更大的研究以检测海豚栖息地适应性的潜在变化,还与海洋变暖有关,评估海豚副渔获物和目标鱼类的状况,并评估敏感的栖息地条件,比如大洋波西多尼亚草甸。
Sustainable management requires spatial mapping of both species distribution and human activities to identify potential risk of conflict. The common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) is a priority species of the European Union Habitat Directive, thus, to promote its conservation, the understanding of habitat use and distribution, as well as the identification and spatial trend of the human activities which may directly affect populations traits, is pivotal.
A MaxEnt modeling approach was applied to predict the seasonal (from April to September) habitat use of a small population of bottlenose dolphins in the north-western Sardinia (Mediterranean Sea) in relation to environmental variables and the likelihoods of boat and fishing net presence. Then, the overlapping areas between dolphin, fishing net and boat presence were identified to provide insights for the marine spatial management of this area.
Three of the main factors influencing the seasonal distribution of bottlenose dolphins in the area are directly (boating and fishing) or indirectly (ocean warming) related to human activities. Furthermore, almost half of the most suitable area for dolphins overlapped with areas used by fishing and boating. Finally, relying on fishing distribution models, we also shed light on the potential impact of fishing on the Posidonia oceanica beds, a protected habitat, which received higher fishing efforts than other habitat types.
Modelling the spatial patterns of anthropogenic activities was fundamental to understand the ecological impacts both on cetacean habitat use and protected habitats. A greater research effort is suggested to detect potential changes in dolphin habitat suitability, also in relation to ocean warming, to assess dolphin bycatch and the status of target fish species, and to evaluate sensitive habitats conditions, such as the Posidonia oceanica meadow.