Data from: Bottom-up effects of a no-take zone on endangered penguin demographics

Marine no-take zones can have positive impacts for target species and are increasingly important management tools. However, whether they indirectly benefit higher order predators remains unclear. The endangered African penguin (Spheniscus demersus) depends on commercially exploited forage fish. We examined how chick survival responded to an experimental 3-year fishery closure around Robben Island, South Africa, controlling for variation in prey biomass and fishery catches. Chick survival increased by 18% when the closure was initiated, which alone led to a predicted 27% higher population compared with continued fishing. However, the modelled population continued to decline, probably because of high adult mortality linked to poor prey availability over larger spatial scales. Our results illustrate that small no-take zones can have bottom-up benefits for highly mobile marine predators, but are only one component of holistic, ecosystem-based management regimes.

海洋禁捕区（marine no-take zones）对目标物种具有积极影响，且正日益成为重要的渔业管理工具。然而，其是否能间接惠及高阶捕食者，目前仍不明确。濒危非洲企鹅（Spheniscus demersus）依赖于商业捕捞的饵料鱼。本研究以南非罗本岛周边实施的为期3年的实验性禁渔为研究对象，在控制猎物生物量与渔业捕捞量变异的前提下，探究了雏鸟存活率的响应情况。禁渔启动后，雏鸟存活率提升了18%；仅这一变化，即可使种群数量相较于持续捕捞的情景预计提升27%。但模型模拟的种群仍持续下降，这可能是因为在更大空间尺度上猎物可获得性不足导致的成鸟高死亡率。本研究结果表明，小型海洋禁捕区可对高度洄游的海洋捕食者产生上行调控效益，但这仅能作为基于生态系统的整体管理体系的组成部分之一。