Projeto de pesquisa

In the areas where we want to know fish productivity, species, abundance and body length for each individual will be assessed. Thanks to literature or predictive models, the species-specific growth and mortality coefficient as well as length-weight conversation coefficient will be applied to the dataset obtained. Then the estimating standing biomass, somatic growth and natural mortality are calculated, using mathematical equations. Those parameters will be then computed to estimate the productivity.

Standing biomass is defined as the relationship between length and weight. Somatic growth is the gain of body mass predicted over a time interval. Then the natural mortality which is the probability to die. Those parameters can be obtained from statistical and theoretical relationships (Brown et al. 2004; Gislason et al. 2010). Those calculations try to take into account the recruitment, however, this parameter is hard to assess in open systems like coral reefs. In order to incorporate this parameter into the fish productivity data, abundance and frequency of the recruitment pulse are needed. (Morais et al., 2020)

Benthic communities play an important role in the marine ecosystems used, directly as habitat and food resources, and also indirectly in a larger scale with the exchange of nutrients, mass, and energy with the water column, representing a key element of sink of carbon with the mineralization of organic matter (Norling et al., 2007, Griffiths et al., 2017). Studying the benthos and determining the spatial distribution of its communities is essential to know the key areas to protect.
(Eleftheriou, 2013)

Understanding the ecosystem productivity dynamic is important for good management of for the available resources. Fish productivity is a tool that provides detailed information on the actual and constantly changing stock unlike biomass. Combined with a mapping of the different benthic communities those data could be used for fishery management for conservation purposes while taking into consideration social needs.