Selection of Marine Protected Areas for conserving estuaries using surrogate approach

Establishing marine protected areas in estuaries has been advocated as the efficient route in conserving the sensitive estuarine environment. However, selecting priority areas for conservation of estuarine biodiversity require detailed biodiversity inventories that are difficult to access. A potential solution is the use of surrogates that are readily measured and reflect the total biodiversity. Indicator groups and higher taxa are widely suggested as potential surrogates in establishing conservation areas. The performance of indicator groups and higher taxa as surrogates were assessed in one estuary in south-east Australia by traditional approach "correspondence in species richness" and using complementarity-based approaches "correspondence in compositional dissimilarity and coincidental representation of target species in simulated MPA for surrogates". Of 16 taxa examined, annelids, arthropods and molluscs were identified as reliable surrogates in representing biodiversity of target species. This study showed that genus-level data of indicator taxa could efficiently identify priority areas for target species. Family-level data of indicator taxa may be used as surrogate with caution. Given wide differences among aquatic habitats, there is a special need for finding indicator groups for different habitats.