Rosa Maria is a young marine scien st from Peru. Currently, a student in the Interna onal Master of Science in Marine Biological Resources (IMBRSea) and member of the Laboratory of Aqua c Ecology in the University of San Marcos where she co-leads a research program (DivEPerSea) to study the biodiversity and ecology in Peruvian marine ecosystems. She is par cularly interested in icthyology, marine conserva on and ï¬ sheries but also determined to resolve today’s challenges in the marine realm.
Abstract
In Peru, there are three Protected Natural Areas (PNA) that include a marine component. One of this PNA is Reserva Nacional Sistema de Islas, Islotes y Puntas Guaneras (RNSIIPG) comprising of 33 subareas (islands, islets and rocky ledges). However, even when the main component (90%) is comprised of the marine area, there are just a few studies about it and an incipient eff ort to manage it. From its crea on to the present, the approaches used to manage the biodiversity and marine resources have been focused on target species and communi es and other important habitats that host valuable resources (e.g. razor clams, clams, crabs, sea cucumbers) have been ignored due to the gap of knowledge and wrong spa al representa on. In this study, we applied the European nature informa on system (EUNIS) habitat classiï¬ ca on for the ï¬ rst me in the RNSIIPG and we took as a case study one of the subareas: Islands
Fishermen Group located on the central coast of Peru and part of the Humboldt Current Ecosystem. We could iden fy 11 types of habitats, 2 habitats types at Level 2 and 9 habitats at Level 4. In the case of habitats with mobile sediment, we could reach the Level 4 with bathymetric data and type of sediment (i.e. ï¬ nd sand). Nerveless, we couldn’t reach the Level 5 due to the lack of informa on regarding the biological component. In the case of no-mobile sediment (i.e. hard substrates) we could only reach the Level 2 due to the lack of informa on of exposure degree and energy level the habitats are subjected. The applica on of EUNIS classiï¬ ca on allows us to have an improved spa al overview of marine habitats in RNSIIPG. This is an evidence of the poten al use this tool can provide in Peruvian PNA to deï¬ ne conserva on elements with a hierarchical approach.