Life Sciences Commons^™

Occurrence Of Larval And Juvenile Fish In Mangrove Habitats In The Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve, Quintana Roo, Mexico, Matthew Campbell, Kim Withers, James Tolan

Gulf and Caribbean Research

Mangrove forests are ubiquitous in low lying coastal areas of tropical and subtropical zones of the world, including the lagoons of the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Mangroves are habitat for juvenile fish of both oceanic and estuarine origin (Vásquez-Yoemans 1992, Vásquez-Yoemans et al. 1992, Laegdsgaard and Johnson 1995). Development of the Caribbean coast of Mexico north and south of the Sian Ka’an Reserve is in large part focused on tourism-related endeavors such as destination resorts, scuba diving and fishing. While some of the development is innocuous, land acquisition for development of resorts has fragmented mangrove habitats in …