Download AEBR 171 Top-down effects on rocky reef ecosystems in north-eastern New Zealand: a historic and qualitative modeling approach

The potential impacts of the historical removal of top shark, finfish and mammalian reef predators on rocky reef ecosystems in the Hauraki Gulf are explored with qualitative modelling. The inclusion of small/medium size sharks had the most predictable impacts with highly certain negative impacts on the abundance of small/large lobsters, and highly certain increases of abundance of large predatory invertebrates, and macro-invertebrate predatory fish (e.g. snapper).