Quantifying fisheries ecosystem services of mangroves and tropical artificial urban shorelines

Rapid development has fragmented Singapore’s coastal habitats and converted them into artificial shorelines, with implications for the ecosystem services they provide. This study investigated the impact of urban development on two ecosystem services related to fisheries (direct provisioning and indirect nursery functions) by comparing adjacent mangrove and artificial rocky shore sites at two locations. In terms of fisheries provisioning ecosystem services, fish video data indicated that fish assemblage structure was significantly different between the two habitat types, with Ellochelon vaigiensis, Ambassis kopsii, Ambassis interrupta, and Zenarchopterus buffonis contributing most significantly. Trap data indicated that there were significantly more fish on the artificial rocky shore than mangrove at one of our locations in Pasir Ris. There were also significant differences in the size distribution of fish between habitat types at both locations, with high proportions of smaller fish in the mangroves. Even with higher juvenile presence, the role of urban mangroves in providing nursery ecosystem services is less clear, since we cannot determine whether this habitat type is essential for any individual fish species. This study indicates that mangroves provide a level of fisheries ecosystem services as part of a heavily developed and fragmented landscape in conjunction with other substrate types.