Are Marine Protected Areas really a conservation tool for marine biodiversity?: A case study in rocky reefs in the North Pacific of Costa RicaMonitoring

Monitoring coastal marine ecosystems associated with Marine Protected Areas is a tool that allows decision makers to have a real assessment of management effectiveness. With this perspective, rocky reefs have been monitored inside and outside Marine Protected Areas in the North Pacific of Costa Rica to determine, through the biodiversity of macroinvertebrates and vertebrates, the effectiveness and conservation of the marine trophic structures of these ecosystems. At a biogeographic level, the project data show a good state of health of the MPAs with more restrictive management measures, where a community of piscivorous predatory organisms is observed that keeps the lower trophic levels balanced, unlike the other MPAs, in which there is a predominance of prey organisms. It was observed that the most restrictive management categories have a lower variation between sampling periods, while the most lax categories, such as national wildlife refuges, showed the greatest variation between biodiversity indicators, evidencing the conservation effect that correct and effective management can have in marine protected areas.