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"Reef fishes"
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Relationships between structural complexity, coral traits, and reef fish assemblages
With the ongoing loss of coral cover and the associated flattening of reef architecture, understanding the links between coral habitat and reef fishes is of critical importance. Here, we investigate whether considering coral traits and functional diversity provides new insights into the relationship between structural complexity and reef fish communities, and whether coral traits and community composition can predict structural complexity. Across 157 sites in Seychelles, Maldives, the Chagos Archipelago, and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, we find that structural complexity and reef zone are the strongest and most consistent predictors of reef fish abundance, biomass, species richness, and trophic structure. However, coral traits, diversity, and life histories provided additional predictive power for models of reef fish assemblages, and were key drivers of structural complexity. Our findings highlight that reef complexity relies on living corals—with different traits and life histories—continuing to build carbonate skeletons, and that these nuanced relationships between coral assemblages and habitat complexity can affect the structure of reef fish assemblages. Seascape-level estimates of structural complexity are rapid and cost effective with important implications for the structure and function of fish assemblages, and should be incorporated into monitoring programs.
Journal Article
Within-region differences in growth responses of an herbivorous coral reef fish to local and regional climatic processes
Understanding how environmental stressors impact fisheries is imperative for the sustainable management of our marine resources. Synchrony in inter-annual growth patterns among individuals and populations has been identified across large spatial scales, both within and among species. This synchrony indicates a detectable sensitivity to changes in climatic or environmental conditions. We explored within-region effects of environmental and climatic variability using inter-annual otolith growth rates (increments) in a tropical coral reef fish,
Naso unicornis
. Dendrochronology techniques were applied to remove age-specific growth effects and extract a high-frequency variability signal indicative of short-term environmental change. Using linear mixed-effects models, we identified best predictors of the variation in growth at two adjacent latitude subsets in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. We found different latitude subset growth responses for the years 2000–2013 and 2005–2017, indicating independent fluctuations in growth across latitude however, synchrony was present among individuals within a latitude range. Local environmental processes were more important than regional climatic processes for explaining
N. unicornis
growth in the north, but in the central islands, neither process had a clear effect. Otolith growth in fish inhabiting the north had a positive response to increased annual average sea surface temperature (SST). In adjacent central islands, otolith growth responded negatively to warmer winter SST. Baseline information for most fisheries on the direct impact of external forcings on fish, especially in tropical coral reef fisheries, remains sparse. We provide information on how climate and environment have impacted past growth with implications for future fisheries productivity monitoring.
Journal Article
Microplastic ingestion and potential risk assessment on commercial and non-commercial marine fish in the Bay of Bengal
Microplastic contamination and potential risk assessment in coral reef fish species have been under-studied, particularly in the Bay of Bengal. Quantification and characterization of microplastics and their potential health risks were assessed for six tropical fishes from Saint Martin's Island, Bay of Bengal. A total of 60 gastrointestinal tracts (GIT) from six fish species (10 individuals/species) were collected and digested with 20 mL of 65% concentrated HNO
3
+ 80 mL of distilled water at 70 °C for 3 h, and microplastics were extracted by density separation using 4.4 M, 1.5 g/mL of sodium iodide solution. Microplastics were visually observed by a light binocular microscope, and then polymer types were detected with FTIR. Mean microplastic abundance ranged from 4.38 to 10 microplastics/GIT with an average occurrence rate of 100%. Red, transparent, black, and blue fibres (37.50 to 81.82%) were the most dominant MP colour. Most (88.35%) extracted microplastics were 100 to 1500 µm. Polypropylene and polyethylene were the most abundant polymers, accounting for 36.45 to 53.51% and 32.56 to 47.18%, respectively. A risk assessment of microplastics using the polymer hazard index revealed that microplastic contamination in these fishes (PHI = 565.40 to 659.26) from Saint Martin's Island were classified in the “Danger” risk category.
Journal Article
Importance of coastal vegetated habitats for tropical marine fishes in the Red Sea
Marine vegetated habitats such as seagrass, mangroves, and macroalgae are common along tropical coastlines globally and provide habitats for a diversity of fishes, including juvenile fish and species found on coral reefs. Understanding the use of these habitats by different fish species and life stages is fundamental to spatial planning, fisheries management, and conservation. While previous studies have focused on the habitat potential of seagrass, macroalgae, or mangroves for coral reef fish independently, it is important to consider their combined roles, as tropical seascapes are often mosaics of such habitats. In this study, we evaluated habitat associations across life stages for fish species in coral reefs, seagrasses, macroalgae, and mangroves in Saudi Arabia’s central Red Sea. Through in situ visual surveys, we documented 36% of local coral reef fish species in one or more vegetated habitats, with the fraction of coral reef species utilizing macroalgae or seagrass much greater than that of mangroves (29%, 18%, and 6%, respectively). Mangroves hosted mainly juvenile fish (83% of observed population) and macroalgae hosted the largest proportion of herbivores (39% of observed population), suggesting that each environment offers different combinations of resources (food and shelter), and a mix of these habitats could support biological connectivity across a seascape. Species targeted by local fisheries made up 37% of the species documented in vegetated habitats. The use of multiple habitat types by juvenile and commercially important fishes in the Red Sea underscores the need for a holistic approach to habitat protection.
Journal Article
Diverse patterns of larval coral reef fish vertical distribution and consequences for dispersal and connectivity
Many populations rely on dispersal as a critical life history event, from seed dispersal in plants to migration behaviors in birds, insects, and fishes. Species traits alter dispersal propensity and distance, and these in turn influence fitness. Vertical distribution behaviors, as have been observed in many taxa of fish larvae, are assumed to influence planktonic transport. Particular attention has been paid to the potential adaptive benefit of increased retention near the parental population due to ontogenetic vertical migration (OVM), in which larvae move deeper with age. By combining a large observational dataset with individual-based modeling, we investigated the prevalence of OVM compared to other behaviors, and the effects of different vertical behaviors on dispersal and connectivity. We analyzed two years of monthly field observations of larval vertical distribution behaviors for 23 taxa of coral reef fish, with resolution across larval ontogeny. We found a diversity of behaviors both within and among coral reef fish families, with three prevalent patterns: surface dwelling, ontogenetic vertical migration (OVM), and wide vertical spread. Using generalized versions of these three behaviors, we modeled larval dispersal throughout the Caribbean Sea over 5 years, for two pelagic larval durations (PLDs) that are typical of coral reef fishes. Models of surface-dwelling behavior generally led to more long-distance dispersal, lower local retention, and higher population connectivity than the uniformly-distributed and OVM behaviors. These latter two behaviors with deeper distributions during all or part of the larval stage had similar outcomes for dispersal, connectivity, and local retention. Similar impacts of behavior on dispersal, connectivity, and retention were observed under both short and long PLD. We also found that the effects of vertical behavior on larval dispersal were stronger than the effects of seasonal or interannual variation in currents. Our results suggest that there are other advantages beyond higher local retention that contribute to the selection of a complex behavior such as OVM—these may include predator avoidance, temperature-driven metabolic changes, and directional swimming.
Journal Article
Latitudinal gradients in herbivorous and detritivorous reef fish productivity
The abundance of herbivorous fishes is known to vary strongly with latitude. However, our understanding of this pattern is largely based on the examination of nominally herbivorous fishes (i.e. both herbivores and detritivores) as a single group. Therefore, we do not know how this collective classification may have confounded our understanding of distribution patterns, nor how different trophic pathways function across latitudes and associated temperature gradients. This constrains our ability to predict how tropicalising reefs may function as oceans warm, especially following range extensions of tropical taxa. Here, we explored the productivity of seven groups of roving nominally herbivorous fishes across eastern (34° of latitude; ~3800 km) and western (23°; ~2600 km) Australia, with specific consideration of the herbivore versus detritivore dichotomy across key spatial and environmental gradients. In terms of the total nominally herbivorous fish community, we found near-continuous declines in species richness with increasing distance from the equator, while total biomass and productivity were maintained across nearly 30° of latitude in eastern Australia. However, when we separated herbivores and detritivores, we found detritivore productivity dominated the tropics but declined abruptly in temperate regions, with this decline closely correlated with decreasing temperature in a synchronous manner along both coastlines. No such synchronous relationship was observed between herbivore productivity and temperature. These results highlight the importance of the herbivore versus detritivore division in understanding reef trophodynamics across latitudes, and the importance of understanding fish-based detritivory when predicting how the trophodynamic functioning of reefs may change along warming coastlines.
Journal Article
Rapid and repeated evolution of pigmentation patterns in reef fishes
Pigmentation patterns are central to animal biology-shaping camouflage, signaling, and mate selection-and uncovering the mechanisms driving their diversification is key to understanding the evolutionary principles that generate this fundamental dimension of biodiversity. Reef fishes exhibit an incredible variety of patterns, from simple spots to intricate designs. To date, the underlying evolutionary processes that govern their diversification remain unclear.
Here, we investigate the relationship between pigmentation pattern diversity, species richness, and geography across six iconic reef fish families. We provide evidence for a positive correlation between pattern diversity and species richness, with a high divergence of pigmentation patterns in every biogeographic region. Then, by using a suit of phylogenetically informed comparative analyses, we demonstrate that the evolution of pigmentation patterns is characterized by a combination of rapid and constrained phenotypic diversification.
Overall, our findings illuminate factors that explain pigmentation pattern diversity in living reef fishes, revealing that speciation events have driven constant high levels of pigmentation pattern disparity within subclades and across globally variable reef fish assemblages.
Journal Article