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"Tropical fishes"
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Faster larval growth and shorter pelagic duration enhance the post-settlement persistence of a common range-extending coral-reef fish in a temperate ecosystem
Climate-induced ocean warming facilitates the poleward range expansion of tropical marine species into temperate waters. Such tropicalisation is reshaping marine ecosystems globally and has ecological implications. Our understanding of the factors influencing the establishment and persistence of vagrant tropical species in temperate waters remains limited. To address this knowledge gap, we examined which early life history traits affect the post-settlement persistence of a vagrant tropical fish, the sergeant major damselfish
Abudefduf vaigiensis
, in temperate waters off southeast Australia. Over an 8-week period, fish were collected, and otolith microstructure analysis indicated that early post-settlement persistence was linked to fast larval growth in the week prior to settlement and to shorter pelagic larval duration, but not body size at hatching or body size at settlement. We conclude that successful invasions of temperate ecosystems by this vagrant tropical fish is likely mediated by demographic advantages these fish gain as early-stage larvae.
Journal Article
The detective & the Chinese high-fin
\"Private Detective John Darvelle is back drinking cheap beer, playing ping-pong, and sharing his philosophy on everything from work/life balance to restaurants with bad air-conditioning. (He doesn't believe in the former; he despises the latter). Darvelle is hired to find the killer of Keaton Fuller, a well-born Los Angeles man gunned down in his own driveway. The cops couldn't solve the case, in part because everyone who came in contact with Keaton despised him. Translation: Anybody could have done it. Following a trail of the dead man's betrayals, Darvelle finds himself in the exotic, high-stakes world of rare tropical fish\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Revealing the Appetite of the Marine Aquarium Fish Trade: The Volume and Biodiversity of Fish Imported into the United States
The aquarium trade and other wildlife consumers are at a crossroads forced by threats from global climate change and other anthropogenic stressors that have weakened coastal ecosystems. While the wildlife trade may put additional stress on coral reefs, it brings income into impoverished parts of the world and may stimulate interest in marine conservation. To better understand the influence of the trade, we must first be able to quantify coral reef fauna moving through it. Herein, we discuss the lack of a data system for monitoring the wildlife aquarium trade and analyze problems that arise when trying to monitor the trade using a system not specifically designed for this purpose. To do this, we examined an entire year of import records of marine tropical fish entering the United States in detail, and discuss the relationship between trade volume, biodiversity and introduction of non-native marine fishes. Our analyses showed that biodiversity levels are higher than previous estimates. Additionally, more than half of government importation forms have numerical or other reporting discrepancies resulting in the overestimation of trade volumes by 27%. While some commonly imported species have been introduced into the coastal waters of the USA (as expected), we also found that some uncommon species in the trade have also been introduced. This is the first study of aquarium trade imports to compare commercial invoices to government forms and provides a means to, routinely and in real time, examine the biodiversity of the trade in coral reef wildlife species.
Journal Article
Ecomorphological patterns in otoliths of tropical fishes: assessing trophic groups and depth strata preference by shape
The morphology and morphometry of otoliths have emerged as powerful indicators of ecological characteristics of fishes. However, shape descriptors that can accurately predict well-documented functions played by species in tropical ecosystems are either restricted to a few groups or poorly known. Therefore, we evaluated the power of two otolith shape descriptors (ecomorphological indexes and Fourier harmonics) in discriminating trophic and depth strata preference groups of tropical fish species. Differences in otolith shape of ecological groups were visualized by linear discriminant analysis (LDA), and tested by a jack-knife cross-validation method and permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) for both methods. Visually and statistically, both descriptors were good predictors of trophic groups and depth preference categories (PERMANOVA, p < 0.05). Overall jack-knifed classification success between both descriptors were very similar, with harmonics correctly classifying 90.38% of assigned trophic groups and 75.96% of given depth preference categories, against 82% and 56.25% of ecological indexes, respectively. Our results suggest that Fourier descriptors and ecomorphological indexes of otoliths should be used as functional traits in future studies, as otolith shape provides a wider range of ecological information regarding feeding habitat, mobility, substrate association and water column use.
Journal Article
The contribution of medicinal plants to tilapia aquaculture: a review
Tilapias are the most farmed tropical fish species in the world, and production globally was about 4.5 million tons in 2013 and is predicted to exceed 6.6 million tons by 2030. The emergence of diseases has led to significant loss to tilapia aquaculture over the years. Medicinal plants have been known for use in treating some human diseases and studied in aquaculture to find safe and eco-friendly compounds that are suitable alternatives to the use of antibiotics and chemical compounds. Several parts including seeds, roots, flowers, leaves, and their extracts have been applied in tilapia aquaculture, administrated to fish through injection, immersion, and oral. The biological activities of medicinal plants include enhancement of growth and feed utilization, stimulation of the cellular and humoral immune response, gene expression, and increased disease resistance in tilapia. Despite the potential contribution of medicinal plants, there are some drawbacks including few commercially available medicinal products, no precise data on optimal dose requirements, lack of toxicity studies, and inadequate data on the effects of medicinal plants at the molecular level. This article describes the role of medicinal plants and their forms used to improve growth, feed utilization, immune response, and disease resistance as well as the prospects of medicinal plants in tilapia aquaculture.
Journal Article
Novel species interactions and environmental conditions reduce foraging competency at the temperate range edge of a range-extending coral reef fish
Poleward range extensions of coral reef species can reshuffle temperate communities by generating competitive interactions that did not exist previously. However, novel environmental conditions and locally adapted native temperate species may slow tropical invasions by reducing the ability of invaders to access local resources (e.g. food and shelter). We test this hypothesis on wild marine fish in a climate warming hotspot using a field experiment encompassing artificial prey release. We evaluated seven behaviours associated with foraging and aggressive interactions in a common range-extending coral reef fish (Abudefduf vaigiensis) and a co-shoaling temperate fish (Microcanthus strigatus) along a latitudinal temperature gradient (730 km) in SE Australia. We found that the coral reef fish had reduced foraging performance (i.e. slower prey perception, slower prey inspection, decreased prey intake, increased distance to prey) in their novel temperate range than in their subtropical range. Furthermore, higher abundance of temperate fishes was associated with increased retreat behaviour by coral reef fish (i.e. withdrawal from foraging on released prey), independent of latitude. Where their ranges overlapped, temperate fish showed higher foraging and aggression than coral reef fish. Our findings suggest that lower foraging performance of tropical fish at their leading range edge is driven by the combined effect of environmental factors (e.g. lower seawater temperature and/or unfamiliarity with novel conditions in their extended temperate ranges) and biological factors (e.g. increased abundance and larger body sizes of local temperate fishes). Whilst a future increase in ocean warming is expected to alleviate current foraging limitations in coral reef fishes at leading range edges, under current warming native temperate fishes at their trailing edges appear able to slow the range extension of coral reef fishes into temperate ecosystems by limiting their access to resources.
Journal Article
Tropical Fishes Dominate Temperate Reef Fish Communities within Western Japan
Climate change is resulting in rapid poleward shifts in the geographical distribution of tropical and subtropical fish species. We can expect that such range shifts are likely to be limited by species-specific resource requirements, with temperate rocky reefs potentially lacking a range of settlement substrates or specific dietary components important in structuring the settlement and success of tropical and subtropical fish species. We examined the importance of resource use in structuring the distribution patterns of range shifting tropical and subtropical fishes, comparing this with resident temperate fish species within western Japan (Tosa Bay); the abundance, diversity, size class, functional structure and latitudinal range of reef fishes utilizing both coral reef and adjacent rocky reef habitat were quantified over a 2 year period (2008-2010). This region has undergone rapid poleward expansion of reef-building corals in response to increasing coastal water temperatures, and forms one of the global hotspots for rapid coastal changes. Despite the temperate latitude surveyed (33°N, 133°E) the fish assemblage was both numerically, and in terms of richness, dominated by tropical fishes. Such tropical faunal dominance was apparent within both coral, and rocky reef habitats. The size structure of the assemblage suggested that a relatively large number of tropical species are overwintering within both coral and rocky habitats, with a subset of these species being potentially reproductively active. The relatively high abundance and richness of tropical species with obligate associations with live coral resources (i.e., obligate corallivores) shows that this region holds the most well developed temperate-located tropical fish fauna globally. We argue that future tropicalisation of the fish fauna in western Japan, associated with increasing coral habitat development and reported increasing shifts in coastal water temperatures, may have considerable positive economic impacts to the local tourism industry and bring qualitative changes to both local and regional fisheries resources.
Journal Article
Salinity, not only temperature, drives tropical fish invasions in the Mediterranean Sea, and surface-only variables explain it better
The increasing success of invasive warm water species is often explained as a direct consequence of a warming climate, but other environmental variables are seldomly taken into account. Here, running RandomForest models with many combinations of relatively uncorrelated environmental predictors, we investigate the factors influencing the distribution of Red Sea fishes in the Mediterranean Sea, which was invaded through the Suez Canal. Our results highlighted the fundamental role of salinity, not only temperature, in determining the distribution of these tropical species, with average values (primarily salinity and surface sea temperatures) performing the best of the respective groups. Noteworthy, models based on surface variables only resulted in higher evaluation scores than those including also bottom variables. These findings contribute to identifying the most relevant factors that explain tropical fish distribution in the Mediterranean Sea and provide advice to the selection of environmental variables in species distribution modeling.
Journal Article
Fishers’ local ecological knowledge indicate migration patterns of tropical freshwater fish in an Amazonian river
The local ecological knowledge (LEK) of fishers may help to fill the knowledge gaps about migration of tropical fish. We investigated fishers’ LEK on migratory patterns of seven fish species along 550 km of the Tapajos River, in the Brazilian Amazon. We interviewed 270 fishers individually in four stretches of this river. The interviewed fishers indicated that three fish species do not migrate over long distances, while four fish species perform migrations, usually longitudinal migration from downstream to upstream reaches. Fishers also mentioned an increase in size of a large catfish species in the upstream stretches of the studied river, indicating the potential occurrence of spawning adults there. These results from fishers’ knowledge indicated that planned dams in the upstream reaches of the Tapajos River will threaten migratory fishes, small-scale fisheries and food security. Fishers’ LEK on fish migration contributed to raise testable biological hypotheses about fish spawning and feeding grounds, as well as the occurrence of distinct populations along the river. The analysis of the LEK of many fishers at several sites over a broad range is a cost-effective source of information on fish migration, supporting environmental impact assessment, fisheries management, and conservation in this and other tropical rivers.
Journal Article