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opencc-by-4.0Feb 2024View details →

Data from 'The rise of dietary diversity in coral reef fishes'

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opencc-zeroMar 2024View details →

Variation in functional composition of reef fishes along a tropical to temperate gradient

Aims Transformations of species and functional compositions on subtropical reefs are ongoing due to poleward range shifts of some tropical species, with largely unknown consequences to ecosystem functioning. Trait-based approaches are powerful tools to quantify such changes. Here, we evaluated changes in the trait composition of coral-associated fish communities along a tropical to a temperate environmental gradient of ca.1400 km in southern Japan with abundance-weighted trait expression to assess how trait complexity changes with increasing latitude. Location Ryukyu Islands and southern Pacific coast of Japan Taxon Reef fish Methods We tested for shifts in trait space and functional redundancy, based on five morphological, life history, and behavioural traits: maximum length, pelagic larval duration, trophic level, substrate preference, and reproductive mode. Our trait database was coded with two approaches, first, by attributing a single value to each trait per species, and second, by fuzzy coding that allows more than one value per trait and hence considers some intraspecific trait variation. Results We found a reduction in specialist habitat traits (coral substrate preference, nesters, herbivores) and an increase in generalist traits (predators) with increasing latitude, along with a contraction in trait space from tropical to temperate reefs. Functional redundancy declined with increasing latitude. These trends were closely linked with latitudinal gradients in temperature, along with changes in other environmental factors such as turbidity and photosynthetically active radiation. Main Conclusion Functional turnover and contractions are thus likely due to the marginal conditions for coral-associated fishes at higher latitudes, favouring generalist species, whereas increased resources at lower latitudes favour high redundancy and niche partitioning. Accounting for intraspecific trait variation indicated the same trends but highlighted increased functional vulnerability across all sites. We show that trait complexity in coral-associated fish communities decreases from tropical to temperate reefs, highlighting the reduced functional scope that comes with marginal environmental conditions.

opencc-zeroApr 2024View details →

Data from: Dietary partitioning among three cryptobentic reef fish mesopredators revealed by visual analysis, metabarcoding of gut content, and stable isotope analysis

Understanding how mesopredators partition their diet and the identity of consumed prey can assist in understanding the ecological role predators and prey play in ecosystem trophodynamics. Here, we assessed the diet of three common coral reef mesopredators; Pseudochromis flavivertex, Pseudochromis fridmani, and Pseudochromis olivaceus from the family Pseudochromidae, commonly known as dottybacks, using a combination of i) visual stomach content analysis, ii) stomach content DNA metabarcoding (18S, COI), and iii) stable isotope analysis (δ15N, δ13C). In addition, P. flavivertex is found in two distinct color morphs in the Red Sea, providing an opportunity to analyze intra-morph differences. These techniques revealed partitioning in the dietary composition and resource use among species. Arthropods comprised the main dietary component of P. flavivertex (18S > 60%; COI > 10%), and P. olivaceus (18S = 57.2%) while P. fridmani ingested predominantly mollusks (18S = 51.3%, COI = 24.6%). Despite being small predators, microplastics were found in the gut content of some of these fishes. Stable isotope analysis showed differences in species' isotopic niche breadth and trophic position. Pseudochromis olivaceus presented the largest isotopic niche (SEAC = 1.61‰2), while P. fridmani showed the smallest isotopic niche (SEAC = 0.45‰2) among species. Although the two techniques used for stomach content analysis did not show differences in the diet within color morphs of P. flavivertex, they differed in the isotopic niche and resource use. Despite our limited sampling, our findings provide evidence of species-specific differences in the trophic ecology of dottybacks and demonstrate their important role as predators of cryptic invertebrates and small fishes. This study highlights the importance of combining several approaches (short-term: visual analysis and DNA metabarcoding; and long-term: isotope analysis) when assessing the feeding habits of coral reef fish, as they provide complementary information necessary to delimit their niches and understand the role that small mesopredators play in coral reef ecosystems.

Figure 1 in First report of two gobiid fishes from the coral reefs of Gulf of Mannar, Tamil Nadu, India

Figure 1. Map of the Mandapam group of Islands in GoM showing the collection sites.

Figure 3. Silhouettea indica Visweswara Rao, 1971 in First report of two gobiid fishes from the coral reefs of Gulf of Mannar, Tamil Nadu, India

Figure 3. Silhouettea indica Visweswara Rao, 1971.

Figure 2 in First report of two gobiid fishes from the coral reefs of Gulf of Mannar, Tamil Nadu, India

Figure 2. Istigobius ornatus (Rüppell, 1830).

opencc-zeroApr 2024View details →

Data From: Shortened food chain length in a fished versus unfished coral reef

Direct exploitation through fishing is driving dramatic declines in wildlife populations in ocean environments, particularly for predatory and large-bodied taxa. Despite wide recognition of this pattern and well-established consequences of such trophic downgrading on ecosystem function, there have been few empirical studies examining the effects of fishing on whole system trophic architecture. Understanding these kinds of structural impacts is especially important in coral reef ecosystems - often heavily fished and facing multiple stressors. Given often high dietary flexibility and numerous functional redundancies, especially in diverse ecosystems such as coral reefs, it is important to establish if web architecture is strongly impacted by fishing pressure, or if it might be resilient, at least to moderate intensity pressure. To examine this question, we used a combination of bulk and compound-specific stable isotope analyses measured across a range of predatory and low trophic level consumers between two coral reef ecosystems that differed with respect to fishing pressure but otherwise remained largely similar. We find that even in a high diversity system with relatively modest fishing pressure, there are strong reductions in the trophic position of the three highest trophic position consumers examined in the fished system but no effects on the trophic position of lower-level consumers. We see no evidence that this shortening of these affected food webs is being driven by changes in basal resource consumption, e.g., through changes in spatial location of foraging by consumers. Instead, this likely reflects internal changes in food web architecture suggesting that even in diverse systems, and with relatively modest pressure, human harvest causes significant compressions in food chain length. This observed shortening of these food webs may have many important emergent ecological consequences for the functioning of ecosystems impacted by fishing or hunting. Such important structural shifts may be widespread but unnoticed by traditional surveys. This insight may also be useful for applied ecosystems managers grappling with choices about the relative importance of protection for remote and pristine areas and the value of strict no-take areas to protect not just the raw constituents of systems affected by fishing and hunting but also the health and functionality of whole systems.

opencc-by-4.0Nov 2011View details →

Fig. 2 in Dynamics of fish assemblages on a continuous rocky reef and adjacent unconsolidated habitats at Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, tropical western Atlantic

Fig. 2. Mean values (±SE) of temporal fluctuation and temporal stability.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2021View details →

Traits, landmarks and outlines: Three congruent sides of a tale on coral reef fish morphology

Quantifying the morphology of organisms remains fundamental in ecology given the form-function relationship. Morphology is quantifiable in traits, landmarks, and outlines, and the choice of approach may influence ecological conclusions to an unknown extent. Here, we apply these three approaches to 111 individual coral reef fish of 40 species common in Micronesia. We investigate the major dimensions of morphological variability among individuals, families, and predefined feeding functional groups. We find that although the approaches are complementary, they coincide in capturing elongation as the main dimension of variability. Further, the choice of approach led to different interpretations regarding the degree of morphological differentiation among taxonomic and feeding functional groups. We also use each morphology dataset to compute community-scale morphological diversity on Palauan reefs and investigate how the choice of dataset affects the detection of differences among sites and wave exposure levels. The exact ranking of sites from highest to lowest morphological diversity was sensitive to the approach used, but not the broad spatial pattern of morphological diversity. Conclusions regarding the effect of wave exposure on morphological diversity were robust to the approach used. Biodiversity hotspots (e.g. areas of exceptionally high diversity and/or endemism) are considered important conservation targets but their location may depend on the biodiversity metric used. In the same vein, our results caution against labelling particular sites as morphological diversity hotspots when metrics consider only a single aspect of morphology.

opencc-zeroMay 2022View details →

Linking variation in planktonic primary production to coral reef fish growth and condition

Within low nutrient tropical oceans, islands and atolls with higher primary production support higher reef fish biomass and reef organism abundance. External energy subsidies can be delivered onto reefs via a range of physical mechanisms. However, the influence of spatial variation in primary production on reef fish growth and condition is largely unknown. It is not yet clear how variability in food delivery onto a reef interacts with reef depth and slope, and affects reef fish productivity. Here we test the hypothesis that with increased proximity to deep-water oceanic allochthonous nutrient sources, or at sites where transportation of these water bodies onto reefs is facilitated by shallower reef slopes, parameters of fish growth and condition will be higher, and this pattern will be further emphasised in areas naturally higher in primary production. Contrary to expectations, we found no association between fish growth rate and sites with higher mean chlorophyll values. There were no differences in δ15N or δ13C values in fish collected at greater depths across reefs, suggesting a homogeneous primary production resource. However, the relationship between fish condition and primary production was influenced by depth of collection, driven by higher fish condition at shallow depths within a study site which is a 'hotspot' of primary production. Carbon δ13C values were depleted at sites with increasing primary production, and this trend was reversed by an interactive effect with shallower reef slopes. Our results indicate that deep-water ocean nutrient influences did not translate into observable increases in overall population growth in planktivorous Chromis fieldi within the 10–17.5 m depth range, but show the importance of site specific variation in hydrodynamics and reef physical characteristics influencing fish carbon isotopic composition and condition.

opencc-zeroMay 2022View details →

Data from: Habitat change and its consequences on reef fish specialization in biogeographic transition zones

Aim Reef fishes are commonly recognized as sentinels of the ongoing tropicalization in biogeographic transition zones between temperate and tropical areas. Despite the reliance of these marine ectotherms on the benthos, the importance of benthic habitat has rarely been considered as a factor constraining fish distribution. Therefore, our study aims at examining the consequences of both temperature and benthic variations on the fish fauna and diagnosing potential sentinels of these environmental changes. Location Taiwan, West Pacific. Taxon Teleostei (184 species). Methods We examined how the partitioning of habitats can influence the specialization of fish fauna along a latitudinal gradient. We diagnosed 'specialist' and 'generalist' fishes in this partitioning. For each specialist, we further evaluated whether its distribution is constrained by temperature, benthic habitat, or both factors combined. The change in sea surface temperature over the last three decades was also monitored. Results Fish fauna showed the highest specialization when tropical and subtropical partitions of habitat were considered. Fifty-one tropical specialists, seven subtropical specialists, and 21 possible generalists were identified. Among specialists, 13 species were associated with temperature, 19 with habitat, and 26 with both factors. Steady warming occurred across latitudes but was accentuated in the winter of subtropical habitat. Main conclusions Our results suggested that the distribution of some specialist fishes was constrained only by temperature while the distribution of some others also depended on the availability of benthic habitats. Consequently, under global warming, the distribution of some specialists might shift in a manner that follows the movement of isotherms, while the distribution of others might also be conditioned by the poleward shifts of benthos. A temporal mismatch between the emergence of suitable thermal environments and the arrival of some specialists may exist. Therefore, the tropicalization of high-latitude areas may be characterized by different waves of colonization.

Small predators dominate fish predation in coral reef communities

README File The dataset consists of 4 Excel files of which: -LizardData: is the fish community data collected on Lizard Island. -Metanalysis_dataset: is the gut content metanalysis, used to create the metanalsamps dataset, which is the dataset consisting the resampling and binning into body sizes.  This was then compared to the simnetsamps dataset, which is the resampling and binning from the LizardData file.

opencc-by-4.0Aug 2022View details →

Data from: Characterizing fish habitat use of fringing oyster reefs using acoustic imaging

Data and scripts associated with the paper "Characterizing fish habitat use of fringing oyster reefs using acoustic imaging"

opencc-by-4.0Sep 2022View details →

Data and R script: Ecotourism impacts on reef fishes in a marine reserve during the COVID-19 era

Raw data and R code necessary to reproduce the results of the paper entitled "Ecotourism impacts on reef fishes in a marine reserve during the COVID-19 era" published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

opencc-zeroSep 2022View details →

Data from: Paternal hatching care regulates the timing, synchrony, and success of hatching in a coral reef fish

In oviparous species, the timing of hatching is a crucial decision, but for developing embryos, assessing cues that indicate the optimal time to hatch is challenging. In species with parental care, parents can assess environmental conditions and induce their offspring to hatch. We provide the first documentation of parental hatching regulation in a coral reef fish, demonstrating that male neon gobies (Elacatinus colini) directly regulate hatching by removing embryos from the clutch and spitting hatchlings into the water column. All male gobies synchronized hatching within 2h of sunrise, regardless of when eggs were laid. Paternally-incubated embryos hatched later in development, more synchronously, and had higher hatching success than artificially-incubated embryos that were shaken to simulate paternal hatching cues or not stimulated. Artificially-incubated embryos displayed substantial plasticity in hatching times (range: 88 – 244 hours post-fertilization), suggesting that males could respond to environmental heterogeneity by modifying the hatching time of their offspring. Finally, paternally-incubated embryos hatched with smaller yolk sacs and larger propulsive areas than artificially-incubated embryos, suggesting that paternal effects on hatchling phenotypes may influence larval dispersal and fitness. These findings highlight the complexity of fish parental care and may have important, and currently unstudied, consequences for fish population dynamics.

opencc-zeroSep 2022View details →

Data for: Long-wavelength-sensitive (lws) opsin gene expression, foraging and visual communication in coral reef fishes

Coral reef fishes are diverse in ecology and behaviour and show remarkable colour variability. Investigating the visual pigment gene (opsin) expression in these fishes makes it possible to associate their visual genotype and phenotype (spectral sensitivities) to visual tasks, such as feeding strategy or conspecific detection. By studying all major damselfish clades (Pomacentridae) and representatives from five other coral reef fish families, we show that the long-wavelength-sensitive (lws) opsin is highly expressed in algivorous and less or not expressed in zooplanktivorous species. Lws is also upregulated in species with orange/red colours (reflectance >520 nm) and expression is highest in orange/red-coloured algivores. Visual models from the perspective of a typical damselfish indicate that sensitivity to longer wavelengths does enhance the ability to detect the red to far-red component of algae and orange/red-coloured conspecifics, possibly enabling social signalling. Character state reconstructions indicate that in the early evolutionary history of damselfishes, there was no lws expression and no orange/red coloration. Omnivory was most often the dominant state. Although herbivory was sometimes dominant, zooplanktivory was never dominant. Sensitivity to long wavelength (increased lws expression) only emerged in association with algivory but never with zooplanktivory. Higher lws expression is also exploited by social signalling in orange/red, which emerged after the transition to algivory. Although the relative timing of traits may deviate by different reconstructions and alternative explanations are possible, our results are consistent with sensory bias whereby social signals evolve as a correlated response to natural selection on sensory system properties in other contexts.

Alligator Reef checklist.xlsx: the spreadsheet version of the checklist of Alligator Reef fishes, from Starck, W.A., Estapé C.J. & Morgan Estapé, A. (2017) The fishes of Alligator Reef and environs in the Florida Keys: a half-century update. Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation, 27, 74–117.

Alligator Reef checklist.xlsx: the spreadsheet version of the checklist of Alligator Reef fishes, from Starck, W.A., Estapé C.J. & Morgan Estapé, A. (2017) The fishes of Alligator Reef and environs in the Florida Keys: a half-century update. Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation, 27, 74–117.

AlligatorReefPhotos.pdf: a selection of images of various reef habitats on Alligator Reef, Florida Keys, from both the 1960s and today, for Starck, W.A., Estapé C.J. & Morgan Estapé, A. (2017) The fishes of Alligator Reef and environs in the Florida Keys: a half-century update. Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation, 27, 74–117.

AlligatorReefPhotos.pdf: a selection of images of various reef habitats from both the 1960s and today, for Starck, W.A., Estapé C.J. & Morgan Estapé, A. (2017) The fishes of Alligator Reef and environs in the Florida Keys: a half-century update. Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation, 27, 74–117.

Species Photos.zip Archive of fish species images for the publication of: Starck, W.A., Estapé C.J. & Morgan Estapé, A. (2017) The fishes of Alligator Reef and environs in the Florida Keys: a half-century update. Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation, 27, 74–117.

Species Photos.zip Archive of fish species images for the publication of: Starck, W.A., Estapé C.J. & Morgan Estapé, A. (2017) The fishes of Alligator Reef and environs in the Florida Keys: a half-century update. Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation, 27, 74–117. 323 images, 318 species total,(5 species of Pomacentridae have pictures of both juvenile and adult phases) Carcharodon carcharias screen grab from video* Centropristis ocyurus photo by C.Wangen Dasyatis centroura screen grab from video by Ed. Martin Diapterus sp. photo by Ed Martin. All other photos taken by Carlos Estapé and Allison Estapé in the study area (319 images of 314 species) *YouTube video - Snorkelers Spot Great White Shark Off Islamorada, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50l2grfaNQ4

GC-AR fishes summary tables.docx: a summary of shorefish species-list differences between Alligator Reef and the Greater Caribbean from Floeter et al. (2008).

GC-AR fishes summary tables.docx: a summary of shorefish species-list differences between Alligator Reef and the Greater Caribbean from Floeter et al. (2008). data from Starck, W.A., Estapé C.J. & Morgan Estapé, A. (2017) The fishes of Alligator Reef and environs in the Florida Keys: a half-century update. Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation, 27, 74–117.