Investigating the cumulative effects of multiple stressors on fish assemblages in a semi-enclosed bay
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Investigating the cumulative effects of multiple stressors on fish assemblages in a semi‑enclosed bay Sasha K. Whitmarsh1 · Charlie Huveneers1 · Peter G. Fairweather1 Received: 27 October 2019 / Accepted: 6 October 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The growing intensity of anthropogenic activities has led to an increase in the number of studies assessing the effects of stressors on marine ecosystems. Yet, the cumulative effects of multiple stressors are rarely studied although they seldom operate in isolation of each other. Our study aimed to investigate the effects of multiple stressors on fish assemblages in a series of semi-enclosed bays. We quantified fish assemblages using baited remote underwater video across five sites with varying environmental and anthropogenic stressors. We also sampled across two seasons and in protected and unprotected areas. We found that fish assemblages were most influenced by effluent input and aquaculture, but not fishing pressure. Relief, season, salinity, and pH were also included in the best model highlighting the importance of environmental variables in structuring fish assemblages. Total abundance was not affected by anthropogenic stressors but individual species showed variable responses from reduced abundance (e.g. Neoodax balteatus and Cyanea rosella) to increased abundances (e.g. Arripis spp.). We found no evidence that increased number or intensity of stressors affected overall fish abundance or diversity. Our findings highlight the diverse effects anthropogenic stressors can have on fishes with both environmental and anthropogenic influences playing a role in structuring fish assemblages over both short temporal and spatial scales.
Introduction Coastal regions are at threat from a range of anthropogenic stressors including climate change, recreational and commercial fishing, aquaculture practices, pollution, and coastal urbanisation (Lotze et al. 2006; Halpern et al. 2008b; Robbins et al. 2017). These stressors put increasing pressures on marine communities including fish assemblages, which have shown declines in abundance and diversity (Worm et al. 2006; McCauley et al. 2015; O’Brien et al. 2019), e.g. due to fishing practices (Halpern and Warner 2002; Lester et al. 2009), urbanisation (Vargas-Fonseca et al. 2016), and Responsible Editor: S. Hamilton. Reviewed by undisclosed experts. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-020-03784-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Sasha K. Whitmarsh [email protected] 1
College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
pollution (Islam and Tanaka 2004). Despite many studies focusing on anthropogenic stressors, few studies have attempted to consider, measure, and tease apart the cumulative effects of multiple stressors on fish assemblages (Crain et al. 2008; O’Brien et al. 2019). Previous research on cumulat
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