Shore-fish assemblage structure in the central Philippines from shallow coral reefs to the mesophotic zone
- PDF / 2,091,428 Bytes
- 15 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 55 Downloads / 220 Views
ORIGINAL PAPER
Shore‑fish assemblage structure in the central Philippines from shallow coral reefs to the mesophotic zone Rene A. Abesamis1,2 · Jean Asuncion T. Utzurrum1,2 · Lucille Jean J. Raterta2 · Garry R. Russ3 Received: 26 January 2020 / Accepted: 27 October 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Connectivity between shallow coral reefs and adjacent deeper habitats may be crucial to reef ecosystem stability. However, deeper habitats such as mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs) remain understudied. We investigated the depth structuring of shore-fish assemblages in the central Philippines across shallow (10–30 m) and mesophotic (upper: 30–60 m, lower: 60–90 m) depth zones. Baited video surveys in two coastal sites ~ 30 km apart showed strong declines with depth in fish species richness and abundance including fishery target species. Corallivores, herbivores/detritivores, omnivores and planktivores showed the strongest declines. Invertivores and generalist carnivores dominated abundance at mesophotic depths. Data from the coastal sites were analysed with published data from an offshore island (Apo Island) 30 m). Knowledge of the ecology of deeper shore fishes in the tropics come mainly from fishery-dependent studies or experimental fishing surveys conducted away from coral reefs (Longhurst and Pauly 1987). However, there is a growing interest in, and need to understand, deeper shelf areas closer to shallow coral reefs, including the structure of their fish assemblages (Loya et al. 2016; Rocha et al. 2018; Sih et al. 2019). This interest is largely being driven by questions about ecological connectivity across wide depth gradients, which could play a role in reef ecosystem stability amidst
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
185
Page 2 of 15
severe human- and climate-induced threats to shallow reefs (Baker et al. 2016; Loya et al. 2016). The structuring of fish and benthic assemblages with depth may provide indications of ecological connectivity between shallow reefs and deeper habitats. In the past two decades, a good number of studies used video- or diverbased methods to describe fish assemblage structure from shallow reefs (
Data Loading...
