A multi-component analysis of species diversity of groundfish assemblages on the continental shelf of the Gulf of Lions (north-western Mediterranean Sea)

Mérigot, Bastien; Bertrand, Jacques; Mazouni, Nabila; Manté, Claude; Durbec, Jean-Pierre; Gaertner, Jean Claude

doi:10.1016/j.ecss.2006.12.017

Cited by 28 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 51 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…2, 3; Appendix B). This finding supports the conclusions from previous analyses of groundfish diversity which showed that richness, evenness, and taxonomic differences provide unique information about community structure in the Mediterranean Sea (Mérigot et al 2007a, 2007b. Our investigation emphasizes the interchangeability of functional or phylogenetic information with taxonomic data within this descriptive framework.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Dimensions of biodiversity in Chesapeake Bay demersal fishes: patterns and drivers through space and time

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Biodiversity has typically been described in terms of species richness and composition, but theory and growing empirical evidence indicate that the diversity of functional traits, the breadth of evolutionary relationships, and the equitability with which individuals or biomass are distributed among species better characterize patterns and processes within ecosystems. Yet, the advantages of including such data come at the expense of measuring traits, sequencing genes, and counting or weighing individuals, and it remains unclear whether this greater resolution yields substantial benefits in describing diversity. We summarized a decade of high-resolution trawl data from a bimonthly trawl survey to investigate spatial and seasonal patterns of demersal fish diversity in the Chesapeake Bay, USA, with the goal of identifying areas and times of mismatch between different dimensions of diversity, and their response to environmental forcing. We found moderate to strong positive relationships among all metrics of diversity, and that functional and phylogenetic differences were well-reflected in an index derived from taxonomic (Linnaean) hierarchy. Compared with species richness and species diversity, functional, phylogenetic, and taxonomic indices peaked later in the year, which was a consequence of the distribution of biomass among functionally and evolutionarily divergent species. Generalized additive models revealed that spatial, temporal, and environmental variables explained roughly similar proportions of deviance across all aspects of diversity, suggesting that these three factors do not differentially affect the functional and phylogenetic aspects of community structure. We conclude that an index of diversity derived from taxonomic hierarchy served well as a practical surrogate for functional and phylogenetic diversity of the demersal fish community in this system. We also emphasize the importance of evenness in understanding diversity patterns, especially since most ecological communities in nature are dominated by one or few species.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Dimensions of biodiversity in Chesapeake Bay demersal fishes: patterns and drivers through space and time

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The Spearman's correlations matrix produced less accessible but more precise information on the correlations between the indices studied. More detailed information on both the indices and the approach carried out in the present study can be found in Mérigot et al (2007a). Taxonomic indices were computed using the PRIMER software (Clarke & Gorley 2001), while all the other indices and statistical analyses were performed using R software (version 2.6.2, R Development Core Team 2008).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This result shows that a single index, such as the species richness or Shannon-Wiener, cannot provide a complete description of the pelagic fish species diversity in the study zone. It demonstrates the multi-component aspects of species diversity suggested by theoretical studies (Purvis & Hector 2000), but explicitly shown only in a limited number of experimental studies (Wilsey et al 2005, Mérigot et al 2007a and never, to date, for pelagic fish assemblages. While our study dealt with 4 theoretical components of biodiversity, we displayed 6 complementary groups of descriptors.…”

Section: The Multi-component Structure Of Pelagic Fish Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We hypothesized that utilizing fisheries-independent observations around FADs may also help scientists to access and monitor the diversity of pelagic fish species. Second, several authors have recently shown in both terrestrial and benthic marine ecosystems that diversity is a more complex and multifaceted concept than previously expected (Purvis & Hector, 2000, Wilsey et al 2005, Mérigot et al 2007a. Here, we propose the first analysis of the multi-component aspect of species diversity dealing with open-ocean pelagic fishes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nevertheless, we have to keep in mind that rarity showed a high variability, suggesting that our sampling effort may not be suitable for properly assessing this index. More generally, whatever the ecosystem and the sampling effort, definitions of rarity, including ours, are based on subjective choices (Gaston 1994, Magurran 2004, Mérigot et al 2007a, and this concept should be used carefully.…”

Section: The Multi-component Structure Of Pelagic Fish Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Visual censuses around drifting fish aggregating devices (FADs): a new approach for assessing the diversity of fish in open-ocean waters

Gaertner

Taquet²,

Dagorn³

et al. 2008

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study provides a baseline measure of pelagic fish species diversity around fish aggregating devices (FADs) in the Western Indian Ocean. Using data from visual censuses made by SCUBA divers around drifting FADs we (1) analysed 11 diversity indices describing 4 main components of pelagic diversity: number of species, evenness, taxonomic diversity and rarity and (2) discussed the viability of using visual censuses around FADs to monitor temporal and spatial changes in diversity patterns of pelagic fishes in the future. Our results not only show that a single index, such as species richness or the Shannon-Wiener index, cannot provide a complete description of pelagic fish diversity around FADs, but also that some components of diversity appear to be multifaceted themselves and require the simultaneous use of several complementary indices in order to be accurately described and monitored. Despite a limited sampling effort, our results suggest that using visual censuses around FADs could provide reproducible 'relative' indices of diversity for a welldelimited assemblage of species (intra-and extranatant species in the epipelagic domain). In this context, we propose a preliminary 'short list' of diversity indices based firstly on their complementarity and secondly on their simplicity. While visual censuses of pelagic fishes at FADs (like any other sampling method) cannot give an exhaustive picture of diversity, they are a fishery-independent survey method that can complement other sampling techniques and provide reproducible information to monitor the diversity of these very difficult-to-access pelagic fish communities.

show abstract

Indices for assessing coral reef fish biodiversity: the need for a change in habits

Loiseau

Gaertner

2015

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We present the first representative and quantified overview of the indices used worldwide for assessing the biodiversity of coral reef fishes. On this basis, we discuss the suitability and drawbacks of the indices most widely used in the assessment of coral fish biodiversity. An extensive and systematic survey of the literature focused on coral reef fish biodiversity was conducted from 1990 up to the present. We found that the multicomponent aspect of biodiversity, which is considered as a key feature of biodiversity for numerous terrestrial and marine ecosystems, has been poorly taken into account in coral reef fish studies. Species richness is still strongly dominant while other diversity components, such as functional diversity, are underestimated even when functional information is available. We also demonstrate that the reason for choosing particular indices is often unclear, mainly based on empirical rationales and/or the reproduction of widespread habits, but generally with no clear relevance with regard to the aims of the studies. As a result, the most widely used indices (species richness, Shannon, etc.) would appear to be poorly suited to meeting the main challenges facing the monitoring of coral reef fish biodiversity in the future. Our results clearly show that coral reef scientists should rather take advantage of the multicomponent aspect of biodiversity. To facilitate this approach, we propose general guidelines to serve as a basis for the selection of indices that provide complementary and relevant information for monitoring the response of coral reef fish biodiversity in the face of structuring factors (natural or anthropic). The aim of these guidelines was to achieve a better match between the properties of the selected indices and the context of each study (e.g. expected effect of the main structuring factors, nature of data available).

show abstract

A multi-component analysis of species diversity of groundfish assemblages on the continental shelf of the Gulf of Lions (north-western Mediterranean Sea)

Cited by 28 publications

References 51 publications

Dimensions of biodiversity in Chesapeake Bay demersal fishes: patterns and drivers through space and time

Dimensions of biodiversity in Chesapeake Bay demersal fishes: patterns and drivers through space and time

Visual censuses around drifting fish aggregating devices (FADs): a new approach for assessing the diversity of fish in open-ocean waters

Indices for assessing coral reef fish biodiversity: the need for a change in habits

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About