Abundance, diversity, and feeding behavior of coral reef butterflyfishes at Lord Howe Island

Pratchett, Morgan S.; Hoey, Andrew S.; Cvitanovic, Christopher; Hobbs, Jean‐Paul A.; Fulton, Christopher J.

doi:10.1002/ece3.1208

Cited by 19 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 91 publications

(234 reference statements)

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“…This suggests the highly specialized nature of feeding, which has been shown to feed on a narrow range of corals ( Berumen & Pratchett, 2008 ; Pratchett, 2005 ; Pratchett, 2007 ). A similar result was obtained at Lord Howe Island ( Pratchett et al, 2014 ): a high density of C. trifascialis was encountered at sites with greater coverage of arborescent Acropora , whereas the species exhibited a significant preference for feeding on tabular Acropora . Thus, branching Acropora may serve as habitat whereas corymbose and tabular Acropora are suitable for foraging substrate for C. trifascialis , suggesting that the sympatric distribution of these three types of corals would be a suitable environment for this species.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 76%

“…In contrast, no species of butterflyfishes exhibited a significant positive use of branching Acropora or bottlebrush Acropora in the present study. Pratchett et al (2014) presented similar results, in which no significant positive use for arborescent Acropora was found among five species of butterflyfishes in Australia. An explanation for these findings may be found in the morphological characteristics of corals.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 52%

“…The butterflyfishes (family Chaetodontidae) include four dietary groups: obligate coral polyp feeders, facultative coral polyp feeders, non-coralline invertebrate feeders, and zooplankton feeders ( Sano, 1989 ; Cole, Pratchett & Jones, 2008 ). Previous studies have determined spatial distributions of butterflyfishes in relation to habitat characteristics (e.g., Fowler, 1990 ; Alwany, El-Etreby & Hanafy, 2007 ; Pratchett & Berumen, 2008 ; Emslie et al, 2010 ; Khalaf & Abdallah, 2014 ; Pratchett, Graham & Cole, 2013 ; Pratchett et al, 2014 ). Most of these studies have revealed species-specific differences in density among reef zones.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatial distribution and feeding substrate of butterflyfishes (family Chaetodontidae) on an Okinawan coral reef

Nanami¹

2020

PeerJ

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Coral reefs support diverse communities, and relationships among organisms within these communities are quite complex. Among the relationships, clarifying the habitat association and foraging substrate selection relative to habitat characteristics is of central importance to ecology since these two aspects are the fundamentals for survival and growth of organisms. The aims of the present study were to investigate the spatial distribution and feeding substrate selection of 14 species of butterflyfishes on an Okinawan coral reef in Japan. Species-specific spatial distributions varied with habitat characteristics (e.g., encrusting corals, massive corals, branching Acropora and rock). For feeding substrates, seven species of obligate coral polyp feeders exhibited significant positive selectivity for tabular Acropora, corymbose Acropora, encrusting corals and massive corals but significant negative selectivity for dead corals, coral rubble and rock. Among six species of facultative coral polyp feeders, two species exhibited significant positive selectivity for encrusting corals and massive corals, and one species showed significant positive selectivity for dead corals as feeding substrates. In contrast, three species exhibited no significant positive selectivity for any feeding substrates. A similar result was observed for one non-coralline invertebrate feeder. Among the 14 species, 12 species showed a relatively close relationship between spatial distribution and feeding substrates but the remaining two species did not. The present study is the first study to elucidate species-specific spatial distributions and feeding substrate selection of butterflyfishes on an Okinawan coral reef. The results of the present study suggest that diverse substrates, including various types of living corals (especially encrusting corals, massive corals, tabular Acropora, corymbose Acropora and branching Acropora) and non-coralline substrates (rock) are the primary determinants of spatial distributions and feeding sites. Thus, diverse substrates are important for maintaining high species diversity of butterflyfishes and changes of the substrates would likely change the spatial patterns and foraging behavior, although species-specific responses may be found, depending on their species-specific dependence on vulnerable substrates.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 76%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 52%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatial distribution and feeding substrate of butterflyfishes (family Chaetodontidae) on an Okinawan coral reef

Nanami¹

2020

PeerJ

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“…Different approaches have been used to investigate the potential effect of predation by reef fishes, for instance by using stomach content analysis (Randall and Hartman, 1968;Andréa et al, 2007;Reis et al, 2013) and fish feeding activity observations (Longo and Floeter, 2012;Pratchett et al, 2014). Although there is information about fish predation pressure on sponge assemblages (Pawlik et al, 2018), little is known about the spongivorous fish foraging behavior.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spongivory by Fishes on Southwestern Atlantic Coral Reefs: No Evidence of Top-Down Control on Sponge Assemblages

et al. 2018

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Predator-prey dynamics can affect assemblage structure and ecosystem processes representing a central theory in ecology. In coral reef ecosystems, recent evidences have suggested that sponge assemblages in regions with high diversity, like the Caribbean, are controlled by reef fishes (i.e., top-down control); however, this has been poorly studied in low diversity coral reefs. This study investigated the influence of fish predators on sponge assemblage structure in South Atlantic coral reefs, systems with high endemism and relatively low hermatypic coral diversity. We investigates (i) whether sponge cover is negatively correlated to spongivorous fish density, (ii) potential spongivory effects on competitive interactions between sponges and hermatypic corals, and (iii) foraging preferences of spongivorous fishes. Benthic cover and spongivorous fish density were assessed by photo sampling and visual census, respectively. We did not observe a negative correlation of the total density of spongivorous fish with total sponge cover. However, a significant negative correlation between density of fish species Pomacanthus arcuatus and cover of sponge species Scopalina ruetzleri was found. Spongivorous fish consumed preferentially the sponges Desmapsamma anchorata, Niphates erecta, Aplysina cauliformis, and S. ruetzleri, the first two species considered palatable and the second two with chemically defense mechanism. An increase to angelfish density was not related with the number of coral-sponge encounters. Thus, the effects of spongivorous fishes on sponges cover and competitive interactions with hermatypic corals is weaker in Southwestern Atlantic than previously reported in Caribbean coral reefs. We discuss how local human impacts (e.g., fishing and nutrients input) can influence the observed patterns.

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“…Chaetodon butterflyfishes have undergone rapid species diversification relatively recently (~ 16 Ma) [66], resulting in 93 nominal extant species, among which the majority (59 spp.) predominantly occur in paired social groups (data sourced from [57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64]). Available data on select pairing species suggests that pairs exhibit partner fidelity.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Butterflyfishes as a System for Investigating Pair Bonding

Nowicki

O’Connell

Cowman

et al. 2017

Preprint

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For many animals, affiliative relationships such as pair bonds form the foundation of society, and are highly adaptive. Animal systems amenable for comparatively studying pair bonding are important for identifying underlying biological mechanisms, but mostly exist in mammals. Better establishing fish systems will enable comparison of pair bonding mechanisms across taxonomically distant lineages that may reveal general underlying principles. We examined the utility of wild butterflyfishes (f: Chaetodontidae; g: Chaetodon) for comparatively studying pair bonding. Stochastic character mapping inferred that within the family, pairing is ancestral, with at least seven independent transitions to group formation and seven transition to solitary behavior from the late Miocene to recent. In six sympatric and wide-spread species representing a clade with one ancestrally reconstructed transition from paired to solitary grouping, we then verified social systems at Lizard Island, Australia. In situ observations confirmed that Chaetodon baronessa, C. lunulatus, and C. vagabundus are predominantly pair bonding, whereas C. rainfordi, C. plebeius, and C. trifascialis are predominantly solitary. Even in the predominantly pair bonding species, C. lunulatus, a proportion of adults (15 %) are solitary. Importantly, inter-and intra-specific differences in social systems do not co-vary with other previously established attributes (geographic occurrence, parental care, diet, or territoriality). Hence, the proposed butterflyfish populations are promising for comparative analyses of pair bonding and its mechanistic underpinnings. Avenues for further developing the system are proposed, including determining whether the utility of these species applies across their geographic disruptions.

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Abundance, diversity, and feeding behavior of coral reef butterflyfishes at Lord Howe Island

Cited by 19 publications

References 91 publications

Spatial distribution and feeding substrate of butterflyfishes (family Chaetodontidae) on an Okinawan coral reef

Spatial distribution and feeding substrate of butterflyfishes (family Chaetodontidae) on an Okinawan coral reef

Spongivory by Fishes on Southwestern Atlantic Coral Reefs: No Evidence of Top-Down Control on Sponge Assemblages

Butterflyfishes as a System for Investigating Pair Bonding

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