Delayed recovery and host specialization may spell disaster for coral‐fish mutualism

Froehlich, Catheline Y.M.; Klanten, O. Selma; Hing, Martin L.; Dowton, Mark; Wong, Marian Y. L.

doi:10.1002/ece3.10209

Cited by 5 publications

References 72 publications

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Habitat quality effects on the abundance of a coral‐dwelling fish across spatial scales

Fahim,

Naaykens,

D'Aloia

2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Microhabitat associated fishes are expected to be negatively affected by coral reef degradation, given that many species are coral dwellers. However, the factors underlying this negative impact and the spatial scale(s) at which it occurs are poorly understood. We explored how habitat quality metrics and host preferences influence fish abundance across multiple spatial scales, using the functionally important cleaner fish Elacatinus evelynae as a study species. We surveyed fish at 10 sites in Curaçao that varied in coral cover and health. At the microhabitat scale, we found that E. evelynae group size increases on large, healthy corals and on some coral host species, namely Montastraea cavernosa. We also found that, although E. evelynae can occupy at least 10 coral host species, it selectively inhabits just three corals: M. cavernosa, Colpophyllia natans, and Diploria labrynthiformis. Scaling up to explore goby abundance along 30‐m transects, we did not find a clear relationship between live coral cover and goby abundance. However, goby abundance was substantially higher at one location with elevated coral cover and a high relative abundance of E. evelynae host species. Collectively, these results confirm that E. evelynae abundance is impacted by reef health. They also indicate that the species' long‐term persistence may depend on both the maintenance of healthy coral hosts and the gobies' plasticity in host preferences on changing reefscapes. Cryptobenthic fishes such as E. evelynae play a vital role in the ecosystem and understanding drivers of their abundance is important as reefs face increased degradation.

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Habitat quality effects on the abundance of a coral‐dwelling fish across spatial scales

Fahim,

Naaykens,

D'Aloia

2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Multi-level framework to assess social variation in response to ecological and social factors: modeled with coral gobies

Froehlich,

Heatwole,

Klanten

et al. 2023

Preprint

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1.AbstractUnderstanding variation in social organization that does not have a strong phylogenetic signal represents a key focus of research in behavioural and evolutionary ecology. In light of this, we established a sociality framework that identifies four categories of variation in social organisation that range from large-scale to fine-scale and can each be related to various ecological factors: (1) forms of sociality, (2) degree of sociality, (3) social plasticity, and (4) within-group plasticity. We modelled this framework by quantifying the four categories of variation over time, space and disturbance regime using multiple species of coral-dwelling gobies from the genusGobiodon. Gobies are a particularly interesting model system as they vary in social structure, have within-group cooperation and form mutualistic relationships with their coral hosts which are vulnerable to climatic disturbances. We found that gobies varied in forms of sociality – from being solitary, to paired or group-living depending on location and disturbance regime. Only low or moderate degrees of sociality were observed in gobies, and this was influenced by location or disturbance regime depending on species. Gobies were more often solitary or pair-forming than group-forming (which became extremely rare) in a high disturbance regime whereas they were more often found in groups in a moderate disturbance regime. The size of coral hosts affected the social plasticity of gobies, and corals were smaller due to climatic disturbances. Gobies did not exhibit within-group social plasticity, as there were no changes to the structure of size-based hierarchies or sex allocation patterns with location or disturbance regime. Lastly, by combining the four categories of variation, we find that there is a high loss of sociality in coral-dwelling gobies due environmental disturbances, which likely affects overall goby survival as living in groups can improve survival and fitness. By using our structured framework, we identified which categories of social variation were influenced by ecological factors like location and disturbance. This framework therefore provides an excellent tool for predicting future responses of animal societies to environmental stressors.

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Do rhizobia buffer legumes against climate-mediated microbiome effects?

Boyle,

Murphy,

Teng

et al. 2024

Preprint

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1. Climate change is altering both soil microbial communities and the ecological context of plant-microbe interactions. Predicting how soil microbes modulate plant resilience to climate change is critical to mitigating the negative effects of climate change on ecosystems and agriculture. 2. Previously, it was demonstrated that heat, drought, and their legacies altered soil microbiomes and potential plant symbionts. In this study, we conducted growth chamber experiments to isolate the microbially-mediated indirect effects of heat and drought on plant performance and symbiosis. 3. In the first experiment, we found that drought and drought-treated microbes, along with their interaction, significantly decreased the biomass of Medicago lupulina plants compared to well-watered microbiomes and conditions. 4. In a second experiment, we then tested how the addition of a well-known microbial mutualist, Sinorhizobium meliloti, affected climate-treated microbiomes' impact on the M. lupulina. We found that drought-adapted microbiomes negatively impacted legume performance by increasing mortality and reducing branch number, but that adding rhizobia erased climate treatment effects 5. Synthesis: Drought can negatively affect legume performance through microbial legacy effects alone, but adding rhizobia buffers legumes against climate-mediated microbiome effects. In contrast, heat-adapted microbiomes did not differ significantly from control microbiomes in their effects on a legume.

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Delayed recovery and host specialization may spell disaster for coral‐fish mutualism

Cited by 5 publications

References 72 publications

Habitat quality effects on the abundance of a coral‐dwelling fish across spatial scales

Habitat quality effects on the abundance of a coral‐dwelling fish across spatial scales

Multi-level framework to assess social variation in response to ecological and social factors: modeled with coral gobies

Do rhizobia buffer legumes against climate-mediated microbiome effects?

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