Depth gradients in abundance and functional roles suggest limited depth refuges for herbivorous fishes

Cure, Katherine; Currey‐Randall, Leanne M.; Galaiduk, Ronen; Radford, Ben; Wakeford, Mary; Heyward, Andrew

doi:10.1007/s00338-021-02060-7

Cited by 11 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…Rather, we believe that mobile species could swim back and forth to adjacent deep zones to avoid disturbances from touristic activity and stayed, at least in larger proportion, on the reef during the lockdown. For example, Lutjanus argentiventris, Mycteroperca rosacea, and Scarus ghobban (the most common snapper, grouper, and parrotfish species in the region, respectively) are well-known to use the mesophotic zone (~40-50 m) (Sala et al 2003;Cure et al 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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COVID-19 lockdown reveals fish density may be much higher in marine reserves

Olán-González

Reyes‐Bonilla

Arreola-Alarcón

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Marine reserves generally allow ecotourism to offer an alternative income to fishing. However, we need to assess its impact on wildlife to make this activity sustainable. The COVID-19 lockdown provided a unique opportunity to evaluate wildlife diversity in the absence of human activity. In a Mexican reserve, we monitored fish assemblages before, during, and just after the lockdown. We show that ecotourism activities alter the behavior of fishes by finding a 2.5-fold density rise during the lockdown. We suggest that the noise pollution generated by the numerous recreational vessels is a significant factor of perturbation. In the absence of noise pollution, some fishes may be bolder (less hidden) and others can come back to the reserve from usually quieter areas (e.g., deeper waters). Our results represent a great worldwide incentive to improve the health of marine reserves by establishing concrete measures in managing plans to mitigate noise pollution.Open Research statementAll data and code necessary to reproduce the results of the paper are enclosed in the submission for review purposes, and will be published on Zenodo following the acceptance of the paper.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Lutjanus argentiventris, Mycteroperca rosacea , and Scarus ghobban (the most common snapper, grouper, and parrotfish species in the region, respectively) are well-known to use the mesophotic zone (~40–50 m) (Sala et al . 2003; Cure et al . 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 lockdown reveals fish density may be much higher in marine reserves

Olán-González

Reyes‐Bonilla

Arreola-Alarcón

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…BRUVs have been used to capture video of both shallow and deep-reef fishes on tropical reefs down to 240 m. BRUV usage, although it has provided data for studies of deep-reef fishes in the Indo-west Pacific (Colton and Swearer, 2010;Sih et al, 2017Sih et al, , 2019Abesamis et al, 2020;Andradi-Brown et al, 2021;Cure et al, 2021) has occurred at relatively low levels in the Greater Caribbean. Goodbody-Gringley et al (2019) provided the most comprehensive depth coverage to date by BRUVs at any Greater Caribbean site, while Andradi-Brown et al (2016) used BRUVs in shallow mesophotic depths.…”

Section: Closed-circuit Rebreathersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our analysis shows that submersibles can be as effective as CCR for visual sampling of the diversity and depth-distributions of shallow species living on deep reefs. BRUVs, which can provide data on a broad range of ecotypes of fishes (e.g., Cure et al, 2021), have been used in the IWP to generate useful observational data across the entire deep-reef depth range, but not for collecting specimens. ROVs can operate to the same depths as small research submersibles and do so for longer periods.…”

Section: Utility Of Submersibles For Research On Deep-reef Fishesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Submersibles Greatly Enhance Research on the Diversity of Deep-Reef Fishes in the Greater Caribbean

et al. 2022

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Understanding the diversity and ecology of deep-reef fishes is challenging. Due to intensive and widely dispersed sampling, the Greater Caribbean (GC) fauna of species found on shallow reefs is much better characterized than the fauna of deep-reef species restricted to mesophotic (40–130 m) and rariphotic (130–300 m) depths. Our knowledge about deep-reef fishes is based on ship-board sampling and the recent use of rebreather diving, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), baited remote underwater videos, and crewed submersibles. Submersible research on GC deep-reef fishes began in the 1960s and has flourished over the last decade through research by the Smithsonian Institution’s Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP). Here we quantify the contribution of submersible research, particularly the surge by DROP, to our understanding of the diversity of the deep-reef fish fauna of the GC. We compared shallow- and deep-reef fish faunas of three GC sites subjected to DROP research to faunas of three sites without such research. DROP increased the size of the deep faunas at three islands ∼9-fold, and they have deep-reef faunas ∼2–4 times the size of those of the other three sites. Those deep-reef faunas have high proportions of small cryptobenthic fishes, which also represent a major component of shallow faunas. That research increased the rate of discovery (collection) of new species of deep-reef fishes ∼6-fold and accounts for 31% of the deep-reef species first discovered within the GC. Substantial numbers of new species at each of the three DROP islands were not found at the other two. This indicates that other parts of the GC likely harbor many undetected deep-reef fishes, and that the size of the deep-reef fauna of the GC is significantly underestimated. These results show that small research submersibles are versatile, highly productive tools for deep-reef studies. They allow long-duration dives at any depth, while offering unparalleled views of their surroundings to study the ecology of deep-reef fishes (e.g., DROP’s definition of the rariphotic assemblage from fish depth distributions). Submersibles can efficiently collect reef fishes of a broad range of taxa, ecotypes and sizes, leading to a more comprehensive understanding of the regional GC deep-reef fish fauna.

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“…Herbivorous reef fishes have been studied on many coral reefs throughout the world (Cure et al, 2021;Helyer and Samhouri, 2017;Robinson et al, 2020;Shantz et al, 2020) and the Red Sea (Alwany et al, 2009;Afeworki et al, 2013;Khalil et al, 2013Khalil et al, , 2017Kattan et al, 2017). Whereas, a series of studies have described the status of herbivorous fishes in South Sinai MPAs (SSMPAs) in the GoA (Ashworth and Ormond, 2005;Tilot et al, 2008;Advani et al, 2015;Naumann et al, 2015;Reverter et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Herbivorous fish of Sinai marine protected areas (Gulf of Aqaba): Structure baseline for potential thermal stress impact management

El-Haddad¹,

Mohamed

Temraz

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Herbivorous reef fishes are critically important for maintaining the health and resilience of coral reefs. In the Egyptian Gulf of Aqaba (GoA), many of these herbivores are important fishery targets and little is known about their population size structure and biomass patterns. Here, we conduct a large-scale (~250 km of coastline) assessment of the status of herbivorous fish populations along a fishing pressure gradient at 30 sites and eight regions in the GoA. These regions are subjected to three levels of fishing and protection, ranging from almost no fishing (No take, NT), and moderately fished (via Gear restriction, GR) to heavily fished (Open access, OA). We found that the NT fishery reserve was the most effective to maintain herbivorous fish size, biomass, and richness across all functional groups, though numerical density was not. Total herbivore biomass was 4.3 and 2.8 times higher on NT reefs and GR reefs, respectively than on OA reefs. Among GoA regions, only Ras Mohammed and Sharm El-Sheikh (unfished), and Nabq (fished) met the global mean herbivore biomass target of ~30 kg/500 m2. Our work also highlights three important results regarding the impacts of fishing and fisheries management on herbivorous fish populations: (i) size structure was heavily skewed toward smaller individuals, with fishes less than (20 cm) accounting for 81.1% of the population in heavily fished OA reefs vs. 52.8% at unfished NT reefs, (ii) biomass of larger herbivore individuals (>35 cm) accounting for less than 1% of the total biomass in OA reefs vs. 37% at NT reefs, and (iii) large-bodied target species, Cetoscarus bicolor, Naso unicorn, and Kyphosus spp., accounting for 15.9% of the total biomass at NT reefs on average, while they were virtually absent from OA reefs. Collectively, these findings suggest that many principal fisheries species in the central northern regions of the GoA have been overexploited, which in turn can lead to reef degradation. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop a participatory management approach and enforce restrictions on destructive fishing gear in order to promote recovery of herbivore biomass.

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Depth gradients in abundance and functional roles suggest limited depth refuges for herbivorous fishes

Cited by 11 publications

References 79 publications

COVID-19 lockdown reveals fish density may be much higher in marine reserves

COVID-19 lockdown reveals fish density may be much higher in marine reserves

Submersibles Greatly Enhance Research on the Diversity of Deep-Reef Fishes in the Greater Caribbean

Herbivorous fish of Sinai marine protected areas (Gulf of Aqaba): Structure baseline for potential thermal stress impact management

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