Evaluating a key herbivorous fish as a mobile link: a Brownian bridge approach

Pagès, Jordi F.; Bartumeus, Frederic; Hereu, Bernat; López‐Sanz, Àngel; Romero, Javier; Alcoverro, Teresa

doi:10.3354/meps10494

Cited by 23 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…; Pagès et al . ), which are well beyond the scale of our study. Other studies in marine systems have proposed that similar heterogeneity in the distribution of herbivory could be driven by a greater risk of predation at habitat edges, which causes herbivores to be less abundant and reduce their feeding behaviour at these edge habitats (Macreadie, Geraldi & Peterson ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 64%

“…; Pagès et al . ). It is a generalist fish capable of connecting distant habitats (several kilometres apart, Pagès et al .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…It is a generalist fish capable of connecting distant habitats (several kilometres apart, Pagès et al . ). Adults tend to prefer seagrass leaves (but they also feed frequently on macroalgae), while juveniles typically consume macroalgae (Verlaque ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…; Pagès et al . ). We therefore assume that within each site, every patch or plot is equally likely of being visited by S. salpa fishes with no physical barriers restricting their movements.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Matrix composition and patch edges influence plant–herbivore interactions in marine landscapes

et al. 2014

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Summary1. The functioning of ecosystems can be strongly driven by landscape attributes. Despite its importance, however, our understanding of how landscape influences ecosystem function derives mostly from species richness and abundance patterns, with few studies assessing how these relate to actual functional rates. 2. We examined the influence of landscape attributes on the rates of herbivory in seagrass meadows, where herbivory has been identified as a key process structuring these relatively simple systems. The study was conducted in three representative Posidonia oceanica meadows. The principal herbivores in these meadows are the fish Sarpa salpa and the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus, and we hypothesized that differences in their interaction with landscape attributes would significantly influence herbivory rates. 3. We measured herbivore abundance, herbivory rates, primary production and plant quality (C:N) in seagrass patches embedded either in rock or in sand (matrix attribute), in patches either near or far from a rocky reef (distance attribute) and at the edges and interior of meadows. 4. Our results show that matrix and meadow edges significantly affected the actual levels of herbivory. Herbivory rates were higher in seagrass patches embedded in a rocky matrix compared to those on sand, and herbivory at the centre of seagrass meadows was higher than at the edges. In contrast, patch distance to rocky reefs did not affect herbivory. Neither herbivore abundance nor food quality explained the patterns across different landscape attributes. This suggests that variation in herbivory across the landscape may be related much more to behavioural differences between species in their evaluation of risk, movement and food preference in relation to the landscape structure. 5. Our results indicate that richness and abundance patterns may mask critical interactions between landscape attributes and species responses, which result in considerable heterogeneity in the way key functional processes like herbivory are distributed across the ecosystem mosaic.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 64%

“…; Pagès et al . ). It is a generalist fish capable of connecting distant habitats (several kilometres apart, Pagès et al .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Matrix composition and patch edges influence plant–herbivore interactions in marine landscapes

et al. 2014

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“…Physical removal (e.g., McClanahan et al, 1996) and chemical barriers (e.g., Menge et al, 1999) can be very effective for benthic invertebrates such as gastropods and sea urchins, which have limited mobility and relatively small home ranges. Roving herbivorous fishes on the other hand can have home ranges of several kilometers and move freely throughout the water column (Pagès et al, 2013;Welsh and Bellwood, 2014), making exclusion cages the only option to prevent grazing. In addition to their high mobility, herbivorous fish assemblages can be large (i.e., ∼10-30 kg 100 m −2 ), (Wismer et al, 2009;Bennett et al, 2015) and can represent over 85% of the biomass of the entire fish assemblage (Bennett et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bubble Curtains: Herbivore Exclusion Devices for Ecology and Restoration of Marine Ecosystems?

Bennett¹,

Wernberg²,

Bettignies³

2017

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Herbivorous fishes play a critical role in maintaining or disrupting the ecological resilience of many kelp forests, coral reefs and seagrass ecosystems, worldwide. The increasing rate and scale of benthic habitat loss under global change has magnified the importance of herbivores and highlights the need to study marine herbivory at ecologically relevant scales. Currently, underwater herbivore exclusions (or inclusions) have been restricted to small scale experimental plots, in large part due to the challenges of designing structures that can withstand the physical forces of waves and currents, without drastically altering the physical environment inside the exclusion area. We tested the ability of bubble curtains to deter herbivorous fishes from feeding on seaweeds as an alternative to the use of rigid exclusion cages. Kelps (Ecklonia radiata) were transplanted onto reefs with high browsing herbivore pressure into either unprotected plots, exclusion cages or plots protected by bubble curtains of 0.785 m 2 and 3.14 m 2 . Remote underwater video was used to compare the behavioral response of fishes to kelps protected and unprotected by bubble curtains. Kelp biomass loss was significantly lower inside the bubble curtains compared to unprotected kelps and did not differ from kelp loss rates in traditional exclusion cages. Consistent with this finding, no herbivorous fishes were observed entering into the bubble curtain at any point during the experiment. In contrast, fish bite rates on unprotected kelps were 1,621 ± 702 bites h −1 (mean ± SE). Our study provides initial evidence that bubble curtains can exclude herbivorous fishes, paving the way for future studies to examine their application at larger spatial and temporal scales, beyond what has been previously feasible using traditional exclusion cages.

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Grouper Tales: Use of Acoustic Telemetry to Evaluate Grouper Movements at Western Dry Rocks in the Florida Keys

et al. 2020

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The Western Dry Rocks (WDR) area off Key West, Florida, is an open fishing area that contains a multispecies fish spawning aggregation site, but grouper spawning there has yet to be confirmed. The movements of 18 adult and subadult grouper at WDR were tracked using acoustic telemetry to determine how this area is used by grouper species and whether it contains a grouper spawning aggregation site. Tagged fish consisted of 10 Black Grouper Mycteroperca bonaci, 5 Nassau Grouper Epinephelus striatus, 2 Gag M. microlepis, and 1 Yellowfin Grouper M. venenosa. Overall, tagged grouper were more likely to be present in the WDR array during winter spawning months, with species-specific seasonal differences. Our results indicated that grouper presence increased during spawning months, although some adults and subadults were present year-round. Grouper made more movements per day during nonspawning months compared to spawning months, although the north side of WDR was the most heavily used area, regardless of the time of year. Additionally, spatial graphs of grouper movement suggested that different grouper species utilized different areas of WDR. Increased presence of grouper during spawning months suggests that the WDR area may contain a grouper spawning aggregation site, which would mean that fish species aggregate to spawn at this location year-round. The success of the Florida Keys fisheries critically depends on the protection of multispecies spawning aggregations like that potentially contained at WDR.

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Evaluating a key herbivorous fish as a mobile link: a Brownian bridge approach

Cited by 23 publications

References 52 publications

Matrix composition and patch edges influence plant–herbivore interactions in marine landscapes

Matrix composition and patch edges influence plant–herbivore interactions in marine landscapes

Bubble Curtains: Herbivore Exclusion Devices for Ecology and Restoration of Marine Ecosystems?

Grouper Tales: Use of Acoustic Telemetry to Evaluate Grouper Movements at Western Dry Rocks in the Florida Keys

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