Goatfishes (Mullidae) as indicators in tropical and temperate coastal habitat monitoring and management

Abstract

This review investigates if goatfishes qualify as habitat indicators and play a role as key species for use in coastal ecosystem monitoring and management, emphasizing major gaps of knowledge in goatfish ecology and systematics. Currently, 66 species of goatfishes are known, the family occurring widely in tropical, subtropical and temperate habitats from the upper littoral down to the upper slope. Studies of goatfish occurrence and abundance in natural habitats have documented general preferences for sand-associated bottoms after post-larval settlement that goes hand in hand with the development of the characteristic barbels. Species, populations and later life-history stages may, however, differ significantly from each other in habitat use. Some species are more restricted to hard bottoms, others separate mainly by depth. Goatfishes respond to human-induced factors such as fisheries and habitat modification, as reflected by abundance, size, or weight changes, or changes in their distributional ranges. Temperature increase may lead to increased reproductive or growth rates and longer warming periods may induce goatfishes to migrate to higher latitudes, as exemplified by striped red mullet (Mullus surmuletus) in the North Sea. Isolated occurrences of this species in the Norwegian Sea at 608N have been documented. Goatfishes may act as allochthonous ecosystem engineers through their vigorous foraging behaviour with barbels and mouth, which leads to the stirring-up of sediments and associated detritus particles high into the water column. Goatfishes play a key role in the formation of multi-species foraging associations as nuclear species that are followed by many other species. The role of goatfishes in food webs has been rarely evaluated and the many interactions goatfishes may be involved in have not yet been sufficiently considered. There is also a considerable lack of basic systematic and taxonomic knowledge, new species still being described and intraspecific morphological variation and genetic differentiation requiring more detailed studies. Goatfishes clearly deserve more attention in future coastal habitat exploration, monitoring and management efforts.

Just off the beach: intrageneric distinctiveness of the bandtail goatfishUpeneus taeniopterus(Mullidae) based on a comprehensive alpha-taxonomy and barcoding approach

“…Many goatfishes, including those of the genus Upeneus, are valuable food fishes in tropical or subtropical countries and island areas of the Indo-Pacific (Uiblein 2007). This applies in particular to U. vittatus (Rawlinson et al 1995) which can reach large sizes like U. taeniopterus.…”

“…When it comes to the potential role of goatfishes as key and indicator species (Uiblein 2007), the bandtail goatfish U. taeniopterus may play a distinct ecological role in shallow sandy areas of oceanic islands and atolls. To fully understand this role, the autecology of this species would need to be studied in detail.…”

A new goatfish of the genus Upeneus (Mullidae) from Lombok, Indonesia and first verified record of U. asymmetricus for the Indian Ocean

“…Discoveries of new species or species not previously recorded at a local fish market indicates that (1) those species or closely related and/or similar species must have some economic value and (2) there is obvious lack of taxonomic knowledge and information about local species, while such un-or misidentified species were being exploited. Goatfishes are regarded as economically important in many countries, and populations of several species are under considerable impact by local fisheries (Uiblein 2007;Nañola et al 2011). Type material of five other recently described Upeneus species, U. heemstra, U. indicus Uiblein & Heemstra, 2010, U. nigromarginatus, U. randalli Uiblein & Heemstra, 2011, and U. supravittatus Uiblein & Heemstra, 2010, originate at least in part from local fish markets in four tropical or subtropical countries, Bahrain, Tanzania, India, and Philippines (Uiblein & Heemstra 2010;Uiblein & Heemstra 2011b;Bos 2014).…”

Distinction and relatedness – Taxonomic and genetic studies reveal a new species group of goatfishes (Upeneus; Mullidae)

“…Many goatfish species undergo considerable changes in body form, accompanied by shifts in lifestyle during ontogeny (Uiblein 1991(Uiblein , 2007Uiblein & Gledhill 2015). The small 72 mm SL specimen of Upeneus vittatus differs only slightly from larger conspecifics in several morphometric characters that have been found to change allometrically in other Upeneus species (e.g.…”