Rare Species Enhance Niche Differentiation Among Tropical Estuarine Fish Species

Silva, Victor Emmanuel Lopes da; Fabré, Nidia Noemí

doi:10.1007/s12237-019-00524-2

Cited by 18 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…depth preference and use of substrate typehave also an impact on otoliths (Allen et al 2006), making necessary to take a closer examination on different features of otolith morphology to identify patterns that can accurately be linked to species' feeding ecology. The identification of such patterns might be a key element in the development of new approaches for functional ecology (Tuset et al 2016a), especially for species in tropical regions where studies of feeding ecology are often difficult to be carried out due to the great diversity of prey items consumed by species and high niche differentiation among and within species (Nonogaki et al 2007;Davis et al 2012;da Silva and Fabré 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecomorphological patterns in otoliths of tropical fishes: assessing trophic groups and depth strata preference by shape

et al. 2020

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The morphology and morphometry of otoliths have emerged as powerful indicators of ecological characteristics of fishes. However, shape descriptors that can accurately predict well-documented functions played by species in tropical ecosystems are either restricted to a few groups or poorly known. Therefore, we evaluated the power of two otolith shape descriptors (ecomorphological indexes and Fourier harmonics) in discriminating trophic and depth strata preference groups of tropical fish species. Differences in otolith shape of ecological groups were visualized by linear discriminant analysis (LDA), and tested by a jack-knife cross-validation method and permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) for both methods. Visually and statistically, both descriptors were good predictors of trophic groups and depth preference categories (PERMANOVA, p < 0.05). Overall jack-knifed classification success between both descriptors were very similar, with harmonics correctly classifying 90.38% of assigned trophic groups and 75.96% of given depth preference categories, against 82% and 56.25% of ecological indexes, respectively. Our results suggest that Fourier descriptors and ecomorphological indexes of otoliths should be used as functional traits in future studies, as otolith shape provides a wider range of ecological information regarding feeding habitat, mobility, substrate association and water column use.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecomorphological patterns in otoliths of tropical fishes: assessing trophic groups and depth strata preference by shape

et al. 2020

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“…Such marine species are represented by stenohaline or marine straggle species which occasionally enter the estuary to explore its resources [ 87 ]. In addition, spatial connectivity increases the number of rare species in the estuary, which could directly impact functional diversity [ 3 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Estuarine fish assemblages are often sensitive to environmental conditions, because fluctuations in physico-chemical conditions at different spatial and seasonal scales can have a direct influence on distribution, diversity, breeding, abundance, growth, survival, and behaviour of fishes [ 1 – 3 ]. Therefore, changes in salinity gradient, turbidity, and food availability have been considered some of the main variables driving juvenile fish assemblages in estuaries [ 4 – 7 ], associated with rainfall and freshwater input which modify the dynamics in these ecosystems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does environmental heterogeneity explain β diversity of estuarine fish assemblages? Example from a tropical estuary under the influence of a semiarid climate, Brazil

et al. 2022

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Estuarine fish assemblages are often sensitive to environmental conditions, because fluctuation in physico-chemical conditions at different spatial and seasonal scales can directly influence species distributions. In this way, we conducted a field survey to investigate the role of estuarine gradient (environmental heterogeneity) in fish α and β diversity. The study was carried out in three zones in Mamanguape River estuary according to salinity and geomorphology features during an atypical climatic event in 2015. In total, 18,084 specimens of 125 species were captured. Additive partitioning of diversity analysis detected a higher proportion of beta diversity among estuarine zones during the rainy (β3 = 58.6%) and dry season (β3 = 40.94%) and were higher than expected by chance (Propexp> obs <0.001). Decomposing β-diversity analysis showed that total β-diversity (βsor) results were more dominated by species turnover (βsim) than nestedness (βnes) in both seasons. Forward selection procedure and db-RDA identified salinity, coarse sand and chlorophyll-a as the main environmental variables influencing βsor and site distance from estuary mouth and split as the main landscape variables. Variation partitioning analysis revealed more contribution to the pure fraction of environmental variables to fish species turnover, however, both pure fraction of environmental and landscape variables significantly contributed to βsim. Our study highlighted the importance to environmental heterogeneity and connectivity to promote fish diversity across the Mamanguape River estuary. Thus, future conservation policies should focus on maintaining these two components to guarantee its nursery ground role to estuarine fish assemblages.

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“…For example, although species grouping in trophic guilds based on qualitative analysis of diet (R2) was correlated to the highest resolution (Rmax), this relationship was not strong (Figure 3), indicating that the information loss that occurs during the clustering process masks the fine-scale aspects of resource use. This is particularly problematic as new studies have shown that even redundant species may differ in the way they perform a particular function (Elmqvist et al, 2003;Nyström, 2006;Cariveau et al, 2013;da Silva and Fabré, 2019), which makes necessary the use of more detailed data to accurately assess ecological information.…”

Section: Trait Resolution and Surrogates To Assess Resource Partitioningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, at a smaller measurement resolution, resource partitioning within communities may be assessed by the classification of species into guilds according to the type of prey consumed, giving partial information on the trophic niche occupied by species in assemblages' organization (Albouy et al, 2011). Although widely used in studies, there are a few issues with this approach because species in the same guild will inevitably differ in some subtle aspects of resource use (Petchey and Gaston, 2002a;da Silva and Fabré, 2019), resulting in a vague understanding of the partitioning process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional Traits of Fish Species: Adjusting Resolution to Accurately Express Resource Partitioning

et al. 2019

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One of the core challenges of functional diversity is the identification of traits that can accurately be linked to ecological processes. Trait-based metrics have been used to detect and quantify the effects of deterministic processes, such as niche filtering and co-occurrence mechanisms. However, most functional studies have simplified the measured attributes, especially for fish species. Here, we aimed to test the influence of trait resolution and surrogates on the accuracy in expressing resource partitioning among tropical fish species. We assessed pairwise species similarity between distinct ways of express resource use by species (through increasing trait resolution), and tested whether differences in resolutions are strong enough to provide different patterns in the functional structure of tropical fish assemblages. Our study shows that distinct ways of expressing resource partitioning among species may provide different ecological interpretations of this process as different resolutions or surrogates can change pairwise species, similarity.

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Rare Species Enhance Niche Differentiation Among Tropical Estuarine Fish Species

Cited by 18 publications

References 82 publications

Ecomorphological patterns in otoliths of tropical fishes: assessing trophic groups and depth strata preference by shape

Ecomorphological patterns in otoliths of tropical fishes: assessing trophic groups and depth strata preference by shape

Does environmental heterogeneity explain β diversity of estuarine fish assemblages? Example from a tropical estuary under the influence of a semiarid climate, Brazil

Functional Traits of Fish Species: Adjusting Resolution to Accurately Express Resource Partitioning

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