Resource partitioning among early colonizing <i>Siganus luridus</i> and native herbivorous fish in the Mediterranean: an integrated study based on gut-content analysis and stable isotope signatures

Azzurro, Ernesto; Fanelli, Emanuela; Mostarda, E.; Catra, Marcello; Andaloro, Franco

doi:10.1017/s0025315407056342

Cited by 68 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…(Table S1). These values also are similar to those reported for fish from Linosa Island, Italy (5%-7%), in the center of the Mediterranean, west of Marsa Matruh (24). Fish sampled at 4 locations offshore of the delta (i.e., in the deltaic plume) and across more than 220 km of coastline had ␦ 15 N values 5% heavier than those from the west (P Ͻ .0001; Fig.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 86%

Anthropogenic enhancement of Egypt's Mediterranean fishery

Oczkowski

Nixon

Granger

et al. 2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The highly productive coastal Mediterranean fishery off the Nile River delta collapsed after the completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1965. But the fishery has been recovering dramatically since the mid-1980s, coincident with large increases in fertilizer application and sewage discharge in Egypt. We use stable isotopes of nitrogen (␦ 15 N) to demonstrate that 60%-100% of the current fishery production may be from primary production stimulated by nutrients from fertilizer and sewage runoff. Although the establishment of the dam put Egypt in an ideal position to observe the impact of rapid increases in nutrient loading on coastal productivity in an extremely oligotrophic sea, the Egyptian situation is not unique. Such anthropogenically enhanced fisheries also may occur along the northern rim of the Mediterranean and offshore of some rapidly developing tropical countries, where nutrient concentrations in the coastal waters were previously very low.fisheries ͉ Nile delta ͉ nutrient enrichment ͉ stable isotope

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 86%

Anthropogenic enhancement of Egypt's Mediterranean fishery

Oczkowski

Nixon

Granger

et al. 2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…In addition, most In the north-western Mediterranean, the dramatic arrival of strongly defended and poorly palatable invasive species, such as Caulerpa taxifolia (Chlorobionta), Asparagopsis armata, Lophocladia lallemandii and Womersleyella setacea (Rhodobionta; kingdom Archaeplastida), has profoundly changed the functioning of the ecosystems, with a further decrease of the flow running through the herbivores being expected (Figure 4) [71,86,100,[104][105][106][107]. In contrast, in the eastern Mediterranean, the arrival of voracious herbivorous teleosts (Siganus luridus and S. rivulatus) from the Red Sea, via the Suez Canal, has strongly intensified the herbivore pressure ( Figure 5) [100,[107][108][109][110][111]202]. The recent arrival in the Levantine Basin of the voracious sea urchin, Diadema setosum, will further enhance the herbivore compartment [57,112].…”

Section: Mediterranean Species and Ecosystemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marine Biodiversity - Warming vs. Biological Invasions and overfishing in the Mediterranean Sea: Take care, ‘One Train can hide another’

Boudouresque¹

2017

MOJES

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Biodiversity means the variety of life, encompassing levels of complexity from within species to across ecosystems. Biodiversity therefore includes several dimensions: evolutionary scale (genetic, species, higher taxonomic levels and phylogenetic diversity), functional scale, organizational scale (patch, ecosystem, landscape/seascape diversity), spatial scale (from sample to local, regional and global richness) and heterogeneity diversity. Biodiversity can therefore be measured in different and complementary ways, thus involving the use of at least 200 different metrics, which can suggest different and contrasting conclusions. It is worth emphasizing that species richness may be the least appropriate metric, despite its popular acceptance. There is a growing tendency for stakeholders, managers, government officials, environmentalists, scientists, politicians and the media to focus, as concerns threats to biodiversity, on species richness and climate change. However, focusing on climate warming can mask other stressors that, today, and perhaps for decades to come, may have more impact on ecosystems than global warming. In the Mediterranean Sea, the overall impact of Non-Indigenous Species (NISs) and overfishing on species diversity, ecosystem diversity and ecosystem functioning exceeds to a greater or lesser degree the direct impact of warming. Drastically altered functioning patterns, and even new ecosystems are spreading throughout the Mediterranean Sea. This trend is likely to become more pronounced over the next decades. Ecosystem goods and services are also being profoundly altered, generally towards a decline, as illustrated by the overgrazed barren grounds of the eastern basin, which no longer support fisheries, by the impact of the Caulerpa meadows on the scuba diving business and the economic value of the fisheries of the western basin, by the brackish lagoon ecosystems and by the blooms of the introduced comb jelly Mnemiopsis leidyi in the Black Sea, before the arrival of its predator Beroe ovata. Here, we draw attention to the fact that, at this moment and probably also in the future, the huge flow of NISs and overfishing constitute worrying issues, although largely ignored by stakeholders and political authorities. Take care: Un train peut en cacher un autre (one train can hide another; i.e. one danger may hide other unsuspected dangers), that is to say the impact of warming may contribute to hiding other effects, of at least equal gravity, such as biological invasions and overfishing.

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“…Some work has been dedicated to the trophic relationships of these species in their new environment (e.g. Golani 1993, 1994, Bariche 2006, Azzurro et al 2007, Zouari-Ktari et al 2008. Lessepsian fish can also be important prey (Aronov and Goren 2008) but research into their roles in the trophic network is extremely limited.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification of Lessepsian fish species using the sagittal otolith

Tuset¹,

Azzurro²,

Lombarte³

2012

Sci. Mar.

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SUMMARY: Lessepsian species are marine organisms that enter the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal, a phenomenon that has dramatically increased in recent decades. The present study describes the morphological characteristics of the sagittal otoliths of 22 Lessepsian fish species collected at four locations in the Mediterranean Sea. These structures are commonly used in the identification of species found in the digestive tracts of predators, and their morphological description is mainly needed as a tool for trophic studies. Here we used the Automated Taxon Identification (ATI) system of the AFORO web database to determine the accuracy of classifying Lessepsian fish otoliths compared with otoliths of native Mediterranean species. The otolith contour analysis correctly classified 92.5% of the specimens, showing that these species have otoliths that can be clearly distinguished from native ones. Four different groups of otoliths were identified according to the morphological differences between the otoliths and the ATI analysis results: a) unusual shapes with no similarities to native species; b) unusual shapes with similarities to phylogenetically distant native species; c) common shapes with similarities to phylogenetically close native species; and d) common shapes with morphological characters related to other native congeners, although they are not classified with them.Keywords: otolith, morphology, fish, Lessepsian species, Mediterranean Sea. RESUMEN: Identificación de especies de peces de origen lessepsiano mediante el otolito sagita. -Las especies lessepsianas son aquellos organismos marinos que invaden el Mediterráneo a través del Canal de Suez, fenómeno que se ha incrementado drásticamente en los últimos años. El presente trabajo describe las características morfológicas del otolito sagita de 22 especies de peces recolectadas en cuatro localidades del Mediterráneo. Estas estructuras son empleadas normalmente en la identificación de las especies presentes en los tubos digestivos de sus depredadores, y su descripción morfoló-gica es necesaria en la mayoría de estudios tróficos. En este estudio, se empleó el sistema automatizado de reconocimiento específico (ATI) de la web AFORO con el objeto de determinar la precisión en la clasificación de estas especies respecto a otras especies nativas que cohabitan en el Mediterráneo. El porcentaje correcto de clasificación alcanzó el 92.5% de los casos, mostrando que estas especies tienen otolitos claramente diferenciables. Cuatro grupos de otolitos se identificaron teniendo en consideración las diferencias morfológicas encontradas y los resultados del análisis de ATI: a) formas peculiares no análogas a otras especies nativas, b) formas peculiares con analogías con especies nativas filogenéticamente muy distintas, c) formas comunes con analogías con especies nativas filogenéticamente cercanas, y d) formas comunes con caracteres morfológicos similares a otras especies nativas, si bien no fueron clasificadas con ellas.

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Resource partitioning among early colonizing Siganus luridus and native herbivorous fish in the Mediterranean: an integrated study based on gut-content analysis and stable isotope signatures

Cited by 68 publications

References 22 publications

Anthropogenic enhancement of Egypt's Mediterranean fishery

Anthropogenic enhancement of Egypt's Mediterranean fishery

Marine Biodiversity - Warming vs. Biological Invasions and overfishing in the Mediterranean Sea: Take care, ‘One Train can hide another’

Identification of Lessepsian fish species using the sagittal otolith

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