Small artificial habitats to enhance the nursery function for juvenile fish in a large commercial port of the Mediterranean

Mercader, Manon; Mercière, Alexandre; Saragoni, Gilles; Cheminée, Adrien; Crec’hriou, Romain; Pastor, Jérémy; Rider, Mary; Dubas, Rémy; Lecaillon, Gilles; Boissery, Pierre; Lenfant, Philippe

doi:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2017.03.022

Cited by 41 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…The juveniles settle in shallow heterogeneous rocky habitats made of small blocks, pebbles, or coarse sand, and their life cycle and behavior at settlement are representative of those of most coastal nektobenthic fish species (Harmelin‐Vivien et al ; Macpherson ; Planes et al ). Both species can also be found in high densities on artificial structures such as breakwaters or jetties (Clynick ; Pastor et al ) and have been observed inside harbors (Bouchoucha et al ; Mercader et al , ). If they use the same habitats as nurseries, they do not settle during the same time period: D. vulgaris postlarvae reach the shore from December to March, while D. sargus postlarvae arrive between May and June, which avoids competition between these two species.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To mitigate this effect, programs of rehabilitation of the nursery function for coastal fish have been initiated within harbors. The first results showed that increasing habitat complexity by using small artificial habitats leads to increased juvenile densities (Bouchoucha et al ; Mercader et al ; Patranella et al ). However, the observation of higher juvenile densities is not enough to draw a conclusion about the nursery role of artificial habitats or the success of rehabilitation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Is artificial habitat diversity a key to restoring nurseries for juvenile coastal fish? Ex situ experiments on habitat selection and survival of juvenile seabreams

Mercader

Blazy

Pane

et al. 2019

Restoration Ecology

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Man‐made infrastructures have become ubiquitous components of coastal landscapes, leading to habitat modification that affects the abundance and diversity of marine organisms. Marine coastal fish have a complex life cycle requiring different essential habitats. One of these habitats is known as a nursery, a place where juveniles can settle in large numbers, survive, and grow to contribute to the adult population. Nurseries are mainly found in shallow, sheltered zones and are thus particularly impacted by urbanization, notably by harbors. The vertical featureless structure of docks is very unlikely to be used by juveniles, which need complex habitats to find food and shelter from predators. Recent attempts to rehabilitate the nursery function in such environments by using artificial habitats have proven efficient in increasing juvenile densities. However, nothing is known about the survival of juveniles in these habitats, preventing any conclusions on the effectiveness of this means of restoration from being drawn. Here, we set up tank experiments to test the relationship between habitat preferences and the survival rate of two species of seabream when facing stalk‐attacking combers. Habitat choice was consistent with survival results, indicating that artificial habitats might not represent unintended ecological traps for juveniles. However, the artificial habitats' effect on survival was variable between species. Therefore, our results suggest that habitat diversity might be of prime importance to sustain juveniles of different species and stress the need for the development of diverse artificial habitats to counteract the effects of seascape homogenization.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is artificial habitat diversity a key to restoring nurseries for juvenile coastal fish? Ex situ experiments on habitat selection and survival of juvenile seabreams

Mercader

Blazy

Pane

et al. 2019

Restoration Ecology

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“…Several recent studies have suggested that coastal man-made infrastructures, particularly those found inside ports, might provide suitable alternative nursery habitats for certain fish species (e.g. Pizzolon et al, 2008;Bouchoucha et al, 2016;Mercader et al, 2017). However, these conclusions were solely based on fish abundance (Bouchoucha et al, 2016;Mercader et al, 2017) or post-settlement growth and condition (Bouchoucha et al, 2018) in ports when, in theory, fish nursery grounds are defined according to three conditions: they support high abundances of juveniles, they sustain faster somatic growth rates and they also enhance fish survival so their populations contribute more to the final adult stock (Beck et al, 2001).…”

Section: Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

Otolith fingerprints as natural tags to identify juvenile fish life in ports

Bouchoucha

Pécheyran

Gonzalez

et al. 2018

Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science

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The construction of ports has caused substantial habitat destruction in coastal areas previously used as nursery grounds by many fish species, with consequences to fish stocks. These artificial coastal areas might provide alternative nursery habitats for several species for juvenile fish abundances and growth in ports, although their contribution to adult stocks had never been estimated. The variability of otolith composition in the juveniles of two Diplodus species was investigated in three contrasting port areas and two adjacent coastal juvenile habitats of the Bay of Toulon (northwestern Mediterranean) in order to determine the possible use of otolith fingerprints as natural tags for the identification of juvenile fishes in ports. The global accuracy of discrimination between ports and coastal areas was very high (94%) irrespective of species, suggesting that otolith fingerprints can be used with confidence to retrospectively identify past residency in the ports of this bay. However, Ba was systematically the most discriminating element, since its concentrations in otoliths were generally higher outside ports than in inside them, probably due to river runoff. Moreover, otolith signatures varied greatly by species and between sampling sites. Furthermore, although Cu and Pb concentrations in water were at least 2.3-34-fold higher inside ports than outside, this was not consistently reflected in fish otoliths, confirming that spatial differences in otolith concentrations depend on the species and do not directly reflect differences in environmental contamination levels. Therefore, it seems unlikely that otolith microchemistry could provide a universal fingerprint capable of discriminating ports from other coastal areas. Nevertheless, the contribution of ports to adult fish populations can be determined well by establishing a library of otolith fingerprints for all juvenile habitats.

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“…Bulleri & Chapman, 2010;Perkins et al, 2015) due to different habitat complexity (e.g. Perkol-Finkel & Benayahu, 2004;Lam et al, 2009;Loke et al, 2015;Mercader et al, 2017), nature of building materials (e.g. Coombes et al, 2015;Sempere-Valverde et al, 2018), surface inclination and orientation (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing sessile benthos on shallow artificial versus natural hard substrates in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea

Sedano

Florido²,

Rallis³

et al. 2019

Medit. Mar. Sci.

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Artificial structures cover a considerable part of the Mediterranean coasts. In the Aegean Sea, most studies related to artificial structures have focused in vagile fauna on harbors and marinas but little attention has been given to the sessile biota on coastal defense structures. The aim of this work was to describe for the first time the shallow sublittoral sessile benthos on coastal defense structures in Crete (Eastern Mediterranean Sea) in order to identify potential differences in comparison to natural rocky substrates, adopting both a taxonomic and functional (i.e. macroalgal structural complexity) approach. Three shallow (1-3 m) localities were studied in the north coast and three in the south coast of the island (six localities in total). At each locality, two types of hard substrate were selected: an artificial coastal defense structure (rip-rap) and the nearest natural rocky substrates. The percent cover of sessile taxa was calculated using random points counts over photoquadrats (20 x 20 cm). The structure of the assemblage differed between artificial and natural habitats. Values of Shannon-Wiener’s diversity index and number of taxa were higher in natural substrates. In addition, cover of arborescent macroalgae was lower on artificial substrates. In conclusion, rip-raps do not function as surrogates of natural hard substrates in the study area since their shallow subtidal assemblages differ in terms of community structure, diversity and functionality. The deficient performance of such artificial structures could be attributed to the combined effects of abiotic factors and biotic processes, including substrate nature and roughness as well as differential grazing pressure.

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Small artificial habitats to enhance the nursery function for juvenile fish in a large commercial port of the Mediterranean

Cited by 41 publications

References 51 publications

Is artificial habitat diversity a key to restoring nurseries for juvenile coastal fish? Ex situ experiments on habitat selection and survival of juvenile seabreams

Is artificial habitat diversity a key to restoring nurseries for juvenile coastal fish? Ex situ experiments on habitat selection and survival of juvenile seabreams

Otolith fingerprints as natural tags to identify juvenile fish life in ports

Comparing sessile benthos on shallow artificial versus natural hard substrates in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea

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