The influence of tourism-based provisioning on fish behavior and benthic composition

Abstract

Distribution of non-natural food (provisioning) to attract fish, though popular in coral reef tourism, has often been discouraged due to its assumed adverse effects on fish health and behavior. However, the effects of provisioning on community structure, anti-predator, and foraging behavior of teleost fishes, as well as their potential to indirectly affect benthic organisms, are not yet clear. Here, we compared fish composition, wariness, foraging behavior of herbivorous fishes, and the benthic cover between provisioned and control sites. We found significant differences in fish abundance, species number, and composition at some locations, but not all. Although most provisioned herbivorous fish did not reduce their biting rates of benthic algae, provisioned sites still had higher coverage of green macroalgae. Our results dispute widely held presumptions on the effects of tourism-based provisioning on the ecology and behavior of teleost fishes, as well as the benthic cover. These findings suggest that while regulation of provisioning is necessary to manage and mitigate any deleterious outcomes, when moderated and monitored, it could still provide an educationally beneficial tool for coral reef ecotourism.

To Feed or Not to Feed? Coral Reef Fish Responses to Artificial Feeding and Stakeholder Perceptions in the Aitutaki Lagoon, Cook Islands

“…Almost 40% of all species that fed on bread were non-scarine labrids (wrasses). These, together with Pomacentrids, were also the most representative family of bread feeding fish on reefs in Kenya and Taiwan (Hémery and McClanahan, 2005;Wen et al, 2018). Labridae are one of the most speciose, ecologically, and functionally diverse group of fish inhabiting the world's coral reefs feeding opportunistically as generalist predators (Thresher, 1979;Wainwright, 1991;Bellwood et al, 2006b).…”

“…If repeated bread feeding events lead to a persistent dominance of predatory fish on certain reefs, important changes in the trophic structure of fish assemblages may be expected (Beukers-Stewart and Jones, 2004). The consistent prevalence of high-trophic-level fish at bread-feeding sites may equate to high predation risk for small-bodied fish, but may also lead to higher fish excretion rates, which might cascade into changes in algal productivity and benthic dynamics (Allgeier et al, 2017;Wen et al, 2018).…”

“…This effect on the presence of C. striatus and its functional role may result in a more profound alteration of reef health through locally-reduced detritivory. Further research into the response of specific feeding groups to bread is required to substantiate that assumption, as a study from Taiwan found no effect on the bite rates of herbivorous fishes (Acanthurus nigrofuscus and Scarus schlegeli) between provisioned and nonprovisioned sites (Wen et al, 2018). Bread feeding of fish may be a short-term intrusion, but where repeated consistently it may have significant implications for the ecosystem function of different feeding groups (Albuquerque et al, 2015).…”

“…Despite evidence from the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Indian Ocean (Hémery and McClanahan, 2005;Milazzo et al, 2006;Feitosa et al, 2012) indicating that fish feeding can alter the community structure of fish assemblages, only few studies have focused on community-scale effects of artificial feeding with bread (Hémery and McClanahan, 2005;Ilarri et al, 2008;Sanguansil et al, 2017). It follows that experimental approaches documenting the effect on the habitual foraging rates of species are scarce (e.g., Wen et al, 2018). These knowledge gaps complicate the quantification of the impacts of artificial feeding at the ecosystem level and the sustainability of this practice within the ecotourism industry (reviewed by Newsome et al, 2012;Trave et al, 2017).…”

Verification of a UAV swarm flight simulating the passive inertial emergency obstacle avoidance behavior of a pigeon flock

“…生物群集行为作为生物环境适应性的一种表现, 在自然界中十分普遍. 人们通过分析鸟群 [7] 、蚁 群 [8] 、 鱼群 [9] 等生物群体的社会性行为, 提出了群体智能, 即, 通过个体间的信息交互完成有序的群集 运动, 并且在任务协作层面展现出十分严密的分工, 充分利用群体优势提高任务完成效率. 近年来, 随 着信息技术与智能技术的快速发展, 大量学者针对生物集群社会中广泛存在的群集运动、决策行为中 的个体运动轨迹进行高精度的采集、重建和分析, 在一定程度上将生物群集运动的交互规则及决策方 法加以推断或还原 [10] .…”