Thirty-one new records of reef fish species for Hong Kong waters

Chung, Arthur C.K.; See, Gomen C.L.; Lam, S.Y.; Yiu, W.H.; Shea, Stan K.H.

doi:10.1017/s0025315423000036

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 32 publications

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“…Hong Kong's corals are not forming the reefal environment, yet it sustains high marine biodiversity. Indeed, Hong Kong was continuously discovering new coral species [25] and coral-associated species such as fishes [26], nudibranchs [27,28], and crabs [29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Underwater Impact and Intention–Behaviour Gap of Scuba Divers on Coral Communities in Hong Kong SAR, China

So¹,

Kwok

Lai

et al. 2023

IJERPH

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Recreational diving, under the continual growth of the scuba diving industry, may escalate coral reef damage as one of the substantial anthropogenic impacts and is of pressing concern. Besides unregulated and excessive diving activities, accidental contact with corals by inexperienced divers can cause recurring physical damage and heighten the pressure on coral communities. Understanding the ecological impacts of underwater contact with marine biota will thus be crucial to develop more sustainable scuba diving practices in Hong Kong. To probe the scuba diving impacts of divers’ contact with coral communities, WWF-Hong Kong started a citizen science monitoring programme and invited 52 advanced divers to conduct direct underwater observations. Questionnaires were also developed to examine and address the research gap between the associated attitudes and the perceived contact rate of divers. Results from analysing the underwater behaviours of 102 recreational divers showed inconsistent perceived and actual contact rates. It was revealed that recreational divers might often overlook the ecological effects of their activities underwater on coral communities. The questionnaire findings will be utilised to improve the framework of the dive-training programmes and enhance divers’ awareness to minimise their influence on the marine environment.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Underwater Impact and Intention–Behaviour Gap of Scuba Divers on Coral Communities in Hong Kong SAR, China

So¹,

Kwok

Lai

et al. 2023

IJERPH

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Detecting Fish Diversity in Urban‐Impacted Ecosystems: A Comparative Approach of eDNA Metabarcoding and UVC

Chung,

Kam,

Shea

et al. 2024

Environmental DNA

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Comprehensive assessments of coastal biodiversity in complex coral communities are crucial but challenging, particularly under unfavorable conditions such as poor underwater visibility in urbanized and eutrophic environments. Here we aim to examine the scope of underwater diversity detection and community shifts across habitat transitions spanning different geographic regions in Hong Kong SAR, a highly urbanized coastal city with limited underwater visibility of 3.93 ± 1.25 m during the sampling period. We employ and compare two methods: 12S rRNA eDNA metabarcoding coupled with custom built reference database and simultaneous extensive underwater visual census (UVC) surveys. eDNA detected a higher species richness per site. Yet, each survey method featured a distinct species profile with associated trophic guilds, where 98 (32.3%) species found exclusively by UVC and 120 (39.6%) species detected only by eDNA. eDNA featured species from diverse habitats and evolutionary distances, including cryptic and large mobile fishes, offering enhanced prediction on local ecosystem functions. eDNA also recorded 90 putative species that had never been recorded in additional seven yearlong UVC dataset, with seven prospective new occurrence records to the territorial waters. UVC on the other hand was more efficient in documenting reef‐associated species. Both methods captured similar patterns of community spatial structure along the habitat transitions while only eDNA detected more large fish species in offshore compared to sheltered inshore environments, This may suggest inshore overfishing and incapability of UVC in surveying large mobile species in turbid environments. Considering the discrepancies between two methods, we highlight the importance of complementing both UVC and eDNA metabarcoding survey for a complete overview of local biodiversity under unfavored underwater conditions in an urbanized seascape.

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Characterisation of coastal reef fish assemblages across an estuarine-urbanisation gradient using underwater visual census and environmental DNA metabarcoding

Pei,

Heard,

et al. 2025

Ecological Indicators

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Thirty-one new records of reef fish species for Hong Kong waters

Cited by 4 publications

References 32 publications

Underwater Impact and Intention–Behaviour Gap of Scuba Divers on Coral Communities in Hong Kong SAR, China

Underwater Impact and Intention–Behaviour Gap of Scuba Divers on Coral Communities in Hong Kong SAR, China

Detecting Fish Diversity in Urban‐Impacted Ecosystems: A Comparative Approach of eDNA Metabarcoding and UVC

Characterisation of coastal reef fish assemblages across an estuarine-urbanisation gradient using underwater visual census and environmental DNA metabarcoding

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