Fishes of Barnegat Bay

Tatham, Thomas R.; Thomas, David L.; Danila, Donald John

doi:10.1029/ln006p0241

“…Fishes that consume both seaweeds and mobile invertebrates (including pinfish [Lagodon rhomboides], sheepshead [Archosargus probatocephalus], and spottail pinfish [Diplodus holbrookii]) are abundant in habitats containing Libinia in the southern portion of its range but rare or absent north of Chesapeake Bay (Tatham et al 1984;Stone et al 1994). Where these omnivores are common, camouflage that matches the background is ineffective at reducing predation on Libinia because the background is comprised of seaweeds such as Hypnea that are readily consumed by these locally abundant omnivores (Stachowicz and Hay 1999c).…”

Section: Association Of Geographic Variation In Decoration With Variamentioning

confidence: 97%

Geographic Variation in Camouflage Specialization by a Decorator Crab

Stachowicz¹,

Hay²

2000

The American Naturalist

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In North Carolina, the decorator crab Libinia dubia camouflages almost exclusively with the chemically noxious alga Dictyota menstrualis. By placing this alga on its carapace, the crab behaviorally sequesters the defensive chemicals of the plant and gains protection from omnivorous consumers. However, Dictyota is absent north of North Carolina, whereas Libinia occurs as far north as New England. Crabs from three northern locations where Dictyota is absent (Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey) camouflaged to match their environment, rather than selectively accumulating any one species. When D. menstrualis was offered to crabs from northern sites, they did not distinguish between it and other seaweeds for camouflage, whereas crabs from Alabama and two locations in North Carolina used D. menstrualis almost exclusively. In addition, in winter and spring, when Dictyota was seasonally absent in North Carolina, Libinia selectively camouflaged with the sun sponge Hymeniacidon heliophila, which was chemically unpalatable to local fishes. Thus, southern crabs were consistent specialists on chemically defended species for camouflage, while northern crabs were more generalized. The geographic shift in crab behavior away from specialization coincides with a reported decrease in both total predation pressure and the frequency of omnivorous consumers. These shifts in the nature and intensity of predation pressure may favor different camouflage strategies (generalist vs. specialist), contributing to the observed geographic differences in camouflage behavior.

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“…In addition to latitudinal differences in the overall intensity of predation by fishes, predation pressure changes qualitatively with latitude, as the abundance of herbivorous and omnivorous fishes declines in higher-latitude waters (Horn 1989;Ebeling and Hixon 1991). Fishes that consume both seaweeds and mobile invertebrates (including pinfish [Lagodon rhomboides], sheepshead [Archosargus probatocephalus], and spottail pinfish [Diplodus holbrookii]) are abundant in habitats containing Libinia in the southern portion of its range but rare or absent north of Chesapeake Bay (Tatham et al 1984;Stone et al 1994). Where these omnivores are common, camouflage that matches the background is ineffective at reducing predation on Libinia because the background is comprised of seaweeds such as Hypnea that are readily consumed by these locally abundant omnivores (Stachowicz and Hay 1999c).…”

Section: Association Of Geographic Variation In Decoration With Variation In Predation Pressurementioning

confidence: 99%

Geographic Variation in Camouflage Specialization by a Decorator Crab

Stachowicz¹,

Hay²

2000

The American Naturalist

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In North Carolina, the decorator crab Libinia dubia camouflages almost exclusively with the chemically noxious alga Dictyota menstrualis. By placing this alga on its carapace, the crab behaviorally sequesters the defensive chemicals of the plant and gains protection from omnivorous consumers. However, Dictyota is absent north of North Carolina, whereas Libinia occurs as far north as New England. Crabs from three northern locations where Dictyota is absent (Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey) camouflaged to match their environment, rather than selectively accumulating any one species. When D. menstrualis was offered to crabs from northern sites, they did not distinguish between it and other seaweeds for camouflage, whereas crabs from Alabama and two locations in North Carolina used D. menstrualis almost exclusively. In addition, in winter and spring, when Dictyota was seasonally absent in North Carolina, Libinia selectively camouflaged with the sun sponge Hymeniacidon heliophila, which was chemically unpalatable to local fishes. Thus, southern crabs were consistent specialists on chemically defended species for camouflage, while northern crabs were more generalized. The geographic shift in crab behavior away from specialization coincides with a reported decrease in both total predation pressure and the frequency of omnivorous consumers. These shifts in the nature and intensity of predation pressure may favor different camouflage strategies (generalist vs. specialist), contributing to the observed geographic differences in camouflage behavior.

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“…Here, we evaluate the 12S metabarcoding reference library for U.S. mid-Atlantic fishes, report new eDNA reference sequences, and test the enhanced library against a 2-year time series of marine samples collected in coastal New Jersey. Ichthyofauna in the mid-Atlantic Bight have received careful long-term monitoring including more than 30 years of trawl surveys conducted by New Jersey Bureau of Marine Fishes and NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center (Politis et al, 2014;Hinks and Barry, 2019;Levesque, 2019), and diverse studies in ocean and estuary locations (e.g., Tatham et al, 1984;Able et al, 2010Able et al, , 2011Valenti et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improved Environmental DNA Reference Library Detects Overlooked Marine Fishes in New Jersey, United States

Stoeckle

¹

,

Mishu

²

,

Charlop–Powers

³

2020

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An accurate, comprehensive reference sequence library maximizes information gained from environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding of marine fishes. Here, we used a regional checklist and early results from an ongoing eDNA time series to target mid-Atlantic U.S. coastal fishes lacking reference sequences. We obtained 60 specimens representing 31 species from NOAA trawl surveys and institutional collections, and analyzed 12S and COI barcode regions, the latter to confirm specimen identification. Combined with existing GenBank accessions, the enhanced 12S dataset covered most (74%) of 341 fishes on New Jersey State checklist including 95% of those categorized abundant or common. For eDNA time series, we collected water samples approximately twice monthly for 24 months at an ocean and a bay site in New Jersey. Metabarcoding was performed using separate 12S primer sets targeting bony and cartilaginous fishes. Bioinformatic analysis of Illumina MiSeq fastq files with the augmented library yielded exact matches for 90% of the 104 fish amplicon sequence variants generated from field samples. Newly obtained reference sequences revealed two southern U.S. species as relatively common warm season migrants: Gulf kingfish (Menticirrhus littoralis) and Brazilian cownose ray (Rhinoptera brasiliensis). A beach wrack specimen corroborated the local presence of Brazilian cownose ray. Our results highlight the value of strengthening reference libraries and demonstrate that eDNA can help detect range shifts including those of species overlooked by traditional surveys.

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Fishes of Barnegat Bay

Cited by 12 publications

References 20 publications

Geographic Variation in Camouflage Specialization by a Decorator Crab

Geographic Variation in Camouflage Specialization by a Decorator Crab

Geographic Variation in Camouflage Specialization by a Decorator Crab

Improved Environmental DNA Reference Library Detects Overlooked Marine Fishes in New Jersey, United States

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