Preliminary Survey of Fish Community Composition in Seagrass Habitat in Two Back-Reef Lagoons of the Southern Mexican Caribbean

Yeager, Lauren A.; Arias-Gonzalez, J. Ernesto

doi:10.18785/gcr.2001.06

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Several authors also have found lower densities of gray snapper, bluestriped grunt, seabream and great barracuda within or near the mangroves at night versus day (Rooker & Dennis 1991; Nagelkerken et al. 2001; Christian 2003; Yeager & Ariaz‐Gonzalez 2008). Recent acoustic tracking studies of juvenile gray snapper have demonstrated that at sunset these fishes migrate rapidly out of the mangroves in a synchronized fashion and do not forage in seagrass meadows nearest the mangroves, but rather offshore (Luo et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nocturnal fish utilization of a subtropical mangrove‐seagrass ecotone

Hammerschlag

Serafy

2010

Marine Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Whereas diel fish migration between mangrove and seagrass habitats has been recognized for decades, quantitative studies have focused mainly on diurnal patterns of fish distribution and abundance. In general, previous studies have shown that fish abundances decline with increasing distance from mangroves; however, evidence for such a pattern at night, when many fishes are actively feeding, is scarce. The present study is the first to report nocturnal fish abundances along a continuous distance gradient from mangroves across adjacent seagrass habitat (0–120 m). Here, we used nocturnal seine sampling to test the null hypothesis (based on diurnal studies and limited nocturnal work) that fish abundance would decrease with increasing distance from shoreline. We focused on species and life‐stage‐specific abundance patterns of Lutjanus griseus, Sphyraena barracuda, Archosargus rhomboidalis, and Haemulon sciurus. Results indicated that assemblage composition and structure differed significantly by season, likely influenced by temperature. However, within each season, the fish habitat use pattern at both the assemblage and species‐specific level generally failed to support our working null hypothesis. Species‐specific analyses revealed that, for most species and life‐stages examined, nocturnal abundance either did not change with distance or increased with distance from the mangrove‐seagrass ecotone. Our results suggest that analyses where taxa are grouped to report overall patterns may have the potential to overlook significant species‐ and stage‐specific variation. For fishes known to make nocturnal migrations, we recommend nocturnal sampling to determine habitat utilization patterns, especially when inferring nursery value of multiple habitats or when estimating fish production.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nocturnal fish utilization of a subtropical mangrove‐seagrass ecotone

Hammerschlag

Serafy

2010

Marine Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Past surveys on seagrass habitats on the northern Mexican Caribbean (Cancun and Puerto Morelos) registered 62 species of fish after 36 UVC transects of 50 meters 41 , while surveys in the southern region (Mahahual and Xcalak) found 28 species after 48 transects of 20 meters 42 . Although a direct comparison of our results with these previous studies is not possible due to spatial and temporal mismatches 43 , the values show a good approximation to the sampling effort predictions of our species accumulation curves, where UVC would require more than double the sample units to approximate the species richness found by RUVs of 55 minutes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Remote underwater video reveals higher fish diversity and abundance in seagrass meadows, and habitat differences in trophic interactions

Zarco‐Perello

Enríquez

2019

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Seagrass meadows play a key ecological role as nursery and feeding grounds for multiple fish species. Underwater Visual Census (UVC) has been historically used as the non-extractive method to characterize seagrass fish communities, however, less intrusive methodologies such as Remote Underwater Video (RUV) are gaining interest and could be particularly useful for seagrass habitats, where juvenile fish camouflage among the vegetation and could easily hide or flee from divers. Here we compared the performance of UVC and RUV methodologies in assessing the fish communities of two seagrass meadows with low and high canopy density. We found that RUV detected more species and fish individuals than UVC, particularly on the habitat with higher seagrass density, which sheltered more juveniles, especially herbivorous, and adult piscivorous of commercial importance, evidencing significant differences in energy flow from macrophytes to predators between seagrass habitats, and also differences in the ecosystem services they can provide. Considering the ongoing worldwide degradation of seagrass ecosystems, our results strongly suggest that fish surveys using RUV in ecologic and fisheries programs would render more accurate information and would be more adequate to inform the conservation planning of seagrass meadows around the world.

show abstract

“…A higher proportion of large individuals were collected using seine nets in nighttime compared to that in the daytime in Zostera capricorni seagrass habitats in Moreton Bay, Australia (Guest et al, 2003). In the seagrass habitats dominated by T. testudinum in the coast of Quintana Roo, Mexico, higher fish abundance and species richness were collected in daytime using visual surveys (Yeager and Arias-Gonzalez, 2008). In this study, dominant species, H. trimaculatus, S. bandanensis, and S. strigiventer, all from Labridae, contributed most to the variations of fish assemblages in the daytime at the West Sand, all feeding on benthic invertebrates (e.g., crustaceans, mollusks, polychaetes).…”

Section: Survey Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fish Assemblages in Subtidal Seagrass Meadows Surrounding the West Sand, South China Sea

Ren

Leung

Qing

et al. 2022

Front. Environ. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Both beach seine (BS) and line transect-based underwater visual census (UVC) methods were applied to investigate fish assemblages of the West Sand (Xisha Islands, South China Sea) seagrass meadows and their relationship with seagrass coverage. The West Sand seagrass meadows were divided into four survey areas, two (areas A and B) to the north and two (areas C and D) to the south. The average seagrass coverages (%) in the north were significantly higher than those in the south (p < 0.05). The dominant seagrass species is Thalassia hemprichii, contributing to over 70% substrate coverage in all four areas. A total of 843 individuals from 25 fish species belonging to 22 genera, 11 families, and ten orders were recorded, with five species obtained by both BS and UVC methods. The labrids Halichoeres trimaculatus and Stethojulis strigiventer were the only two species that dominated (index of relative importance IRI > 500) in both BS and UVC methods. Fish assemblages among the four areas were significantly different (BS, p = 0.002; UVC, p = 0.002); area A was significantly different from areas B−D (p < 0.05), which was mainly driven by the variation in H. trimaculatus density. Furthermore, fish assemblages of the four areas (abundance data) revealed by both BS (r2 = 0.8455) and UVC (r2 = 0.9354) methods showed high correlation with the seagrass coverage. The majority of the individuals (>93%) recorded by BS and UVC methods were shorter than the total length at maturity (TLm), with 80.36 and 46.13% of individuals less than half the sizes of their TLm, respectively. Our results, for the first time, proved the importance of seagrass meadows at the West Sand as fish nursery grounds. The ecological roles of seagrass habitats in South China Sea merit further investigation.

show abstract

Preliminary Survey of Fish Community Composition in Seagrass Habitat in Two Back-Reef Lagoons of the Southern Mexican Caribbean

Cited by 6 publications

References 22 publications

Nocturnal fish utilization of a subtropical mangrove‐seagrass ecotone

Nocturnal fish utilization of a subtropical mangrove‐seagrass ecotone

Remote underwater video reveals higher fish diversity and abundance in seagrass meadows, and habitat differences in trophic interactions

Fish Assemblages in Subtidal Seagrass Meadows Surrounding the West Sand, South China Sea

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About