Seagrass and rhodolith beds are important seascapes for the development of fish eggs and larvae in tropical coastal areas

Costa, Ana Cecília Pinho; Garcia, Tatiane Martins; Paiva, Bárbara Pereira; Neto, Antônio Chaves Assis; Soares, Marcelo de Oliveira

doi:10.1016/j.marenvres.2020.105064

Cited by 34 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…The Brazilian northeast ecoregion (sensu Spalding et al, 2007) (Figure 1) is characterized by a diversity of tropical coastal and marine ecosystems, including seagrass and rhodolith beds, mangroves, intertidal sandstone reefs, and shallow-water coral reefs (Irion et al, 2012;Soares et al, 2017;Costa et al, 2020;Carneiro et al, 2021;Carneiro et al, 2022). The Brazilian semiarid coast is a scarcely known region of great ecological and socioeconomic importance.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lionfish on the loose: Pterois invade shallow habitats in the tropical southwestern Atlantic

et al. 2022

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Lionfish (Pterois spp.) evolved in the Indo-Pacific with predators and prey and invaded regions (e.g., the Caribbean Sea and Mediterranean) where no such balance yet exists. In 2020, four lionfish were recorded on mesophotic reefs of the Amazon offshore Coast and Fernando de Noronha Archipelago. However, until now, there were no records of invasive lionfish in Brazilian nearshore waters or even such a high number of individuals. In this article, we report the continuing invasion process along the Brazilian Province by multiple sightings (72) of lionfish from March to May 2022 in estuaries, seagrass beds, and artificial and natural reefs across 240 km of the Brazilian coast. These are the first records of lionfish in coastal northeast Brazil and the shallowest records (1–16 m) from South Atlantic tropical waters. The largest simultaneous records of lionfish in breakwaters, fishing weirs, and marambaias (artificial reefs used as fishing grounds) on the Brazilian Northeastern coast indicate that these man-made structures are suitable habitats for this species. Most of the lionfish (58%) were recorded in artificial reefs and fishing weirs. Moreover, the detection of invasions in marginal reefs, estuaries, and two marine protected areas characterized by moderately turbid water and high sedimentation rates highlights the adaptability of the lionfish, making it extremely difficult for divers and fishers to capture them. We call for an urgent management plan considering that the invaded tropical region hosts a high level of endemism, and rare and/or cryptic taxa, which increases the risk of impacts since these are primary lionfish prey.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lionfish on the loose: Pterois invade shallow habitats in the tropical southwestern Atlantic

et al. 2022

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“…The seagrass Phyllospadix iwatensis (Zosteraceae), characterized by a well-developed root system and reddish-brown hairy fibers on the rhizomes, is naturally distributed in the rocky intertidal zone of the Northern Hemisphere (Cao et al, 2015;Li et al, 2020). As an important constituent species of angiosperm-dominated marine blue carbon ecosystems, P. iwatensis can form vast "underwater meadows, " which not only have an enormous ability to store carbon (Mcleod et al, 2011;Fourqurean et al, 2012) but also provide important habitat, spawning grounds, and food sources for various organisms in coastal areas (Cullen-Unsworth et al, 2018;Costa et al, 2020;Jiang et al, 2020;Rodriguez and Heck, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intrinsic Photosensitivity of the Vulnerable Seagrass Phyllospadix iwatensis: Photosystem II Oxygen-Evolving Complex Is Prone to Photoinactivation

Wang

et al. 2022

Front. Plant Sci.

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Phyllospadix iwatensis, a foundation species of the angiosperm-dominated marine blue carbon ecosystems, has been recognized to be a vulnerable seagrass. Its degradation has previously been reported to be associated with environmental changes and human activities, while there has been a limited number of studies on its inherent characteristics. In this study, both the physiological and molecular biological data indicated that the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) of P. iwatensis is prone to photoinactivation, which exhibits the light-dependent trait. When exposed to laboratory light intensities similar to typical midday conditions, <10% of the OEC was photoinactivated, and the remaining active OEC was sufficient to maintain normal photosynthetic activity. Moreover, the photoinactivated OEC could fully recover within the same day. However, under harsh light conditions, e.g., light intensities that simulate cloudless sunny neap tide days and continual sunny days, the OEC suffered irreversible photoinactivation, which subsequently resulted in damage to the photosystem II reaction centers and a reduction in the rate of O2 evolution. Furthermore, in situ measurements on a cloudless sunny neap tide day revealed both poor resilience and irreversible photoinactivation of the OEC. Based on these findings, we postulated that the OEC dysfunction induced by ambient harsh light conditions could be an important inherent reason for the degradation of P. iwatensis.

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“…The colonization of seagrass meadows has been proved to promote the increase in sediment mud and organic matter contents, as well as the abundance and richness of macrofaunal communities (Lundquist et al, 2018). Seagrass meadows are beneficial to the retention of eggs and spawning by mitigating the turbulent hydrodynamics (Short et al, 2011;Costa et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Ren

Leung

Qing

et al. 2022

Front. Environ. Sci.

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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.

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Seagrass and rhodolith beds are important seascapes for the development of fish eggs and larvae in tropical coastal areas

Cited by 34 publications

References 68 publications

Lionfish on the loose: Pterois invade shallow habitats in the tropical southwestern Atlantic

Lionfish on the loose: Pterois invade shallow habitats in the tropical southwestern Atlantic

Intrinsic Photosensitivity of the Vulnerable Seagrass Phyllospadix iwatensis: Photosystem II Oxygen-Evolving Complex Is Prone to Photoinactivation

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

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