The trend of lessepsian fish populations with an emphasis on temperature variations in Iskenderun Bay, the Northeastern Mediterranean

Abstract

The fish assemblages of the Eastern Mediterranean are highly variable owing to the Lessepsian migration. So far, there has been limited discussion about the temporal variation of Lessepsian populations, which may be a key to better understanding the establishment, persistence and spreading dynamics of these species. The objective of this study was, therefore, to develop an understanding of inter‐annual variations of Lessepsian fish populations through investigating the effects of climate conditions. For this purpose, we evaluated the data obtained from the seasonal bottom trawl surveys conducted over the course of 12 years, from 2004 to 2015, at the infra‐littoral zone of Iskenderun Bay. Our results indicated that Lessepsians constituted 27%, 62% and 85% of total teleost fishes in the number of species (LS‐%), biomass (LW‐%) and abundance (LN‐%), respectively. The linear trends showed that the dominance of Lessepsian fishes increased with annual rates of 1.9 (p < .01, LS‐%), 2.77 (p < .01, LW‐%) and 1.43% (p < .05, LN‐%) per year during the study period. In contrast, seasonal trend decomposition based on GAMMs revealed that the true shape of trends was non‐linear. The majority of the new Lessepsians entered the study area after 2009 when warmer conditions prevailed. Those new invaders such as Nemipterus randalli, Pomadasys stridens and Apogon smithi successfully settled in a short time and remarkably altered the composition of fish assemblages after 2010. We found that variations of lessepsian fish assemblages were correlated with the increase of annual minima and average values of sea surface temperature.

Intra‐annual patterns of coastal larval fish assemblages along environmental gradients in the northeastern Mediterranean

“…Temperature changes also significantly affected the diversity, abundance and composition of larval fish assemblages in Iskenderun Bay. This is consistent with those of many studies conducted throughout middle latitudes, including the northwestern Pacific (Huang & Chiu, 1998), the northern Aegean Sea (Koutrakis et al, 2004), the northeastern Alvarez et al, 2012;Sabates, 1990) and the northern Aegean Sea (Koutrakis et al, 2004;Somarakis et al, 2002) (Gucu, Ok, & Sakinan, 2010;Por, 2010) and Iskenderun Bay is known as an ultimately appropriate area for them; as they form 27% of the fish richness, 62% of biomass and 82% of abundance in shallow soft bottoms (Mavruk et al, 2017). The early life stages of Lessepsian fishes requires particular attention in order to better clarify their spawning, distribution and ecological aspects.…”

“…These are exotic warm water species which entered to the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal (Golani, Massutí, Quignard, Dulčić, & Azzurro, ). Lessepsians dominate coastal fish communities throughout the eastern Mediterranean (Gucu, Ok, & Sakinan, ; Por, ) and Iskenderun Bay is known as an ultimately appropriate area for them; as they form 27% of the fish richness, 62% of biomass and 82% of abundance in shallow soft bottoms (Mavruk et al., ). The early life stages of Lessepsian fishes requires particular attention in order to better clarify their spawning, distribution and ecological aspects.…”

“…This is primarily due to the continuous intrusions of Lessepsian species which make fish assemblages quite unstable (Golani & Appelbaum-Golani, 2010). Most of the Lessepsian fishes appear to be well adapted to the conditions of the eastern Mediterranean (Mavruk & Avs ßar, 2008;Por, 2009) and excessively dominate coastal habitats in Iskenderun Bay (Gucu & Bingel, 1994;Mavruk, Bengil, Yeldan, Manasirli, & Avs ßar, 2017;Yemisken, Dalyan, & Eryilmaz, 2014).…”

Introduction of a new Indo-Pacific marine cladoceran to the Mediterranean Sea

“…The study area is located in the interior part of İskenderun Bay, which is affected by the subtropical climatic conditions that prevail in the Eastern Mediterranean. In addition, annual average seawater temperature has increased about 2ºC in İskenderun Bay since 1970 and warmer conditions prevailed in winters after 2009 (Mavruk et al, 2017).…”

Correlation of changes in seasonal distribution and catch of red sea bream Pagrus major with winter temperature in the eastern Seto Inland Sea, Japan (1972–2010)

“…Climate change associated with global warming has been reported to affect marine ecosystems and fisheries production (Brander, ; Fortibuoni, Aldighieri, Giovanardi, Pranovi, & Zucchetta, ; Hare & Able, ; Kuwahara et al, ; Lacoue‐Labarthe et al, ; Tadokoro, Sugimoto, & Kishi, ). In addition, the increase in water temperature has been reported to induce a poleward shift in fish distribution (Barbeaux & Hollowed, ; Last et al, ; Perry et al, ), leading to changes in annual catch (Teixeira et al, ), fish fauna (Lloyd, Plaganyi, Weeks, Magno‐Canto, & Plaganyi, ; Masuda, ; Mavruk, Bengiil, Yeldan, Mamasorli, & Avsar, ), spawning period (Sims, Wearmouth, Genner, Southward, & Hawkins, ), and spawning ground (Villegas‐Hernández, Lloret, & Muñoz, ). However, there is not sufficient published information on the relationship between increase in water temperature and stock variation (Alheit et al, ; Eriksen, Ingvaldsen, Nedreaas, & Prozorkevich, ; Hermant, Lobry, Bonhommeau, Poulard, & Pape, ; Sabatés et al, ) in order to predict the dynamics of fisheries resources caused by global warming.…”