Diurnal temporal patterns of the diversity and the abundance of reef fishes in a branching coral patch in New Caledonia


Autoria(s): Mallet, Delphine; Vigliola, Laurent; Wantiez, Laurent; Pelletier, Dominique
Data(s)

01/11/2016

Resumo

Small-scale spatial and temporal variability in animal abundance is an intrinsic characteristic of marine ecosystems but remains largely unknown for most animals, including coral reef fishes. In this study, we used a remote autonomous unbaited video system and recorded reef fish assemblages during daylight hours, 10 times a day for 34 consecutive days in a branching coral patch of the lagoon of New Caledonia. In total, 50 031 fish observations belonging to 114 taxa, 66 genera and 31 families were recorded in 256 recorded videos. Carnivores and herbivore-detritus feeders dominated the trophic structure. We found significant variations in the composition of fish assemblages between times of day. Taxa richness and fish abundance were greater in the early morning and in the late afternoon than during the day. Fourteen taxa displayed well-defined temporal patterns in abundance with one taxon influenced by time of day, six influenced by tidal state and seven influenced by both time of day and tidal state. None of these 14 taxa were piscivores, 10 were herbivore-detritus feeders, three were carnivores and one was plankton feeder. Our results suggest a diel migration from feeding grounds to shelter areas and highlight the importance of taking into account small-scale temporal variability in animal diversity and abundance when studying connectivity between habitats and monitoring communities.

Formato

application/pdf

Identificador

http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00326/43755/45787.pdf

DOI:10.1111/aec.12360

http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00326/43755/

Idioma(s)

eng

Publicador

Wiley-blackwell

Direitos

2016 Ecological Society of Australia

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

restricted use

Fonte

Austral Ecology (1442-9985) (Wiley-blackwell), 2016-11 , Vol. 41 , N. 7 , P. 733-744

Palavras-Chave #coral reef fish #high-frequency sampling #patterns #temporal variation #underwater video
Tipo

text

Publication

info:eu-repo/semantics/article