Taking a deeper look: Quantifying the differences in fish assemblages between shallow and mesophotic temperate rocky reefs

Joel Williams; Alan Jordan; David Harasti; Peter Davies; Tim Ingleton

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0206778

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Taking a deeper look: Quantifying the differences in fish assemblages between shallow and mesophotic temperate rocky reefs

Journal article

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Taking a deeper look: Quantifying the differences in fish assemblages between shallow and mesophotic temperate rocky reefs

Joel Williams, Alan Jordan, David Harasti, Peter Davies and Tim Ingleton

PloS one, Vol.14(3), e0206778

15/03/2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0206778

PMCID: PMC6420037

PMID: 30875385

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Abstract

Animals

Biodiversity

Coral Reefs

Ecology

Ecosystem

Environmental Monitoring - methods

Fisheries

Fishes - physiology

Population Density

The spatial distribution of a species assemblage is often determined by habitat and climate. In the marine environment, depth can become an important factor as declining light and water temperature leads to changes in the biological habitat structure. To date, much of the focus of ecological fish research has been based on reefs in less than 40 m with little research on the ecological role of mesophotic reefs. We deployed baited remote underwater stereo video systems (stereo-BRUVS) on temperate reefs in two depth categories: shallow (20-40 m) and mesophotic (80-120 m), off Port Stephens, Australia. Sites were selected using data collected by swath acoustic sounder to ensure stereo-BRUVS were deployed on reef. The sounder also provided rugosity, slope and relief data for each stereo-BRUVS deployment. Multivariate analysis indicates that there are significant differences in the fish assemblages between shallow and mesophotic reefs, primarily driven by Ophthalmolepis lineolatus and Notolabrus gymnogenis only occurring on shallow reefs and schooling species of fish that were unique to each depth category: Atypichthys strigatus on shallow reefs and Centroberyx affinis on mesophotic reefs. While shallow reefs had a greater species richness and abundance of fish when compared to mesophotic reefs, mesophotic reefs hosted the same species richness of fishery-targeted species. Chrysophrys auratus and Nemodactylus douglassii are two highly targeted species in this region. While C. auratus was numerically more abundant on shallow reefs, mesophotic reefs provide habitat for larger fish. In comparison, N. douglassii were evenly distributed across all sites sampled. Generalized linear models revealed that depth and habitat type provided the most parsimonious model for predicting the distribution of C. auratus, while habitat type alone best predicted the distribution of N. douglassii. These results demonstrate the importance of mesophotic reefs to fishery-targeted species and therefore have implications for informing the management of these fishery resources on shelf rocky reefs.

Details

Title: Taking a deeper look: Quantifying the differences in fish assemblages between shallow and mesophotic temperate rocky reefs
Creators: Joel Williams - New South Wales Department of Primary Industries
Alan Jordan - New South Wales Department of Primary Industries
David Harasti - New South Wales Department of Primary Industries
Peter Davies - New South Wales. Office of Environment and Heritage
Tim Ingleton - New South Wales. Office of Environment and Heritage
Publication Details: PloS one, Vol.14(3), e0206778
Publisher: Public Library of Science
Grant note: This work was undertaken for the Marine Biodiversity Hub, a collaborative partnership supported through funding from the National Environmental Science Program (and previously through the National Environmental ResearchProgram). NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub partners include the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania; CSIRO, Geoscience Australia, Australian Institute of Marine Science, Museum Victoria, Charles Darwin University, University of Western Australia, NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, NSW Department of Primary Industries and the Integrated Marine Observing System. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Identifiers: 991013127411702368
Copyright: © 2019 Williams et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Academic Unit: Faculty of Science and Engineering
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article

Taking a deeper look: Quantifying the differences in fish assemblages between shallow and mesophotic temperate rocky reefs

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