Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T15:29:10.946Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Habitat use and coexistence of three territorial herbivorous damselfish on different-size patch reefs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2013

Akihisa Hattori  and
Takuro Shibuno
Akihisa Hattori*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Liberal Arts and Education, Shiga University, 2-5-1 Hiratsu, Otsu, Shiga 520-0862, Japan
Takuro Shibuno
Affiliation:
National Research Institute of Aquaculture, Fisheries Research Agency, 422-1 Nakatsuhamaura, Minami-ise, Mie 516-0193, Japan
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: A. Hattori, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Education, Shiga University, 2-5-1 Hiratsu, Otsu, Shiga 520-0862, Japan email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In local reef fish communities, species richness increases with increasing reef area. At Ishigaki Island, Japan, species richness is much lower on large reefs in the shallow back reef than that expected from random placement model simulations (RPMS). As three aggressive territorial herbivorous damselfish, Stegastes nigricans, Stegastes lividus and Hemiglyphidodon plagiometopon, coexist only on such large reefs, we focused on these species and examined patterns of their distribution and abundance on 84 patch reefs of various sizes (area and height). We also examined their aggressive intra- and interspecific behavioural interactions and habitat use on the two large reefs (the largest complex patch reef and the large flat patch reef) among the 84 patch reefs. While the abundance of both S. lividus and H. plagiometopon was highly correlated with patch reef area, that of S. nigricans was closely correlated with patch reef height. For S. nigricans and S. lividus, interspecific interactions occurred significantly more frequently than intraspecific interactions on the large flat patch reef. However, there was no significant difference in frequencies of the two interaction types on the largest complex patch reef, where they three-dimensionally segregated conspecific territories. This study suggested that reef height as well as reef area influence the distribution and abundance of these territorial herbivorous damselfish in the shallow back reef. As large patch reefs cannot be tall allometrically in shallow back reefs, relatively flat patch reefs may not have the high species richness expected from RPMS based on reef area.

Keywords

coral reef fishhabitat patchinterspecific territorialitymetacommunityspecies–area relationships
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 93 , Issue 8 , December 2013 , pp. 2265 - 2272
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Allen, G.R. (1991) Damselfishes of the world. Melle: Mergus Publishers.Google Scholar
Almany, G.R., Berumen, M.L., Thorrold, S.R., Planes, S. and Jones, G.P. (2007) Local replenishment of coral reef fish populations in a marine reserve. Science 316, 742–744.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, W.D. and Shorrocks, B. (1981) Competition on a divided and ephemeral resource: a simulation model. Journal of Animal Ecology 50, 461–471.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ault, T.R. and Johnson, C.R. (1998a) Spatially and temporally predictable fish communities on coral reefs. Ecological Monographs 68, 25–50.Google Scholar
Ault, T.R. and Johnson, C.R. (1998b) Spatial variation in fish species richness on coral reefs: habitat fragmentation and stochastic structuring processes. Oikos 82, 354–364.Google Scholar
Begon, M., Harper, J.L. and Townsend, C.R. (1990) Ecology: individuals, populations and communities. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications.Google Scholar
Belmaker, J., Ben-Moshe, N., Ziv, Y. and Shashar, N. (2007) Determinants of the steep species–area relationship of coral reef fishes. Coral Reefs 26, 103–112.Google Scholar
Boström, C., Pittman, S.J., Simenstad, C. and Kneib, R.T. (2011) Seascape ecology of coastal biogenic habitats: advances, gaps, and challenges. Marine Ecology Progress Series 427, 191–217.Google Scholar
Ceccarelli, D.M. (2007) Modification of benthic communities by territorial damselfishes: a multi-species comparison. Coral Reefs 26, 853–866.Google Scholar
Ceccarelli, D.M., Jones, G.P. and McCook, L.J. (2001) Territorial damselfishes as determinants of the structure of benthic communities on coral reefs. Oceanography and Marine Biology: an Annual Review 39, 355–389.Google Scholar
Chittaro, P.M. (2002) Species–area relationships for coral reef fish assemblages of St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. Marine Ecology Progress Series 233, 253–261.Google Scholar
Done, T.J., Dayton, P.K., Dayton, A.E. and Steger, R. (1991) Regional and local variability in recovery of shallow coral communities: Moorea, French Polynesia and central Great Barrier Reef. Coral Reefs 9, 183–192.Google Scholar
Gardiner, N.M. and Jones, G.P. (2010) Synergistic effects of habitat preference and gregarious behaviour on habitat use in coral reef cardinalfish. Coral Reefs 29, 845–856.Google Scholar
Harborne, A.R., Mumby, P.J. and Ferrari, R. (2012) The effectiveness of different meso-scale rugosity metrics for predicting intra-habitat variation in coral-reef fish assemblages. Environmental Biology of Fishes 94, 431–442.Google Scholar
Hata, H. and Kato, M. (2002) Weeding by the herbivorous damselfish Stegastes nigricans in nearly monocultural algae farms. Marine Ecology Progress Series 237, 227–231.Google Scholar
Hata, H. and Kato, M. (2006) A novel obligate cultivation mutualism between damselfish and Polysiphonia algae. Biology Letters 2, 593–596.Google Scholar
Hata, H., Watanabe, K. and Kato, M. (2010) Geographic variation in the damselfish–red alga cultivation mutualism in the Indo-West Pacific. BMC Evolutionary Biology 10, 185–195.Google Scholar
Hattori, A. (1995) Coexistence of two anemonefish, Amphiprion clarkii and A. perideraion, which utilize the same host sea anemone. Environmental Biology of Fishes 42, 345–353.Google Scholar
Hattori, A. (2002) Small and large anemonefishes can coexist using the same patchy resources on a coral reef, before habitat destruction. Journal of Animal Ecology 71, 824–831.Google Scholar
Hattori, A. (2006) Vertical and horizontal distribution patterns of the giant sea anemone Heteractis crispa with symbiotic anemonefish on a fringing coral reef. Journal of Ethology 24, 51–57.Google Scholar
Hattori, A. (2012) Determinants of body size compositions in limited shelter space: why are anemonefishes protandrous? Behavioral Ecology 23, 512–520.Google Scholar
Hattori, A. and Kobayashi, M. (2007) Configuration of small patch reefs and population abundance of a resident reef fish in a complex coral reef landscape. Ecological Research 22, 575–581.Google Scholar
Hattori, A. and Shibuno, T. (2010) The effect of patch reef size on fish species richness in a shallow coral reef shore zone where territorial herbivores are abundant. Ecological Research 25, 457–468.Google Scholar
Jan, R-Q., Ho, C-T. and Shiah, F-K. (2003) Determinants of territory size of the dusky gregory. Journal of Fish Biology 63, 1589–1597.Google Scholar
Jones, G.P., Santana, L., McCook, L.J. and McCormick, M.I. (2006) Resource use and impact of three herbivorous damselfishes on coral reef communities. Marine Ecology Progress Series 328, 215–224.Google Scholar
Kareiva, P. (1986) Patchiness, dispersal, and species interactions: consequences for communities of herbivorous insects. In Diamond, J. and Case, T.J. (eds) Community ecology. New York: Harper & Row Publications, pp. 192–206.Google Scholar
Karino, K. and Nakazono, A. (1993) Reproductive behaviour of the territorial herbivore Stegastes nigricans (Pisces: Pomacentridae) in relation to colony formation. Journal of Ethology 11, 99–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kobayashi, M. and Hattori, A. (2006) Spacing pattern and body size composition of the protandrous anemonefish Amphiprion frenatus inhabiting colonial host anemones. Ichthyological Research 53, 1–6.Google Scholar
Lehman, C.L. and Tilman, D. (1997) Competition in spatial habitats. In Tilman, D. and Kareiva, P. (eds) Spatial ecology: the role of space in population dynamics and interspecific interactions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 185–203.Google Scholar
McClanahan, T.R. (1994) Kenyan coral reef lagoon fish: effects of fishing, substrate complexity, and sea urchins. Coral Reefs 13, 231–241.Google Scholar
McGuinness, K.A. (1984) Species–area relations of communities on intertidal boulders: testing the null hypothesis. Journal of Biogeography 11, 439–456.Google Scholar
Morris, D.W. (1999) Has the ghost of competition passed? Evolutionary Ecology Research 1, 3–20.Google Scholar
Pinsky, M.L., Palumbi, S.R., Andréfouët, S. and Purkis, S.J. (2012) Open and closed seascapes: where does habitat patchiness create populations with high fractions of self-recruitment? Ecological Applications 22, 1257–1267.Google Scholar
Pittman, S.J., Kneib, R.T. and Simenstad, C.A. (2011) Practicing coastal seascape ecology. Marine Ecology Progress Series 427, 187–190.Google Scholar
Planes, S., Jones, G.P. and Thorrold, S.R. (2009) Larval dispersal connects fish populations in a network of marine protected areas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 106, 5693–5697.Google Scholar
Rasband, W.S. (1997) Image J. Bethesda, MD: US National Institutes of Health. Available at: http://rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/ (accessed 17 June 2013).Google Scholar
R Development Core Team (2006) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Available at: http://www.R-project.org (accessed 17 June 2013).Google Scholar
Robertson, D.R. (1996) Interspecific competition controls abundance and habitat use of territorial Caribbean damselfishes. Ecology 77, 885–899.Google Scholar
Roff, J. and Zacharias, M. (2011) Marine conservation ecology. London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, M.L. (1981) A theory of habitat selection. Ecology 62, 327–335.Google Scholar
Sale, P.F. and Steel, W.J. (1986) Random placement and the distribution of fishes among coral patch reefs. Marine Ecology Progress Series 28, 165–174.Google Scholar
Sammarco, P.W. (1983) Effects of fish grazing and damselfish territoriality on coral reef algae. I. Algal community structure. Marine Ecology Progress Series 13, 1–14.Google Scholar
Shorrocks, B., Atkinson, W. and Charlesworth, P. (1979) Competition on a divided and ephemeral resource. Journal of Animal Ecology 48, 899–908.Google Scholar
Spalding, M.D., Ravilious, C. and Green, E.P. (2001) World atlas of coral reefs. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Sweatman, H.P.A. (1983) Influence of conspecifics on choice of settlement sites by larvae of two pomacentrid fishes (Dascyllus aruanus and D. reticulatus) on coral reefs. Marine Biology 75, 225–229.Google Scholar
Sweatman, H.P.A. (1985) The influence of adults of some coral reef fishes on larval recruitment. Ecological Monographs 55, 469–485.Google Scholar
Tilman, D. (1994) Competition and biodiversity in spatially structured habitats. Ecology, 75, 2–16.Google Scholar
Tsuchiya, M., Nadaoka, K., Kayanne, H. and Yamano, H. (2004) Coral reefs of Japan. Tokyo: Ministry of the Environment.Google Scholar
Wilson, S. and Bellwood, D.R. (1997) Cryptic dietary components of territorial damselfishes (Pomacentridae, Labroidei). Marine Ecology Progress Series 153, 299–310.Google Scholar