Where the grass is greenest in seagrass seascapes depends on life history and simple species traits of fish

Autor: Linda Eggertsen, Whitney Goodell, Cesar A.M.M. Cordeiro, Damboia Cossa, Marcos de Lucena, Charlotte Berkström, João N. Franco, Carlos E.L. Ferreira, Salomão Bandeira, Martin Gullström
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Popis: Acknowledgements : We thank M. Ambly, C. d’Agata and A. Ostman ¨ for help in the field. We also wish to thank the VCWS and the Parque Nacional de Arquipélago de Bazaruto (PNAB) for their thorough support during the field work, Mr. H. Brown and all the staff at Msasa, G. van Wyk and our skipper Orlando. We also thank three anonymous reviewers whose comments helped improve the manuscript. Research permits – Permission to conduct research in the PNAB was provided by the Administraçao ˜ Nacional das Áreas de Conservação (ANAC). Research permission for the Santuario Bravio de Vilanculos (Vilanculos Wildlife Coastal Sanctuary - VWCS) was provided by the VWCS. Funding was provided by the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA) MARG I grant, Stockholm University (Sweden) and the Swedish Research Council (VR; no. E0344801 and 2015–05902). Tropical seagrass meadows are critical habitats for many fish species, yet few studies have investigated the influence of multiple scale-dependent factors and marine protected areas on seagrass fish species of differing life histories. We assessed the influence of fine-scale seagrass meadow characteristics and seascape-scale variables on the abundance of fish in a seagrass-dominated seascape in the Bazaruto Archipelago, Mozambique, particularly examining patterns of nursery- vs. resident species as well as mobile- vs. sedentary species. We found that fish distribution patterns in this seagrass-dominated seascape were dependent on species’ life history characteristics; nursery taxa showed lower abundance in seagrass meadows further from adult reef habitats, while resident species within seagrass meadows occurred in higher abundances far from reefs. For taxa utilizing both mangroves and seagrass meadows as nursery habitat, proximity to mangroves was an important factor. Fish abundances were generally influenced by variables at the seascape scale (km), while sedentary species were predominantly influenced by area variables, and smaller seascapes (
Databáze: OpenAIRE