Herbivory on the Invasive Alga Caulerpa cylindracea: The Role of Omnivorous Fishes

Autor: Fiona Tomas, Enric Ballesteros, Emma Cebrian, Jorge Santamaría
Přispěvatelé: Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Espanya)
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
0106 biological sciences
Sparidae
Science
Zoology
Ocean Engineering
Aquatic Science
QH1-199.5
Oceanography
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Invasive species
invasive species
Algae
Abundance (ecology)
Mediterranean Sea
Espècies introduïdes -- Mediterrània
Mar
Fish-alga interaction
grazing
fish-alga interaction
Algues marines -- Mediterrània
Mar
biotic control
Water Science and Technology
Biological invasions -- Mediterranean Sea
Global and Planetary Change
Herbivore
Detritus
biology
Marine algae -- Mediterrània
Mar
010604 marine biology & hydrobiology
Marine habitats
General. Including nature conservation
geographical distribution
Caulerpa cylindracea
biology.organism_classification
Grazing
Introduced organisms -- Mediterranean Sea
Biotic control
Omnivore
Invasions biològiques -- Mediterrània
Mar
Zdroj: Frontiers in Marine Science, Vol 8 (2021)
Digital.CSIC: Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Frontiers in Marine Science, 2021, vol. 8, art.núm. 702492
Articles publicats (D-CCAA)
DUGiDocs – Universitat de Girona
instname
Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
ISSN: 2296-7745
DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2021.702492/full
Popis: Este artículo contiene 10 páginas, 2 tablas, 2 figuras.
Herbivory has long been considered an important component of biotic resistance against macroalgae invasions in marine habitats. However, most of the studies on herbivory of invasive algae refer only to consumption by strictly herbivorous organisms, whereas consumption by omnivorous species has been largely ignored and rarely quantified. In this study, we assess whether the commonest omnivorous sparid species in the Mediterranean Sea are consuming the highly invasive alga, Caulerpa cylindracea, and determine both, its importance in their diet and their electivity toward it as a source of food. Our results confirm that three of the four fish species studied regularly consume C. cylindracea, but in most cases, the importance of C. cylindracea in the diet is low. Indeed, the low electivity values indicate that all species avoid feeding on the invasive alga and that it is probably consumed accidentally. However, despite animals and detritus being the main food for these sparid species, several individual specimens were found to have consumed high amounts of C. cylindracea. This suggests a potential role that these fish species, being really abundant in shallow rocky bottoms, may play in controlling, to some extent, the abundance of the invader.
Funding for this project was obtained from the Spanish Ministry Project ANIMA (CGL2016-76341-R, MINECO/FEDER, UE), the Spanish Autonomous Organism of National Parks through the project BIGPARK (project 2017-2462), and the Padi Foundation to FT (CGA App #: 5134). JS has received funding from “La Caixa” Foundation (ID 100010434), under agreement LCF/BQ/DE17/11600001.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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