scholarly journals Depth-gradient structure of the demersal fish community on the continental shelf and upper slope off Sendai Bay, Japan

1995 ◽  
Vol 118 ◽  
pp. 13-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
T Fujita ◽  
T Inada ◽  
Y Ishito
Author(s):  
Montserrat Demestre ◽  
Pilar Sánchez ◽  
Pere Abelló

Continental shelf and upper slope fish communities were studied along the Catalan coast based on 66 experimental bottom otter trawls. A total of 79 demersal fish species were studied by means of cluster analysis and multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) ordination for community structure. Analysis revealed the existence of five major location clusters. Similarity percentage analysis (SIMPER) was determined by comparing the dissimilarity between two groups of samples using the discriminating species. Geomorphological characteristics, bottom substratum and depth showed direct influences on species assemblages. High correlation between the biotic data samples and depth was observed. The fish species assemblages identified five main demersal fish associations which corresponded with the five location clusters and with five benthic sediments (mud of the upper slope, sand and gravel, mud of the shelf, muddy-sand and sand with rocky outcrops).


1998 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gecely R. A. Rocha ◽  
Carmen L. D. B. Rossi-Wongtschowski

Fluctuations in the distribution and abundance of demersal fishes collected by otter trawl on the continental shelf of Ubatuba were examined over a two-year sampling period, in an area up to 50 m depth. A total of 111 species were collected. Seasonal and annual fluctuations in species abundance were related to differences in the distribution of Coastal Water and South Atlantic Central Water masses. The demersal fish fauna in the area was divided into three ecologically distinct communities: Tropical Sciaenid, Subtropical Sciaenid, and Gerreid-Haemulid. The most important one is the Tropical Sciaenid Community, characterized by Ctenosciaena gracilicirrhus, Paralonchurus brasiliensis, and Cynoscion jamaicensis.


Author(s):  
Claudia I. Fuentes ◽  
Enzo Acuña ◽  
Numa R. Hernández

The present research provides detailed information on the geographic and bathymetric distributional patterns of fishes and describes the main species assemblages of the continental shelf and upper slope off El Salvador. The sampling was based on 673 bottom-trawl tows taken during research surveys from April to November 2003. The data analysis was based on presence-absence matrixes and was conducted with PRIMER 6 software. A total of 148 fish species were recorded during the study period: the families with the highest number of species were Sciaenidae (13) and Carangidae (10), and the highest percentages of occurrence were registered for Porichthys margaritatus (40.6%), Pontinus sp. (34.8%) and Monolene dubiosa (33.1%). The cluster analysis by depth showed three faunistic associations: (1) on the inner and part of the mid continental shelf (20–60 m), (2) one bathymetric stratum on the mid continental shelf (80–100 m), and (3) on the outer continental shelf and upper slope (120–240 m). The cluster analysis by geographic zones showed separation between three zones: Western, Central and Eastern Zones off El Salvador. The Central zone is characterized by a different fish community of mixed habitat, while the main factor that determined the fish assemblages on the continental shelf and upper slope was depth.


Author(s):  
Nathan M Bacheler ◽  
Christina M Schobernd ◽  
Stacey L Harter ◽  
Andrew W David ◽  
George R Sedberry ◽  
...  

Temperate reefs host diverse fish communities along the southeast United States Atlantic coast (SEUS), yet the sustainable management of reef fishes faces myriad challenges. One challenge has been the introduction of Indo-Pacific lionfish (Pterois volitans/miles; hereafter “lionfish”), which have spread quickly throughout the SEUS since their introduction in the late 1900s. We analyzed long-term (2001–2019) video data along the continental shelf break and upper slope (45–125 m deep) of the SEUS to assess changes in lionfish densities over time, characterize reef fish community structure, and determine if native reef fish community structure has changed due to lionfish. Lionfish densities increased substantially during the study, from zero individuals observed in 2001 to approximately 1.2 individuals observed per 100 m3 (and present in all included transects) by 2019, yet no fish community metrics were negatively related to lionfish density. Demersal habitat influenced fish community structure more than any other variable examined, with more individuals and different fish communities occurring on high-relief compared to low-relief hardbottom habitats. The effects of latitude, depth, and bottom temperature on reef fish community structure were generally weak or nonexistent. Although previous empirical work has found that lionfish negatively affect native fishes at small scales (<30 km2), it is unclear why we did not find similar results in our larger-scale study. It may be related to vagaries of the spatial scale of observation, lionfish effects being primarily limited to high-relief habitats, time lags, or lionfish densities not being high enough yet to cause observable ecological effects.


2020 ◽  
Vol 637 ◽  
pp. 159-180
Author(s):  
ND Gallo ◽  
M Beckwith ◽  
CL Wei ◽  
LA Levin ◽  
L Kuhnz ◽  
...  

Natural gradient systems can be used to examine the vulnerability of deep-sea communities to climate change. The Gulf of California presents an ideal system for examining relationships between faunal patterns and environmental conditions of deep-sea communities because deep-sea conditions change from warm and oxygen-rich in the north to cold and severely hypoxic in the south. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) remotely operated vehicle (ROV) ‘Doc Ricketts’ was used to conduct seafloor video transects at depths of ~200-1400 m in the northern, central, and southern Gulf. The community composition, density, and diversity of demersal fish assemblages were compared to environmental conditions. We tested the hypothesis that climate-relevant variables (temperature, oxygen, and primary production) have more explanatory power than static variables (latitude, depth, and benthic substrate) in explaining variation in fish community structure. Temperature best explained variance in density, while oxygen best explained variance in diversity and community composition. Both density and diversity declined with decreasing oxygen, but diversity declined at a higher oxygen threshold (~7 µmol kg-1). Remarkably, high-density fish communities were observed living under suboxic conditions (<5 µmol kg-1). Using an Earth systems global climate model forced under an RCP8.5 scenario, we found that by 2081-2100, the entire Gulf of California seafloor is expected to experience a mean temperature increase of 1.08 ± 1.07°C and modest deoxygenation. The projected changes in temperature and oxygen are expected to be accompanied by reduced diversity and related changes in deep-sea demersal fish communities.


2012 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon P. R. Greenstreet ◽  
Helen M. Fraser ◽  
Stuart I. Rogers ◽  
Verena M. Trenkel ◽  
Stephen D. Simpson ◽  
...  

Abstract Greenstreet, S. P. R., Fraser, H. M., Rogers, S. I., Trenkel, V. M., Simpson, S. D., and Pinnegar, J. K. 2012. Redundancy in metrics describing the composition, structure, and functioning of the North Sea demersal fish community. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 69: 8–22. Broader ecosystem management objectives for North Sea demersal fish currently focus on restoring community size structure. However, most policy drivers explicitly concentrate on restoring and conserving biodiversity, and it has not yet been established that simply restoring demersal fish size composition will be sufficient to reverse declines in biodiversity and ensure a generally healthy community. If different aspects of community composition, structure, and function vary independently, then to monitor all aspects of community general health will require application of a suite of metrics. This assumes low redundancy among the metrics used in any such suite and implies that addressing biodiversity issues specifically will require explicit management objectives for particular biodiversity metrics. This issue of metric redundancy is addressed, and 15 metrics covering five main attributes of community composition, structure, and function are applied to groundfish survey data. Factor analysis suggested a new interpretation of the metric information and indicated that a minimum suite of seven metrics was necessary to ensure that all changes in the general health of the North Sea demersal fish community were monitored properly. Covariance among size-based and species-diversity metrics was low, implying that restoration of community size structure would not necessarily reverse declines in species diversity.


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