Nemeth-Feliciano, Michael

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    Distribution of roving herbivorous fishes on coral reefs at multiple spatial scales
    (2013) Nemeth-Feliciano, Michael; Appeldoorn, Richard S.; College of Arts and Sciences - Sciences; Sabat, Alberto; Schizas, Nikolaos; Otero, Ernesto; Kubaryk, John M.; Department of Marine Sciences; Grove, Kurt
    Roving herbivorous fishes are an integral part of the biodiversity of coral reefs due to their high abundance and ecological role as grazers of benthic algae. The present study examined the ecology of surgeounfish (Acanthuridae) and parrotfish (Scaridae) in three parts: (1) their distribution on fore-reefs in relation to transect scale characteristics, (2) the spatial pattern in the interaction between fish and algae, and (3) the relative importance of composition and configuration seascape metrics to determine how these help explain spatial patterns at a large scale. At the transect scale across three depths and six reefs herbivorous fish distribution exhibited an inverse relationship with depth and a positive one with topographic relief. A complex interaction between the two was also present. Across the inshore-offshore gradient the fish distribution pattern suggests that habitat use on inner-shelf reefs is skewed toward shallower depths. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling revealed that the most distinct herbivorous fish and algal community occurred at three meters on reefs with higher topographic relief. Three species crustose coralline algae (CCA) were positively correlated with the biomass of herbivorous fish, and the highest abundance of both fish and CCA was found on the shallow fore-reef. The primary PCA axis of water quality parameters revealed a crossshelf water quality gradient driven by higher turbidity and lower light penetration inshore. The inner-shelf and mid-shelf reefs differed in the composition of CCA species, suggesting an interaction with herbivorous fish and the cross-shelf water quality gradient. A multi-scale seascape approach correlating composition and configuration metrics to 810 random fish surveys confirmed topographic relief as an important factor positively related to herbivorous fish biomass. A model of preferred feeding habitat for herbivores that combined depth and rugosity explained significant variability in fish distribution, with higher biomass at shorter distances from the modeled polygons. Overall the results suggest that the distribution of roving herbivorous fishes is influenced by habitat characteristics related to preferred feeding sites that can be described by a combination of in-situ and seascape scale metrics.