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Sharks associated with a large sand shoal complex: Community insights from longline and acoustic telemetry surveys

Offshore sand shoals are a coveted sand source for coastal restoration projects and as sites for wind energy development. Shoals often support unique fish assemblages but their habitat value to sharks is largely unknown due to the high mobility of most species in the open ocean. This study pairs mul...

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Autores principales: Reyier, Eric, Ahr, Bonnie, Iafrate, Joseph, Scheidt, Douglas, Lowers, Russell, Watwood, Stephanie, Back, Brenton
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10275426/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37327239
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286664
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author Reyier, Eric
Ahr, Bonnie
Iafrate, Joseph
Scheidt, Douglas
Lowers, Russell
Watwood, Stephanie
Back, Brenton
author_facet Reyier, Eric
Ahr, Bonnie
Iafrate, Joseph
Scheidt, Douglas
Lowers, Russell
Watwood, Stephanie
Back, Brenton
author_sort Reyier, Eric
collection PubMed
description Offshore sand shoals are a coveted sand source for coastal restoration projects and as sites for wind energy development. Shoals often support unique fish assemblages but their habitat value to sharks is largely unknown due to the high mobility of most species in the open ocean. This study pairs multi-year longline and acoustic telemetry surveys to reveal depth-related and seasonal patterns in a shark community associated with the largest sand shoal complex in east Florida, USA. Monthly longline sampling from 2012–2017 yielded 2,595 sharks from 16 species with Atlantic sharpnose (Rhizoprionodon terraenovae), blacknose (Carcharhinus acronotus), and blacktip (C. limbatus) sharks being the most abundant species. A contemporaneous acoustic telemetry array detected 567 sharks from 16 species (14 in common with longlines) tagged locally and by researchers elsewhere along the US East Coast and Bahamas. PERMANOVA modeling of both datasets indicate that the shark species assemblage differed more across seasons than water depth although both factors were important. Moreover, the shark assemblage detected at an active sand dredge site was similar to that at nearby undisturbed sites. Water temperature, water clarity, and distance from shore were habitat factors that most strongly correlated to community composition. Both sampling approaches documented similar single-species and community trends but longlines underestimated the shark nursery value of the region while telemetry-based community assessments are inherently biased by the number of species under active study. Overall, this study confirms that sharks can be an important component of sand shoal fish communities but suggests that deeper water immediately adjacent to shoals (as opposed to shallow shoal ridges) is more valuable to some species. Potential impacts to these nearby habitats should be considered when planning for sand extraction and offshore wind infrastructure.
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spelling pubmed-102754262023-06-17 Sharks associated with a large sand shoal complex: Community insights from longline and acoustic telemetry surveys Reyier, Eric Ahr, Bonnie Iafrate, Joseph Scheidt, Douglas Lowers, Russell Watwood, Stephanie Back, Brenton PLoS One Research Article Offshore sand shoals are a coveted sand source for coastal restoration projects and as sites for wind energy development. Shoals often support unique fish assemblages but their habitat value to sharks is largely unknown due to the high mobility of most species in the open ocean. This study pairs multi-year longline and acoustic telemetry surveys to reveal depth-related and seasonal patterns in a shark community associated with the largest sand shoal complex in east Florida, USA. Monthly longline sampling from 2012–2017 yielded 2,595 sharks from 16 species with Atlantic sharpnose (Rhizoprionodon terraenovae), blacknose (Carcharhinus acronotus), and blacktip (C. limbatus) sharks being the most abundant species. A contemporaneous acoustic telemetry array detected 567 sharks from 16 species (14 in common with longlines) tagged locally and by researchers elsewhere along the US East Coast and Bahamas. PERMANOVA modeling of both datasets indicate that the shark species assemblage differed more across seasons than water depth although both factors were important. Moreover, the shark assemblage detected at an active sand dredge site was similar to that at nearby undisturbed sites. Water temperature, water clarity, and distance from shore were habitat factors that most strongly correlated to community composition. Both sampling approaches documented similar single-species and community trends but longlines underestimated the shark nursery value of the region while telemetry-based community assessments are inherently biased by the number of species under active study. Overall, this study confirms that sharks can be an important component of sand shoal fish communities but suggests that deeper water immediately adjacent to shoals (as opposed to shallow shoal ridges) is more valuable to some species. Potential impacts to these nearby habitats should be considered when planning for sand extraction and offshore wind infrastructure. Public Library of Science 2023-06-16 /pmc/articles/PMC10275426/ /pubmed/37327239 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286664 Text en https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) public domain dedication.
spellingShingle Research Article
Reyier, Eric
Ahr, Bonnie
Iafrate, Joseph
Scheidt, Douglas
Lowers, Russell
Watwood, Stephanie
Back, Brenton
Sharks associated with a large sand shoal complex: Community insights from longline and acoustic telemetry surveys
title Sharks associated with a large sand shoal complex: Community insights from longline and acoustic telemetry surveys
title_full Sharks associated with a large sand shoal complex: Community insights from longline and acoustic telemetry surveys
title_fullStr Sharks associated with a large sand shoal complex: Community insights from longline and acoustic telemetry surveys
title_full_unstemmed Sharks associated with a large sand shoal complex: Community insights from longline and acoustic telemetry surveys
title_short Sharks associated with a large sand shoal complex: Community insights from longline and acoustic telemetry surveys
title_sort sharks associated with a large sand shoal complex: community insights from longline and acoustic telemetry surveys
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10275426/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37327239
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286664
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