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Microhabitat partitioning between sympatric intertidal fish species highlights the importance of sediment composition in gravel beach conservation
Gravel beaches in the Mediterranean ecoregion represent an economically important and unique habitat type. Yet, burgeoning tourism, intensive coastal development and artificial nourishment of beaches may jeopardize their ecological communities. To date, species that reside on gravel beaches and the...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10333672/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37441098 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10302 |
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author | Wagner, Maximilian Benac, Čedomir Pamić, Maja Bračun, Sandra Ladner, Martin Plakolm, Pia Clarissa Koblmüller, Stephan Svardal, Hannes Brandl, Simon J. |
author_facet | Wagner, Maximilian Benac, Čedomir Pamić, Maja Bračun, Sandra Ladner, Martin Plakolm, Pia Clarissa Koblmüller, Stephan Svardal, Hannes Brandl, Simon J. |
author_sort | Wagner, Maximilian |
collection | PubMed |
description | Gravel beaches in the Mediterranean ecoregion represent an economically important and unique habitat type. Yet, burgeoning tourism, intensive coastal development and artificial nourishment of beaches may jeopardize their ecological communities. To date, species that reside on gravel beaches and the consequences of beach alterations are poorly understood, which hampers the development of a sustainable coastal tourism industry along the region's shorelines. Using a simple collection method based on dredging buckets through the intertidal section of beaches, we quantified the microhabitat association of two sympatric clingfish species in the genus Gouania at seven natural and an artificial gravel beach based on sediment characteristics. We hypothesized that slender (G. pigra) and stout (G. adriatica) morphotypes would partition interstitial niche space based on sediment size, which may affect the vulnerability of the species to changes in gravel beach composition due to coastal development. We detected substantial differences in gravel composition within and among the sampled beaches which suggests scope for microhabitat partitioning in Gouania. Indeed, we found significant relationships between species identity and the presence/absence and abundance of individuals in hauls based on their positioning on PC1. Our results suggest that modifications of gravel beaches through coastal development, including beach nourishment, intensifying coastal erosion, or artificial beach creation, may have detrimental consequences for the two species if sediment types or sizes are altered. We posit that, given the simplicity and efficacy of our sampling method and the sensitivity of Gouania species to prevailing gravel composition, the genus could serve as an important indicator for gravel beach management in the Mediterranean ecoregion. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10333672 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-103336722023-07-12 Microhabitat partitioning between sympatric intertidal fish species highlights the importance of sediment composition in gravel beach conservation Wagner, Maximilian Benac, Čedomir Pamić, Maja Bračun, Sandra Ladner, Martin Plakolm, Pia Clarissa Koblmüller, Stephan Svardal, Hannes Brandl, Simon J. Ecol Evol Research Articles Gravel beaches in the Mediterranean ecoregion represent an economically important and unique habitat type. Yet, burgeoning tourism, intensive coastal development and artificial nourishment of beaches may jeopardize their ecological communities. To date, species that reside on gravel beaches and the consequences of beach alterations are poorly understood, which hampers the development of a sustainable coastal tourism industry along the region's shorelines. Using a simple collection method based on dredging buckets through the intertidal section of beaches, we quantified the microhabitat association of two sympatric clingfish species in the genus Gouania at seven natural and an artificial gravel beach based on sediment characteristics. We hypothesized that slender (G. pigra) and stout (G. adriatica) morphotypes would partition interstitial niche space based on sediment size, which may affect the vulnerability of the species to changes in gravel beach composition due to coastal development. We detected substantial differences in gravel composition within and among the sampled beaches which suggests scope for microhabitat partitioning in Gouania. Indeed, we found significant relationships between species identity and the presence/absence and abundance of individuals in hauls based on their positioning on PC1. Our results suggest that modifications of gravel beaches through coastal development, including beach nourishment, intensifying coastal erosion, or artificial beach creation, may have detrimental consequences for the two species if sediment types or sizes are altered. We posit that, given the simplicity and efficacy of our sampling method and the sensitivity of Gouania species to prevailing gravel composition, the genus could serve as an important indicator for gravel beach management in the Mediterranean ecoregion. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2023-07-10 /pmc/articles/PMC10333672/ /pubmed/37441098 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10302 Text en © 2023 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Articles Wagner, Maximilian Benac, Čedomir Pamić, Maja Bračun, Sandra Ladner, Martin Plakolm, Pia Clarissa Koblmüller, Stephan Svardal, Hannes Brandl, Simon J. Microhabitat partitioning between sympatric intertidal fish species highlights the importance of sediment composition in gravel beach conservation |
title | Microhabitat partitioning between sympatric intertidal fish species highlights the importance of sediment composition in gravel beach conservation |
title_full | Microhabitat partitioning between sympatric intertidal fish species highlights the importance of sediment composition in gravel beach conservation |
title_fullStr | Microhabitat partitioning between sympatric intertidal fish species highlights the importance of sediment composition in gravel beach conservation |
title_full_unstemmed | Microhabitat partitioning between sympatric intertidal fish species highlights the importance of sediment composition in gravel beach conservation |
title_short | Microhabitat partitioning between sympatric intertidal fish species highlights the importance of sediment composition in gravel beach conservation |
title_sort | microhabitat partitioning between sympatric intertidal fish species highlights the importance of sediment composition in gravel beach conservation |
topic | Research Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10333672/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37441098 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10302 |
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