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Seasonal changes characterise the shark and ray assemblages in a subtropical shallow sandy habitat in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa

Understanding how environmental drivers influence shark and ray spatial and temporal patterns can provide crucial knowledge for their evidence-based protection and long-term monitoring. However, information on which drivers of variation are most important for elasmobranch communities on soft sedimen...

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Autores principales: Ferreira, Jessica A., Alberts, Julie A., Smith, Grant, Bernard, Anthony T.F., Pereira, Mário J., De Vos, Lauren
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10351505/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37465155
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15636
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author Ferreira, Jessica A.
Alberts, Julie A.
Smith, Grant
Bernard, Anthony T.F.
Pereira, Mário J.
De Vos, Lauren
author_facet Ferreira, Jessica A.
Alberts, Julie A.
Smith, Grant
Bernard, Anthony T.F.
Pereira, Mário J.
De Vos, Lauren
author_sort Ferreira, Jessica A.
collection PubMed
description Understanding how environmental drivers influence shark and ray spatial and temporal patterns can provide crucial knowledge for their evidence-based protection and long-term monitoring. However, information on which drivers of variation are most important for elasmobranch communities on soft sediments is limited. Using baited remote underwater stereo-video systems (stereo-BRUVs), we investigated how seasonal and environmental variables affected the elasmobranchs of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park marine protected area (MPA) in South Africa (SA). In total, 11 species were identified from 48 sites between 12 m and 33 m water depth in a sandy habitat. While species richness was similar across seasons, the total abundance of elasmobranchs recorded was higher in winter than summer. The species assemblage composition varied significantly between seasons, with the Human’s whaler shark Carcharhinus humani prevalent in summer and the Critically Endangered whitespotted wedgefish Rhynchobatus djiddensis more abundant during winter. Most species were sighted throughout the entire depth range, but rays were more common in shallower waters (< 25 m depth), while C. humani and R. djiddensis were more common in the deeper depth zone of this study. This research provides baseline information about this previously unexplored sandy habitat for elasmobranchs in a site of regional and global significance. Records of species of conservation concern in the sampling area highlight the importance of protecting sand environments within an MPA.
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spelling pubmed-103515052023-07-18 Seasonal changes characterise the shark and ray assemblages in a subtropical shallow sandy habitat in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa Ferreira, Jessica A. Alberts, Julie A. Smith, Grant Bernard, Anthony T.F. Pereira, Mário J. De Vos, Lauren PeerJ Aquaculture, Fisheries and Fish Science Understanding how environmental drivers influence shark and ray spatial and temporal patterns can provide crucial knowledge for their evidence-based protection and long-term monitoring. However, information on which drivers of variation are most important for elasmobranch communities on soft sediments is limited. Using baited remote underwater stereo-video systems (stereo-BRUVs), we investigated how seasonal and environmental variables affected the elasmobranchs of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park marine protected area (MPA) in South Africa (SA). In total, 11 species were identified from 48 sites between 12 m and 33 m water depth in a sandy habitat. While species richness was similar across seasons, the total abundance of elasmobranchs recorded was higher in winter than summer. The species assemblage composition varied significantly between seasons, with the Human’s whaler shark Carcharhinus humani prevalent in summer and the Critically Endangered whitespotted wedgefish Rhynchobatus djiddensis more abundant during winter. Most species were sighted throughout the entire depth range, but rays were more common in shallower waters (< 25 m depth), while C. humani and R. djiddensis were more common in the deeper depth zone of this study. This research provides baseline information about this previously unexplored sandy habitat for elasmobranchs in a site of regional and global significance. Records of species of conservation concern in the sampling area highlight the importance of protecting sand environments within an MPA. PeerJ Inc. 2023-07-14 /pmc/articles/PMC10351505/ /pubmed/37465155 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15636 Text en ©2023 Ferreira et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Aquaculture, Fisheries and Fish Science
Ferreira, Jessica A.
Alberts, Julie A.
Smith, Grant
Bernard, Anthony T.F.
Pereira, Mário J.
De Vos, Lauren
Seasonal changes characterise the shark and ray assemblages in a subtropical shallow sandy habitat in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa
title Seasonal changes characterise the shark and ray assemblages in a subtropical shallow sandy habitat in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa
title_full Seasonal changes characterise the shark and ray assemblages in a subtropical shallow sandy habitat in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa
title_fullStr Seasonal changes characterise the shark and ray assemblages in a subtropical shallow sandy habitat in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa
title_full_unstemmed Seasonal changes characterise the shark and ray assemblages in a subtropical shallow sandy habitat in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa
title_short Seasonal changes characterise the shark and ray assemblages in a subtropical shallow sandy habitat in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa
title_sort seasonal changes characterise the shark and ray assemblages in a subtropical shallow sandy habitat in the isimangaliso wetland park, south africa
topic Aquaculture, Fisheries and Fish Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10351505/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37465155
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15636
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