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Microhabitat use, population densities, and size distributions of sulfur cave-dwelling Poecilia mexicana
The Cueva del Azufre in Tabasco, Mexico, is a nutrient-rich cave and its inhabitants need to cope with high levels of dissolved hydrogen sulfide and extreme hypoxia. One of the successful colonizers of this cave is the poeciliid fish Poecilia mexicana, which has received considerable attention as a...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
PeerJ Inc.
2014
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4106196/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25083351 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.490 |
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author | Jourdan, Jonas Bierbach, David Riesch, Rüdiger Schießl, Angela Wigh, Adriana Arias-Rodriguez, Lenin Indy, Jeane Rimber Klaus, Sebastian Zimmer, Claudia Plath, Martin |
author_facet | Jourdan, Jonas Bierbach, David Riesch, Rüdiger Schießl, Angela Wigh, Adriana Arias-Rodriguez, Lenin Indy, Jeane Rimber Klaus, Sebastian Zimmer, Claudia Plath, Martin |
author_sort | Jourdan, Jonas |
collection | PubMed |
description | The Cueva del Azufre in Tabasco, Mexico, is a nutrient-rich cave and its inhabitants need to cope with high levels of dissolved hydrogen sulfide and extreme hypoxia. One of the successful colonizers of this cave is the poeciliid fish Poecilia mexicana, which has received considerable attention as a model organism to examine evolutionary adaptations to extreme environmental conditions. Nonetheless, basic ecological data on the endemic cave molly population are still missing; here we aim to provide data on population densities, size class compositions and use of different microhabitats. We found high overall densities in the cave and highest densities at the middle part of the cave with more than 200 individuals per square meter. These sites have lower H(2)S concentrations compared to the inner parts where most large sulfide sources are located, but they are annually exposed to a religious harvesting ceremony of local Zoque people called La Pesca. We found a marked shift in size/age compositions towards an overabundance of smaller, juvenile fish at those sites. We discuss these findings in relation to several environmental gradients within the cave (i.e., differences in toxicity and lighting conditions), but we also tentatively argue that the annual fish harvest during a religious ceremony (La Pesca) locally diminishes competition (and possibly, cannibalism by large adults), which is followed by a phase of overcompensation of fish densities. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4106196 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-41061962014-07-31 Microhabitat use, population densities, and size distributions of sulfur cave-dwelling Poecilia mexicana Jourdan, Jonas Bierbach, David Riesch, Rüdiger Schießl, Angela Wigh, Adriana Arias-Rodriguez, Lenin Indy, Jeane Rimber Klaus, Sebastian Zimmer, Claudia Plath, Martin PeerJ Aquaculture, Fisheries and Fish Science The Cueva del Azufre in Tabasco, Mexico, is a nutrient-rich cave and its inhabitants need to cope with high levels of dissolved hydrogen sulfide and extreme hypoxia. One of the successful colonizers of this cave is the poeciliid fish Poecilia mexicana, which has received considerable attention as a model organism to examine evolutionary adaptations to extreme environmental conditions. Nonetheless, basic ecological data on the endemic cave molly population are still missing; here we aim to provide data on population densities, size class compositions and use of different microhabitats. We found high overall densities in the cave and highest densities at the middle part of the cave with more than 200 individuals per square meter. These sites have lower H(2)S concentrations compared to the inner parts where most large sulfide sources are located, but they are annually exposed to a religious harvesting ceremony of local Zoque people called La Pesca. We found a marked shift in size/age compositions towards an overabundance of smaller, juvenile fish at those sites. We discuss these findings in relation to several environmental gradients within the cave (i.e., differences in toxicity and lighting conditions), but we also tentatively argue that the annual fish harvest during a religious ceremony (La Pesca) locally diminishes competition (and possibly, cannibalism by large adults), which is followed by a phase of overcompensation of fish densities. PeerJ Inc. 2014-07-15 /pmc/articles/PMC4106196/ /pubmed/25083351 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.490 Text en © 2014 Jourdan et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://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 Jourdan, Jonas Bierbach, David Riesch, Rüdiger Schießl, Angela Wigh, Adriana Arias-Rodriguez, Lenin Indy, Jeane Rimber Klaus, Sebastian Zimmer, Claudia Plath, Martin Microhabitat use, population densities, and size distributions of sulfur cave-dwelling Poecilia mexicana |
title | Microhabitat use, population densities, and size distributions of sulfur cave-dwelling Poecilia mexicana |
title_full | Microhabitat use, population densities, and size distributions of sulfur cave-dwelling Poecilia mexicana |
title_fullStr | Microhabitat use, population densities, and size distributions of sulfur cave-dwelling Poecilia mexicana |
title_full_unstemmed | Microhabitat use, population densities, and size distributions of sulfur cave-dwelling Poecilia mexicana |
title_short | Microhabitat use, population densities, and size distributions of sulfur cave-dwelling Poecilia mexicana |
title_sort | microhabitat use, population densities, and size distributions of sulfur cave-dwelling poecilia mexicana |
topic | Aquaculture, Fisheries and Fish Science |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4106196/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25083351 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.490 |
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