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Diversity and abundance of conspicuous macrocrustaceans on coral reefs differing in level of degradation

Coral reefs sustain abundant and diverse macrocrustaceans that perform multiple ecological roles, but coral reefs are undergoing massive degradation that may be driving changes in the species composition and abundance of reef-associated macrocrustaceans. To provide insight into this issue, we used n...

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Autores principales: González-Gómez, Roberto, Briones-Fourzán, Patricia, Álvarez-Filip, Lorenzo, Lozano-Álvarez, Enrique
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6001826/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29910975
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4922
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author González-Gómez, Roberto
Briones-Fourzán, Patricia
Álvarez-Filip, Lorenzo
Lozano-Álvarez, Enrique
author_facet González-Gómez, Roberto
Briones-Fourzán, Patricia
Álvarez-Filip, Lorenzo
Lozano-Álvarez, Enrique
author_sort González-Gómez, Roberto
collection PubMed
description Coral reefs sustain abundant and diverse macrocrustaceans that perform multiple ecological roles, but coral reefs are undergoing massive degradation that may be driving changes in the species composition and abundance of reef-associated macrocrustaceans. To provide insight into this issue, we used non-destructive visual census techniques to compare the diversity and abundance of conspicuous macrocrustaceans (i.e., those >1 cm and visible without disturbance) between two shallow Caribbean coral reefs similar in size (∼1.5 km in length) and close to each other, but one (“Limones”) characterized by extensive stands of the branching coral Acropora palmata, and the other (“Bonanza”) dominated by macroalgae and relic coral skeletons and rubble (i.e., degraded). We also assessed the structural complexity of each reef and the percent cover of various benthic community components. Given the type of growth of A. palmata, we expected to find a greater structural complexity, a higher cover of live coral, and a lower cover of macroalgae on Limones, and hence a more diverse and abundant macrocrustacean community on this reef compared with Bonanza. Overall, we identified 63 macrocrustacean species (61 Decapoda and two Stomatopoda). Contrary to our expectations, structural complexity did not differ significantly between the back-reef zones of these reefs but varied more broadly on Limones, and the diversity and abundance of macrocrustaceans were higher on Bonanza than on Limones despite live coral cover being higher on Limones and macroalgal cover higher on Bonanza. However, the use of various types of microhabitats by macrocrustaceans differed substantially between reefs. On both reefs, the dominant species were the clinging crab Mithraculus coryphe and the hermit crab Calcinus tibicen, but the former was more abundant on Bonanza and the latter on Limones. M. coryphe occupied a diverse array of microhabitats but mostly coral rubble and relic skeletons, whereas C. tibicen was often, but not always, found associated with colonies of Millepora spp. A small commensal crab of A. palmata, Domecia acanthophora, was far more abundant on Limones, emerging as the main discriminant species between reefs. Our results suggest that local diversity and abundance of reef-associated macrocrustaceans are partially modulated by habitat degradation, the diversity of microhabitat types, and the establishment of different commensal associations rather than by structural complexity alone.
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spelling pubmed-60018262018-06-15 Diversity and abundance of conspicuous macrocrustaceans on coral reefs differing in level of degradation González-Gómez, Roberto Briones-Fourzán, Patricia Álvarez-Filip, Lorenzo Lozano-Álvarez, Enrique PeerJ Biodiversity Coral reefs sustain abundant and diverse macrocrustaceans that perform multiple ecological roles, but coral reefs are undergoing massive degradation that may be driving changes in the species composition and abundance of reef-associated macrocrustaceans. To provide insight into this issue, we used non-destructive visual census techniques to compare the diversity and abundance of conspicuous macrocrustaceans (i.e., those >1 cm and visible without disturbance) between two shallow Caribbean coral reefs similar in size (∼1.5 km in length) and close to each other, but one (“Limones”) characterized by extensive stands of the branching coral Acropora palmata, and the other (“Bonanza”) dominated by macroalgae and relic coral skeletons and rubble (i.e., degraded). We also assessed the structural complexity of each reef and the percent cover of various benthic community components. Given the type of growth of A. palmata, we expected to find a greater structural complexity, a higher cover of live coral, and a lower cover of macroalgae on Limones, and hence a more diverse and abundant macrocrustacean community on this reef compared with Bonanza. Overall, we identified 63 macrocrustacean species (61 Decapoda and two Stomatopoda). Contrary to our expectations, structural complexity did not differ significantly between the back-reef zones of these reefs but varied more broadly on Limones, and the diversity and abundance of macrocrustaceans were higher on Bonanza than on Limones despite live coral cover being higher on Limones and macroalgal cover higher on Bonanza. However, the use of various types of microhabitats by macrocrustaceans differed substantially between reefs. On both reefs, the dominant species were the clinging crab Mithraculus coryphe and the hermit crab Calcinus tibicen, but the former was more abundant on Bonanza and the latter on Limones. M. coryphe occupied a diverse array of microhabitats but mostly coral rubble and relic skeletons, whereas C. tibicen was often, but not always, found associated with colonies of Millepora spp. A small commensal crab of A. palmata, Domecia acanthophora, was far more abundant on Limones, emerging as the main discriminant species between reefs. Our results suggest that local diversity and abundance of reef-associated macrocrustaceans are partially modulated by habitat degradation, the diversity of microhabitat types, and the establishment of different commensal associations rather than by structural complexity alone. PeerJ Inc. 2018-06-11 /pmc/articles/PMC6001826/ /pubmed/29910975 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4922 Text en ©2018 González-Gómez 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 Biodiversity
González-Gómez, Roberto
Briones-Fourzán, Patricia
Álvarez-Filip, Lorenzo
Lozano-Álvarez, Enrique
Diversity and abundance of conspicuous macrocrustaceans on coral reefs differing in level of degradation
title Diversity and abundance of conspicuous macrocrustaceans on coral reefs differing in level of degradation
title_full Diversity and abundance of conspicuous macrocrustaceans on coral reefs differing in level of degradation
title_fullStr Diversity and abundance of conspicuous macrocrustaceans on coral reefs differing in level of degradation
title_full_unstemmed Diversity and abundance of conspicuous macrocrustaceans on coral reefs differing in level of degradation
title_short Diversity and abundance of conspicuous macrocrustaceans on coral reefs differing in level of degradation
title_sort diversity and abundance of conspicuous macrocrustaceans on coral reefs differing in level of degradation
topic Biodiversity
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6001826/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29910975
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4922
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