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Spatial variation of parrotfish assemblages at oceanic islands in the western Caribbean: evidence of indirect effects of fishing?

Fish populations that bear considerable pressure levels tend to show a decline in the average size of individuals, with the small and unexploited species replacing the large and exploited ones. It is important to carry on with their characterization in areas where they are becoming an important sour...

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Autores principales: Rivas, Natalia, Acero P., Arturo, Tavera, José
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9744149/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36518271
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.14178
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author Rivas, Natalia
Acero P., Arturo
Tavera, José
author_facet Rivas, Natalia
Acero P., Arturo
Tavera, José
author_sort Rivas, Natalia
collection PubMed
description Fish populations that bear considerable pressure levels tend to show a decline in the average size of individuals, with the small and unexploited species replacing the large and exploited ones. It is important to carry on with their characterization in areas where they are becoming an important source of food for local human populations. An example of such species are parrotfishes, whose responses to external factors such as fishing need to be understood and predicted. In this study, we used a diver-operated stereo-video to examine individual body size, sex ratios and proportion of species of the parrotfish assemblage and analyze them on a qualitative fishing pressure gradient at four oceanic islands in the Colombian Caribbean. We reported over 10,000 occurrences of eleven parrotfish species, of which we estimated the total length of over 90%, grouping them into three size categories (large, medium, and small). Our data showed a spatial variation of parrotfishes’ abundances, biomass, and individual body size. Observed differences are size-category-dependent throughout the qualitative fishing pressure. In general, the medium-bodied species had smaller sizes, lower abundances, and thus lower contribution to the total parrotfish biomass at the most heavily fished island. Unexpectedly, we found evidence of possible indirect effects over the small-bodied species Scarus iseri and Scarus taeniopterus with significantly greater abundances, and larger sizes of males of S. iseri, at the higher fishing pressure sites. Overall, our data highlights the extent of the spatial variation in the parrotfish communities at relatively short distances, and present new insights into the responses of parrotfish species on a spectrum of body sizes along a gradient of human pressure.
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spelling pubmed-97441492022-12-13 Spatial variation of parrotfish assemblages at oceanic islands in the western Caribbean: evidence of indirect effects of fishing? Rivas, Natalia Acero P., Arturo Tavera, José PeerJ Aquaculture, Fisheries and Fish Science Fish populations that bear considerable pressure levels tend to show a decline in the average size of individuals, with the small and unexploited species replacing the large and exploited ones. It is important to carry on with their characterization in areas where they are becoming an important source of food for local human populations. An example of such species are parrotfishes, whose responses to external factors such as fishing need to be understood and predicted. In this study, we used a diver-operated stereo-video to examine individual body size, sex ratios and proportion of species of the parrotfish assemblage and analyze them on a qualitative fishing pressure gradient at four oceanic islands in the Colombian Caribbean. We reported over 10,000 occurrences of eleven parrotfish species, of which we estimated the total length of over 90%, grouping them into three size categories (large, medium, and small). Our data showed a spatial variation of parrotfishes’ abundances, biomass, and individual body size. Observed differences are size-category-dependent throughout the qualitative fishing pressure. In general, the medium-bodied species had smaller sizes, lower abundances, and thus lower contribution to the total parrotfish biomass at the most heavily fished island. Unexpectedly, we found evidence of possible indirect effects over the small-bodied species Scarus iseri and Scarus taeniopterus with significantly greater abundances, and larger sizes of males of S. iseri, at the higher fishing pressure sites. Overall, our data highlights the extent of the spatial variation in the parrotfish communities at relatively short distances, and present new insights into the responses of parrotfish species on a spectrum of body sizes along a gradient of human pressure. PeerJ Inc. 2022-11-28 /pmc/articles/PMC9744149/ /pubmed/36518271 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.14178 Text en © 2022 Rivas 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
Rivas, Natalia
Acero P., Arturo
Tavera, José
Spatial variation of parrotfish assemblages at oceanic islands in the western Caribbean: evidence of indirect effects of fishing?
title Spatial variation of parrotfish assemblages at oceanic islands in the western Caribbean: evidence of indirect effects of fishing?
title_full Spatial variation of parrotfish assemblages at oceanic islands in the western Caribbean: evidence of indirect effects of fishing?
title_fullStr Spatial variation of parrotfish assemblages at oceanic islands in the western Caribbean: evidence of indirect effects of fishing?
title_full_unstemmed Spatial variation of parrotfish assemblages at oceanic islands in the western Caribbean: evidence of indirect effects of fishing?
title_short Spatial variation of parrotfish assemblages at oceanic islands in the western Caribbean: evidence of indirect effects of fishing?
title_sort spatial variation of parrotfish assemblages at oceanic islands in the western caribbean: evidence of indirect effects of fishing?
topic Aquaculture, Fisheries and Fish Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9744149/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36518271
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.14178
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