Descending to the twilight-zone: changes in coral reef fish assemblages along a depth gradient down to 65 m

Abstract

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 371:253-262 (2008) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps07591 Descending to the twilight-zone: changes in coral reef fish assemblages along a depth gradient down to 65 m Eran Brokovich1,2,*, Shai Einbinder1,3, Nadav Shashar4,5, Moshe Kiflawi1,4, Salit Kark2 1The Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences at Eilat (IUI), Marine Twilight-Zone Research & Exploration (MTRX), PO Box 469, Eilat 88103, Israel 2The Biodiversity Research Group, Department of Evolution, Systematics and Ecology, The Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91904, Israel 3Department of Evolution, Systematics and Ecology, The Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91904, Israel 4Faculty of Life Sciences, Ben Gurion University, PO Box 653, Beer-Sheva, 84105, Israel 5Eilat Campus, Ben Gurion University, Hatmarim St., Eilat, 88000, Israel *Email: eran.brokovich@mail.huji.ac.il ABSTRACT: In contrast to the abundance of literature on the relationship between fish assemblages and habitat structure in the upper 30 m of coral reefs, the deeper (>40 m) parts of coral reefs are rarely studied. We examined changes in reef fish diversity and habitat structure along an increasing depth gradient, including the unknown deep reef. We ran visual and video transects along a substantial depth gradient (0 to 65 m) in the northern Red Sea and extended the known depth distribution for 48 reef species. We found a change in assemblage composition highly correlated to both the depth gradient and a reduction in the abundance of branching corals with depth. The number of reef fish species declined with depth and we also measured a high species turnover as measured by beta diversity (βt, βw) in the deep reef. This pattern is mainly due to the replacement of the abundant damselfishes in the shallow reef, which prey on zooplankton, by zooplanktivorous sea basses and wrasses in the deep reef. The steep reduction in branching corals, which most damselfishes use for cover, may be the main factor contributing to this change. We found a peak in species richness (alpha diversity) at 30 m, a peak in βw at 50 to 65 m, and peaks in βt at 30 to 50 m and 50 to 65 m. The 30 m depth stratum shows species of both shallow and deep assemblages generating a transition zone with characters of both deep and shallow habitats. The fish assemblage continues to change with depth, and future research will determine if there exists a depth threshold at which the assemblage will stabilize. KEY WORDS: Depth gradient · Deep reef fish · Gulf of Aqaba · Red Sea · Twilight zone Full text in pdf format Supplementary appendix PreviousNextCite this article as: Brokovich E, Einbinder S, Shashar N, Kiflawi M, Kark S (2008) Descending to the twilight-zone: changes in coral reef fish assemblages along a depth gradient down to 65 m. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 371:253-262. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps07591 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 371. Online publication date: November 19, 2008 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2008 Inter-Research.