Abstract
Human-driven threats to coastal marine communities could potentially affect chemically mediated behaviours that have evolved to facilitate crucial ecological processes. Chemical cues and their importance remain inadequately understood in marine systems, but cues from coastal vegetation can provide sensory information guiding aquatic animals to key resources or habitats. In the tropics, mangroves are a ubiquitous component of healthy coastal ecosystems, associated with a range of habitats from river mouths to coral reefs. Because mangrove leaf litter is a predictable cue to coastal habitats, chemical information from mangrove leaves could provide a source of settlement cues for coastal fishes, drawing larvae towards shallow benthic habitats or inducing settlement. In choice assays, juvenile fishes from the Caribbean (Belize) and Indo-Pacific (Fiji) were attracted to cues from mangroves leaves and were more attracted to cues from mangroves distant from human settlement. In the field, experimental reefs supplemented with mangrove leaves grown away from humans attracted more fish recruits from a greater diversity of species than reefs supplemented with leaves grown near humans. Together, this suggests that human use of coastal areas alters natural chemical cues, negatively affecting the behavioural responses of larval fishes and potentially suppressing recruitment. Overall, our findings highlight the critical links that exist between marine and terrestrial habitats, and the importance of considering these in the broader conservation and management of coastal ecosystems.
Highlights
Human-driven threats to coastal marine communities could potentially affect chemically mediated behaviours that have evolved to facilitate crucial ecological processes
Do chemical cues from mangroves attract reef fishes? To assess whether different mangrove odours influenced the behaviour of juvenile reef fishes, and whether response patterns were generalizable between species or geographic locations, we conducted a series of paired-choice experiments in a two-channel choice flume
These experiments were conducted in both Fiji (South Pacific Ocean) and Belize (Western Atlantic Ocean), with two common reef-associated fish species used per location; Chromis viridis and Dascyllus reticulatus in Fiji and Thalassoma bifasciatum and Stegastes partitus in Belize
Summary
Human-driven threats to coastal marine communities could potentially affect chemically mediated behaviours that have evolved to facilitate crucial ecological processes. Chemical cues and their importance remain inadequately understood in marine systems, but cues from coastal vegetation can provide sensory information guiding aquatic animals to key resources or habitats. Along tropical and subtropical coastlines, mangrove forests comprise one of the most ubiquitous plant communities These salt-tolerant plants represent globally important ecosystems, providing habitat for communities of terrestrial, estuarine, and marine organisms[27], including the juvenile stages of aquatic species that migrate elsewhere as adults, such as to nearby coral r eefs[28]. Standing plants could produce cues to mark coastal systems, degraded leaves that sink could provide similar cues, and leaves drifting from shore could provide a trail of cues leading back to the shallow, structurally complex benthic environments essential for post-settlement survival of coastal fishes
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
