Marine artificial substrates decrease the number and abundance of low occupancy species

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Marine artificial substrates decrease the number and abundance of low occupancy species Mikel A. Becerro1*, Jose A. Sanabria1, Natalí D. Lazzari1 and Rodrigo Riera2 1 Spanish Scientific Research Council, Natural Products and Agrobiology Institute, Spain 2 Centro de Investigaciones Medioambientales del Atlántico, Spain Human population growth and dynamics are causing man-made coastal structures to steadily increase, often replacing natural substrates with artificial alternatives. Yet, it is unclear whether artificial substrates can function as the natural substrates they replace or they cause significant shifts in marine biodiversity. We hypothesized that biodiversity in artificial substrates deviates from that of natural reefs because the new conditions may favor and disfavor a different subset of species than those represented in the natural substrate, resulting in significant community differences between natural and artificial substrates. Additionally, common, widely distributed species with high mobility may colonize artificial reefs faster than rare species with low mobility, resulting in shifts in species occurrence and abundance between natural and artificial reefs. However, these differences may decrease over the long term making artificial substrates suitable environments to maintain or surpass preexisting levels of marine biodiversity. Using standardized, quantitative visual censuses of fish, invertebrate, and sessile organisms in 10 artificial and nearby natural substrates, we tested for differences in species composition and abundance between natural and artificial reefs. We classified species as high, medium, or low occupancy species based on their presence in the 10 locations investigated. Artificial substrates showed lower number and abundance of low occupancy species, which represented over 50% of the species quantified in our study. Invertebrate, cryptic fish, and sessile species are significantly reduced in artificial substrates, a trend that showed no variation over time. Our results suggest than artificial substrates are causing a long lasting decrease in marine biodiversity that significantly undermines our coastal biodiversity. Keywords: Coastal community, Biodiversity, Artificial substrates, Sessile organisms, Canary Islands Conference: XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies, Porto, Portugal, 5 Sep - 9 Sep, 2016. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: 1. ECOLOGY, BIODIVERSITY AND VULNERABLE ECOSYSTEMS Citation: Becerro MA, Sanabria JA, Lazzari ND and Riera R (2016). Marine artificial substrates decrease the number and abundance of low occupancy species. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies. doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2016.05.00139 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 19 May 2016; Published Online: 03 Sep 2016. * Correspondence: Dr. Mikel A Becerro, Spanish Scientific Research Council, Natural Products and Agrobiology Institute, San Cristobal de la La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 38206, Spain, mikel.becerro@csic.es Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Mikel A Becerro Jose A Sanabria Natalí D Lazzari Rodrigo Riera Google Mikel A Becerro Jose A Sanabria Natalí D Lazzari Rodrigo Riera Google Scholar Mikel A Becerro Jose A Sanabria Natalí D Lazzari Rodrigo Riera PubMed Mikel A Becerro Jose A Sanabria Natalí D Lazzari Rodrigo Riera Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.