Long-term patterns of diversity and abundance in an eastern Pacific reef fish assemblage : reef fish response to coral recovery

Discerning climatic impacts from other sources of variability (natural and anthropogenic) on systems as complex as coral reef communities requires multi-decadal datasets on a wide range of species. This project examines an eastern Pacific fish assemblage associated with a 2.5 hectare coral reef located within the boundaries of Coiba National Park, Panama. From 1980 to 2010, consistent, quantitative coral reef and fish survey monitoring methods have been applied at Uva Island reef, which lies in area that has received virtually no fishing pressure or watershed development over the past 80 years. Concurrent coral and fish monitoring spanned the 1982-83 and 1997-98 El Nino (ENSO) disturbances, anomalous warming events that selectively killed reef-building corals. While no fish mortalities were observed at the time of the 1982-83 El Nino event, live coral cover was reduced to near 0% at Uva reef. From 1984 to 1990, live coral (Pocillopora spp.) cover was extremely low (< 5%), but demonstrated steady recovery to ~ 70% by 2006. By quantifying disturbance-related, long-term changes in coral reef resources and relating these to fish trophic group responses, several functional relationships became apparent. Over the entire study period, a total of 63 fish taxa were observed and reef fish density (all taxa combined) remained relatively stable. Fish diversity (taxonomic richness) increased significantly as coral cover rose from near 0% to 20-30% then demonstrated a decreasing trend to 70% cover. Reef herbivore densities showed a similar significant parabolic relationship with highest abundances at 20-30% coral cover. Benthic invertivores showed a significant asymptotic increase in density to about 10% live coral cover. Mixed diet feeders and facultative corallivores demonstrated significant linear trends with increasing coral cover, with the former trophic group decreasing and the latter increasing as recovery progressed. Piscivores and planktivores did not demonstrate significant variations in abundance with increasing coral cover. The varying responses of herbivore, invertivore, corallivore and mixed diet feeding guilds demonstrated strong associations with coral cover, likely reflecting changes in availability of trophic resources during reef recovery. Further monitoring combined with manipulative studies are clearly warranted to validate the correlative relationships revealed in the present study.

To evaluate climate effects on a coral reef fish community associated with a 2.5 hectare coral reef located within the boundaries of Coiba National Park, Panama.

CRCP Project#: 20513-2010 Evaluating climate effects on a coral reef fish community: analysis of a 30-year ecological monitoring effort. Unpublished report, submitted to the Coral Reef Conservation Program, May 11, 2011.

by P.W. Glynn, J.A. Afflerbach, V.W. Brandtneris, I.C. Enochs, and J.E. Serafy

http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/noaa_documents/CoRIS/CRCP_Project-20513-2010.pdf

The document in the NOAA IR is the same document

Title : Long-term patterns of diversity and abundance in an eastern Pacific reef fish assemblage : reef fish response to coral recovery : final report

Personal Author(s) : Glynn, Peter W., 1933-;Afflerbach, J. A.;Brandtneris, V. W.;Enochs, I. C.;Serafy, Joseph E.;

Corporate Authors(s) : United States, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,;Coral Reef Conservation Program (U.S.);

Published Date : 2011

URL : https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/754

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