Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles
ORCID
0000-0001-9260-2153
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Journal of Fish Biology
ISSN
0022-1112
Publication Date
10-21-2010
Keywords
Arabian Gulf, Climate change, Coral-reef fishes, Gulf of Oman, Persian Gulf, Temperature
Abstract
To examine the role of climatic extremes in structuring reef fish communities in the Arabian region, reef fish communities were visually surveyed at four sites within the southern Persian Gulf (also known as the Arabian Gulf and The Gulf), where sea-surface temperatures are extreme (range: 12–35° C annually), and these were compared with communities at four latitudinally similar sites in the biogeographically connected Gulf of Oman, where conditions are more moderate (range: 22–31° C annually). Although sites were relatively similar in the cover and composition of coral communities, substantial differences in the structure and composition of associated fish assemblages were apparent. Fish assemblages in the southern Persian Gulf held significantly lower estimates of abundance, richness and biomass, with significantly higher abundances of smaller sized individuals than Gulf of Oman assemblages. Functionally, southern Persian Gulf sites held significantly lower abundances of nearly all the common fish trophic guilds found on Gulf of Oman sites, although higher abundances of herbivorous grazers were apparent. These results suggest the potential for substantial changes in the structure of reef-associated fish communities, independent of changes in habitat within an environment of increasing fluctuations in oceanic climate.
DOI
10.1111/j.1095-8649.2010.02777.x
Volume
77
First Page
1931
Last Page
1947
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
NSUWorks Citation
David A. Feary, John A. Burt, Andrew G. Bauman, Paolo Usseglio, Peter F. Sale, and Georgenes Cavalcante. 2010. Fish communities on the world's warmest reefs: what can they tell us about the effects of climate change in the future? .Journal of Fish Biology : 1931 -1947. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_facarticles/1308.
