HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations
Defense Date
3-30-2017
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.S. Biological Sciences
Second Degree Name
M.S. Marine Environmental Sciences
First Advisor
Amy Hirons
Second Advisor
David Kerstetter
Third Advisor
Christopher Blanar
Abstract
Artificial reefs may enhance the biological production of reef-associated flora and fauna, but their trophic structure relative to that of natural reefs remains understudied. We assessed trophic dynamics by comparing δ13C and δ15N in 43 fish species from artificial and natural reef tracts of Broward County, Florida. We tested the effect of sampling location (artificial, first, and second reef), general feeding strategy (herbivore, omnivore, planktivore, invertivore, and carnivore), phylogeny, and standard length. For all samples, δ13C and δ15N ranged from -19.5 to -13.1‰ and 6.7 to 13.3‰, respectively. Lower trophic level feeding behavior resulted in more depleted δ13C and δ15N and higher trophic level feeding behavior resulted in more enriched δ13C and δ15N. We detected significant effects of both general feeding strategy and phylogeny. We also detected significant differences in δ13C and δ15N profiles between artificial and natural reefs; however, these differences were not great enough to suggest changes in the feeding strategy or trophic dynamics of individual fish taxa.
NSUWorks Citation
Joseph R. Hornbeck. 2017. A Comparison of the Ichthyofaunal Trophic Ecology at Selected Limestone Artificial Reef Sites and Adjacent Natural Reef Sites. Master's thesis. Nova Southeastern University. Retrieved from NSUWorks, . (438)
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_stuetd/438.