Fishing for resilience : herbivore and algal dynamics on coral reefs in Kenya.
- Authors: Humphries, Austin Turner
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Coral reef conservation -- Kenya , Coral reef ecology -- Kenya , Coral reef biology -- Kenya , Coral reef fishes -- Kenya , Herbivores -- Kenya , Algae -- Control -- Kenya , Fishery management -- Kenya
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:5877 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013147
- Description: Herbivory is a key process that mediates the abundance of primary producers and community composition in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. On tropical coral reefs, changes in herbivory are often related to phase shifts between coral-dominance and dominance by seaweeds, or foliose macroalgae. Resilience or capacity to resist and reverse such phase shifts is, therefore, viewed as a critical function on coral reefs. This thesis used grazer exclusion and assay experiments at six sites within three different fisheries management regimes in Kenya to identify the impacts of herbivores (sea urchins and fishes) on algal dynamics in the context of coral reef resilience. First, I examined the grazing rates necessary to prevent phase shifts by quantifying consumption and algal production. Here, I found that, over a 390-day experiment, at least 50 percent of algal production must be consumed to avoid accumulation of algal biomass. Using video observations, I also showed that scraping parrotfishes remove more algae (per unit of fish biomass) than previously assumed, and that sea urchins, if released from predation, have similar impacts to fishes. Then I focused on algal succession, and found that sea urchins and fishes have different effects that are mediated by their abundances and species composition. Where sea urchins were less abundant and parrotfishes absent (e.g. young fisheries closures), progression of algae from turfs to early and then late successional macroalgae occurred rapidly and within 100 days. I then turned my focus to the removal of already established macroalgae (grown for > 1 yr in the absence of herbivores) and showed that sea urchins and browsing fishes were able to remove significant amounts of macroalgae where either herbivore was abundant. However, using multiple-choice selectivity assays and in situ video recordings, I found that browsing fishes fed very selectively with low overlap in diet among species, leading to low functional redundancy within a high diversity system. Finally, using long-term survey data (from 28 sites) to build a 43-year chronosequence, I showed that it is possible that the effects of herbivory will not be constant across transitions from open fishing to fishery closures through non-linear grazing intensity. Therefore, increases in herbivory within fisheries closures may not be immediate and may allow a window of opportunity for algae to go from turf to unpalatable macroalgae until scraping and browsing fishes fully recover from fishing (~ 20 years). The findings in this thesis are novel and raise concern over the potential implications of the slow recovery of parrotfishes or, given lower than expected functional redundancy in grazing effects, the absence of even one browsing fish species in fisheries closures. Overall, this thesis highlights the importance of herbivore community dynamics in mediating interactions among algae, and provides new insights for conservation and management actions that attempt to bolster the resilience of coral reefs.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Humphries, Austin Turner
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Coral reef conservation -- Kenya , Coral reef ecology -- Kenya , Coral reef biology -- Kenya , Coral reef fishes -- Kenya , Herbivores -- Kenya , Algae -- Control -- Kenya , Fishery management -- Kenya
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:5877 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013147
- Description: Herbivory is a key process that mediates the abundance of primary producers and community composition in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. On tropical coral reefs, changes in herbivory are often related to phase shifts between coral-dominance and dominance by seaweeds, or foliose macroalgae. Resilience or capacity to resist and reverse such phase shifts is, therefore, viewed as a critical function on coral reefs. This thesis used grazer exclusion and assay experiments at six sites within three different fisheries management regimes in Kenya to identify the impacts of herbivores (sea urchins and fishes) on algal dynamics in the context of coral reef resilience. First, I examined the grazing rates necessary to prevent phase shifts by quantifying consumption and algal production. Here, I found that, over a 390-day experiment, at least 50 percent of algal production must be consumed to avoid accumulation of algal biomass. Using video observations, I also showed that scraping parrotfishes remove more algae (per unit of fish biomass) than previously assumed, and that sea urchins, if released from predation, have similar impacts to fishes. Then I focused on algal succession, and found that sea urchins and fishes have different effects that are mediated by their abundances and species composition. Where sea urchins were less abundant and parrotfishes absent (e.g. young fisheries closures), progression of algae from turfs to early and then late successional macroalgae occurred rapidly and within 100 days. I then turned my focus to the removal of already established macroalgae (grown for > 1 yr in the absence of herbivores) and showed that sea urchins and browsing fishes were able to remove significant amounts of macroalgae where either herbivore was abundant. However, using multiple-choice selectivity assays and in situ video recordings, I found that browsing fishes fed very selectively with low overlap in diet among species, leading to low functional redundancy within a high diversity system. Finally, using long-term survey data (from 28 sites) to build a 43-year chronosequence, I showed that it is possible that the effects of herbivory will not be constant across transitions from open fishing to fishery closures through non-linear grazing intensity. Therefore, increases in herbivory within fisheries closures may not be immediate and may allow a window of opportunity for algae to go from turf to unpalatable macroalgae until scraping and browsing fishes fully recover from fishing (~ 20 years). The findings in this thesis are novel and raise concern over the potential implications of the slow recovery of parrotfishes or, given lower than expected functional redundancy in grazing effects, the absence of even one browsing fish species in fisheries closures. Overall, this thesis highlights the importance of herbivore community dynamics in mediating interactions among algae, and provides new insights for conservation and management actions that attempt to bolster the resilience of coral reefs.
- Full Text:
Environmental physiology of the intertidal limpets Patella (Prosobranchia) and Siphonaria (Pulmonata)
- Authors: Marshall, David John
- Date: 1992
- Subjects: Prosobranchia Pulmonata Patellidae Siphonaria Limpets
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:5686 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005372
- Description: Physiological response to environmental change is examined in species of the intertidal limpets, Patella (Prosobranchia) and Siphonaria (Pulmonata). Characteristics of heart beat were determined using impedance pneumography and these are described. Heart rate of P. granularis is related to temperature and body size, and cardiac arrest in this limpet is apparently stress-related. Siphonaria oculus may exhibit a temperature-independent, extreme, and often prolonged bradycardia (<10 beats/min). When measured shortly after aerial exposure, heart rate and oxygen consumption of the above limpet species are closely correlated. The relationships of aerial oxygen consumption with body weight and ambient temperature were determined for the above high shore species of limpet. Both have low aerial rates of oxygen consumption relative to low shore limpet species, and their QlO values decrease with increasing temperature. Diel field recordings of heart rate of S. oculus, taken during summer and winter, suggest absence of temperature acclimation, and this was also shown for oxygen consumption at high aerial temperatures (30°C) in laboratory experiments. Oxygen consumption of P. granularis is partially temperature compensated temperature acclimation). In air, even though S. oculus loses water faster, it shows greater tolerance of water loss and survives longer than P. granularis. Prolonged aerial exposure of S. oculus leads to depression of heart rate and of V02 (down to 18% of the pre-exposure rate), responses interpreted as representing adaptive metabolic rate depression. In P. granularis aerial heart rate remains constant and V02 never falls below IX 38% of pre-exposure rate. This reduction in V02 in air is considered as being stress-related, resulting from impairment of oxygen uptake. In declining oxygen tension S. capensis shows a better capacity for oxyregulation than P. granularis. On exposure to hypoxia, sand-inundation and hyposalinity, S. capensis may show typical bradycardia ( <10 beats/min), suggesting depression of aerobic metabolism, and on return to pre-exposure conditions there is no overshoot of heart rate, suggesting absence of oxygen debt. The effect of hypoxia, sand-inundation and hyposalinity on heart rate of P. granularis is variable; this becomes depressed and is often interspersed with extended cardiac arrest. When conditions are normalized, this species exhibits a clear overshoot of heart rate. The significance of differences in physiological response between patellid and siphonariid limpets is discussed with regard to their habitat segregation, particularly in the upper-shore zone (open rock and tidal pools) and sand-inundated rock substrata, where only siphonariid limpets may be found. While not previously characterized in marine gastropods, metabolic rate depression by Siphonaria, through facilitating isolation and conserving food reserves, is suggested as a key factor determining their distribution in physico-chemically more extreme and variable intertidal habitats.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Marshall, David John
- Date: 1992
- Subjects: Prosobranchia Pulmonata Patellidae Siphonaria Limpets
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:5686 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005372
- Description: Physiological response to environmental change is examined in species of the intertidal limpets, Patella (Prosobranchia) and Siphonaria (Pulmonata). Characteristics of heart beat were determined using impedance pneumography and these are described. Heart rate of P. granularis is related to temperature and body size, and cardiac arrest in this limpet is apparently stress-related. Siphonaria oculus may exhibit a temperature-independent, extreme, and often prolonged bradycardia (<10 beats/min). When measured shortly after aerial exposure, heart rate and oxygen consumption of the above limpet species are closely correlated. The relationships of aerial oxygen consumption with body weight and ambient temperature were determined for the above high shore species of limpet. Both have low aerial rates of oxygen consumption relative to low shore limpet species, and their QlO values decrease with increasing temperature. Diel field recordings of heart rate of S. oculus, taken during summer and winter, suggest absence of temperature acclimation, and this was also shown for oxygen consumption at high aerial temperatures (30°C) in laboratory experiments. Oxygen consumption of P. granularis is partially temperature compensated temperature acclimation). In air, even though S. oculus loses water faster, it shows greater tolerance of water loss and survives longer than P. granularis. Prolonged aerial exposure of S. oculus leads to depression of heart rate and of V02 (down to 18% of the pre-exposure rate), responses interpreted as representing adaptive metabolic rate depression. In P. granularis aerial heart rate remains constant and V02 never falls below IX 38% of pre-exposure rate. This reduction in V02 in air is considered as being stress-related, resulting from impairment of oxygen uptake. In declining oxygen tension S. capensis shows a better capacity for oxyregulation than P. granularis. On exposure to hypoxia, sand-inundation and hyposalinity, S. capensis may show typical bradycardia ( <10 beats/min), suggesting depression of aerobic metabolism, and on return to pre-exposure conditions there is no overshoot of heart rate, suggesting absence of oxygen debt. The effect of hypoxia, sand-inundation and hyposalinity on heart rate of P. granularis is variable; this becomes depressed and is often interspersed with extended cardiac arrest. When conditions are normalized, this species exhibits a clear overshoot of heart rate. The significance of differences in physiological response between patellid and siphonariid limpets is discussed with regard to their habitat segregation, particularly in the upper-shore zone (open rock and tidal pools) and sand-inundated rock substrata, where only siphonariid limpets may be found. While not previously characterized in marine gastropods, metabolic rate depression by Siphonaria, through facilitating isolation and conserving food reserves, is suggested as a key factor determining their distribution in physico-chemically more extreme and variable intertidal habitats.
- Full Text:
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