Habitat Selectivity and Reliance on Live Corals for Indo-Pacific Hawkfishes (Family: Cirrhitidae)
Type
ArticleAuthors
Coker, Darren James
Hoey, Andrew S.
Wilson, Shaun K.
Depczynski, Martial
Graham, Nicholas A. J.
Hobbs, Jean-Paul A.
Holmes, Thomas H.
Pratchett, Morgan S.
KAUST Department
Red Sea Research Center (RSRC)Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) Division
Date
2015-11-03Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/593179
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Hawkfishes (family: Cirrhitidae) are small conspicuous reef predators that commonly perch on, or shelter within, the branches of coral colonies. This study examined habitat associations of hawkfishes, and explicitly tested whether hawkfishes associate with specific types of live coral. Live coral use and habitat selectivity of hawkfishes was explored at six locations from Chagos in the central Indian Ocean extending east to Fiji in the Pacific Ocean. A total of 529 hawkfishes from seven species were recorded across all locations with 63% of individuals observed perching on, or sheltering within, live coral colonies. Five species (all except Cirrhitus pinnulatus and Cirrhitichthys oxycephalus) associated with live coral habitats. Cirrhitichthys falco selected for species of Pocillopora while Paracirrhites arcatus and P. forsteri selected for both Pocillopora and Acropora, revealing that these habitats are used disproportionately more than expected based on the local cover of these coral genera. Habitat selection was consistent across geographic locations, and species of Pocillopora were the most frequently used and most consistently selected even though this coral genus never comprised more than 6% of the total coral cover at any of the locations. Across locations, Paracirrhites arcatus and P. forsteri were the most abundant species and variation in their abundance corresponded with local patterns of live coral cover and abundance of Pocilloporid corals, respectively. These findings demonstrate the link between small predatory fishes and live coral habitats adding to the growing body of literature highlighting that live corals (especially erect branching corals) are critically important for sustaining high abundance and diversity of fishes on coral reefs.Citation
Habitat Selectivity and Reliance on Live Corals for Indo-Pacific Hawkfishes (Family: Cirrhitidae) 2015, 10 (11):e0138136 PLOS ONEPublisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)Journal
PLoS ONEPubMed ID
26529406Additional Links
http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0138136ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1371/journal.pone.0138136
Scopus Count
Related articles
- Habitat Use and Spatial Variability of Hawkfishes with a Focus on Colour Polymorphism in Paracirrhites forsteri.
- Authors: Coker DJ, Chaidez V, Berumen ML
- Issue date: 2017
- Habitat degradation is threatening reef replenishment by making fish fearless.
- Authors: Lönnstedt OM, McCormick MI, Chivers DP, Ferrari MC
- Issue date: 2014 Sep
- Resilience potential of an Indian Ocean reef: an assessment through coral recruitment pattern and survivability of juvenile corals to recurrent stress events.
- Authors: Manikandan B, Ravindran J, Vidya PJ, Shrinivasu S, Manimurali R, Paramasivam K
- Issue date: 2017 May
- Predicting climate-driven regime shifts versus rebound potential in coral reefs.
- Authors: Graham NA, Jennings S, MacNeil MA, Mouillot D, Wilson SK
- Issue date: 2015 Feb 5
- Phylogenetic evidence for recent diversification of obligate coral-dwelling gobies compared with their host corals.
- Authors: Duchene D, Klanten SO, Munday PL, Herler J, van Herwerden L
- Issue date: 2013 Oct