Community structure of reef fishes on a remote oceanic island (St Peter and St Paul’s Archipelago, equatorial Atlantic): the relative influence of abiotic and biotic variables
Osmar J. Luiz A G , Thiago C. Mendes B , Diego R. Barneche A , Carlos G. W. Ferreira C , Ramon Noguchi D , Roberto C. Villaça B , Carlos A. Rangel E , João L. Gasparini F and Carlos E. L. Ferreira B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.
B Departamento de Biologia Marinha, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, RJ, 24001-970, Brazil.
C Departamento de Oceanografia, Instituto de Estudos do Mar Almirante Paulo Moreira, Arraial do Cabo, RJ, 28930-000, Brazil.
D Programa de Pós Graduação em Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 68020, Brazil.
E Projeto Ilhas do Rio, Instituto Mar Adentro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 22031-071, Brazil.
F Departamento de Oceanografia e Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Vitória, ES, Brazil.
G Corresponding author. Email: osmarjluiz@gmail.com
Marine and Freshwater Research 66(8) 739-749 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF14150
Submitted: 12 June 2014 Accepted: 24 September 2014 Published: 13 March 2015
Abstract
This study investigates the reef fish community structure of the world’s smallest remote tropical island, the St Peter and St Paul’s Archipelago, in the equatorial Atlantic. The interplay between isolation, high endemism and low species richness makes the St Peter and St Paul’s Archipelago ecologically simpler than larger and highly connected shelf reef systems, making it an important natural laboratory for ecology and biogeography, particularly with respect to the effects of abiotic and biotic factors, and the functional organisation of such a depauperate community. Boosted regression trees were used to associate density, biomass and diversity of reef fishes with six abiotic and biotic variables, considering the community both as a whole and segregated into seven trophic groups. Depth was the most important explanatory variable across all models, although the direction of its effect varied with the type of response variable. Fish density peaked at intermediate depths, whereas biomass and biodiversity were respectively positively and negatively correlated with depth. Topographic complexity and wave exposure were less important in explaining variance within the fish community than depth. No effects of the predictor biotic variables were detected. Finally, we notice that most functional groups are represented by very few species, highlighting potential vulnerability to disturbances.
Additional keywords: depth, functional groups, isolation, low species richness.
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