Evaluating day–night changes in shallow Mediterranean rocky reef fish assemblages by visual census |
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Authors: | Ernesto Azzurro Antonio Pais Pierpaolo Consoli Franco Andaloro |
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Institution: | (1) Laboratory of Milazzo, ICRAM, Central Institute for Marine Research, Via dei Mille 44, 98057 Milazzo, Messina, Italy;(2) Sezione di Acquacoltura ed Ecologia Marina, Dipartimento di Scienze Zootecniche, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Via E. De Nicola 9, 07100 Sassari, Italy;(3) ICRAM, Central Institute for Marine Research, STS Palermo, Via E. Amari 124, 90134 Palermo, Italy |
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Abstract: | Ecological information on coastal fish distribution patterns and habitat use can be greatly improved by nocturnal samplings
and observations. To this purpose, the structure of a Mediterranean fish assemblage inhabiting the shallow rocky littoral
of Linosa Island (Sicily Strait, Italy) was examined by using visual census to detect possible diel variations in species
composition and abundance. Day–night fish distribution patterns were investigated by multivariate and univariate analyses.
Overall, 42 fish taxa belonging to 19 families were recorded: 35 during the day and 24 during the night. Seventeen species
were common to both diurnal and nocturnal assemblages. Within the diurnal assemblage, Chromis chromis was the most represented species (37.2%), followed by Thalassoma pavo (23.2%) and Sparisoma cretense (10.8%). Within the nocturnal assemblage, the most abundant taxon was Atherina spp. (33.9%), followed by Apogon imberbis (26.4%) and Boops boops (11.5%). Our results indicated wide variation in the abundance and species composition during the day and during the night.
Multi Dimensional Scaling plot showed a clear-cut separation between the two assemblages and analysis of similarities found
significant differences as well. SIMPER analysis revealed that ten species individually contributed by more than 2.5% to the
dissimilarity between diurnal and nocturnal assemblages, T. pavo, C. chromis and S. cretense being the first three species in order of decreasing percentage. ANOVA performed on species richness and fish abundance detected
significant differences between diurnal and nocturnal assemblages, the latter showing far lower average values for both variables. |
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