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Biology (Basel)
2023 May 24;126:. doi: 10.3390/biology12060763.
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Invasive Fish and Sea Urchins Drive the Status of Canopy Forming Macroalgae in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Nikolaou A
,
Tsirintanis K
,
Rilov G
,
Katsanevakis S
.
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Canopy-forming macroalgae, such as Cystoseira sensu lato, increase the three-dimensional complexity and spatial heterogeneity of rocky reefs, enhancing biodiversity and productivity in coastal areas. Extensive loss of canopy algae has been recorded in recent decades throughout the Mediterranean Sea due to various anthropogenic pressures. In this study, we assessed the biomass of fish assemblages, sea urchin density, and the vertical distribution of macroalgal communities in the Aegean and Levantine Seas. The herbivore fish biomass was significantly higher in the South Aegean and Levantine compared to the North Aegean. Very low sea urchin densities suggest local collapses in the South Aegean and the Levantine. In most sites in the South Aegean and the Levantine, the ecological status of macroalgal communities was low or very low at depths deeper than 2 m, with limited or no canopy algae. In many sites, canopy algae were restricted to a very narrow, shallow zone, where grazing pressure may be limited due to harsh hydrodynamic conditions. Using Generalized Linear Mixed Models, we demonstrated that the presence of canopy algae is negatively correlated with the biomass of the invasive Siganus spp. and sea urchins. The loss of Cystoseira s.l. forests is alarming, and urgent conservation actions are needed.
Figure 1. Sampling sites in the Aegean and the Levantine Sea, in the eastern Mediterranean. The sampling sites are labeled based on the respective sampling island.
Figure 2. Ecological status scores of macroalgal communities based on Thibaut et al. [75] (0: very low, 1: low, 2: moderate, 3: good, 4: very good).
Figure 3. Sea urchin density (individuals m−2) at each study site for the different depth zones.
Figure 4. Mean sea urchin densities and 95% confidence intervals across the North Aegean sites (NA) and South AegeanCyprus sites (SAC) for different depth zones (bootstrapped results). The different colors in stacked bars represent the different sea urchin species recorded. The sea urchin density in Israel was zero; these records are not included in the mean values of the southern sites depicted here.
Figure 5. Fish biomass (g m−2) estimations for the different fish trophic groups for each study site.
Figure 6. Biomass of herbivorous fish species (g m−2) at each study site.
Figure 7. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (nMDS) of fish biomass composition at the surveyed sites, based on the Bray–Curtis dissimilarity (Stress = 0.14). Polygons group sites with 20% similarity based on cluster analysis.
Figure 8. Relation between the probability of the presence of perennial macroalgae and (a) alien herbivores fish biomass, (b) depth and (c) sea urchin density.
Figure 9. Current (1990–2020) (a) and future (2050–2080) (b) temperature conditions in the eastern Mediterranean. The values depicted correspond to the mean annual sea surface temperature. Source of simulations: NEMOMED8 climatic model [93] acquired from Med-CORDEX (https://www.medcordex.eu/ accessed on 10 April 2020); future climate data based on projections of IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report under the “business as usual” climatic scenario RCP8.5.
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