Benthic community succession on artificial and natural coral reefs in the northern Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea

Emily Higgins; Robert E. Scheibling; Kelsey M. Desilets; Anna Metaxas

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0212842

Benthic community succession on artificial and natural coral reefs in the northern Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea

Emily Higgins, Robert E. Scheibling, Kelsey M. Desilets, Anna Metaxas

Medicine

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

33 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Evaluating the efficacy of artificial structures in enhancing or sustaining biodiversity on tropical coral reefs is key to assessing their role in reef conservation or management. Here, we compare spatial and temporal patterns of colonization and succession of the benthic assemblage on settlement collectors (ceramic tiles) in a 13-mo mensurative experiment on a suspended artificial reef, a seafloor artificial reef, and two nearby natural reefs at Eilat, Gulf of Aqaba. We also conducted a concurrent 7-mo manipulative experiment on the suspended reef and one of the natural reefs, and monitored fish feeding behaviour on experimental collectors, to examine effects of large mobile consumers on these patterns. In both experiments, taxonomic composition as percent planar cover for the whole community or biomass for the invertebrate component differed between collector topsides, dominated by a filamentous algal matrix, and shaded undersides with a profuse assemblage of suspension- or filter-feeding invertebrates. In the mensurative experiment, we found differences in final community and invertebrate composition between sites, which clustered according to reef type (artificial vs. natural) for collector undersides. Invertebrate biomass was greater at both artificial reefs than at one (undersides) or both (topsides) natural reefs. In the manipulative experiment, we found similar differences in composition between sites/reef types as well as between treatments (exclusion vs. control), and the invertebrate biomass was greater on the artificial reef. Invertebrate biomass was greater in the exclusion treatment than the control on collector undersides, suggesting mobile consumers can affect community composition and abundance. Predominant fish species observed interacting with collectors differed between artificial and natural reefs, likely contributing to differences in patterns of colonization and succession between sites and reef types. Our findings suggest artificial reefs have the potential to enhance cover and biomass of certain reef-associated assemblages, particularly those occupying sheltered microhabitats.

Original language	English
Article number	e0212842
Journal	PLoS One
Volume	14
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0212842
Publication status	Published - Feb 2019

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Funding for this study was provided by the Schulich Ocean Studies Centre Initiative, Dalhousie University, Canada (Grant number: IR&D Ref: PROJ-14-09 to AM and RES), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grants program (RGPIN-2012-34851 to AM and RGPIN-2016-04878 to RES) and the 2015 Strategic Cooperative Education Incentive of the Nova Scotia Department of Labour and Advanced Education (project ref, # 20150137 and 2016000182 to AM). EH was partially supported by scholarships from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada CGS Masters, Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Scholarship, and the Faculty of Graduate Studies at Dalhousie. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We thank D. Shefy, M. Rousseau, T. Aruety, G. Koplovitz and A. Pertzelan for field assistance at FER and logistical support at the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences (IUI). N. Shenkar (Tel-Aviv University), G. Koplovitz (IUI), N. Sokolover (Tel-Aviv University), H. ten Hove (Naturalis Biodiversity Centre, Netherlands), and T. Shlesinger (Tel Aviv University) assisted with species identification. We gratefully acknowledge A. Genin and IUI staff for diving and boat support, and technical assistance in design and deployment of experimental units. Israel Nature and Parks Authority provided permits for research in the Coral Beach Nature Reserve (Permits: 2015/41064, 2016/41336).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Higgins et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

General

PubMed: MeSH publication types

Journal Article
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10.1371/journal.pone.0212842

Cite this

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title = "Benthic community succession on artificial and natural coral reefs in the northern Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea",

abstract = "Evaluating the efficacy of artificial structures in enhancing or sustaining biodiversity on tropical coral reefs is key to assessing their role in reef conservation or management. Here, we compare spatial and temporal patterns of colonization and succession of the benthic assemblage on settlement collectors (ceramic tiles) in a 13-mo mensurative experiment on a suspended artificial reef, a seafloor artificial reef, and two nearby natural reefs at Eilat, Gulf of Aqaba. We also conducted a concurrent 7-mo manipulative experiment on the suspended reef and one of the natural reefs, and monitored fish feeding behaviour on experimental collectors, to examine effects of large mobile consumers on these patterns. In both experiments, taxonomic composition as percent planar cover for the whole community or biomass for the invertebrate component differed between collector topsides, dominated by a filamentous algal matrix, and shaded undersides with a profuse assemblage of suspension- or filter-feeding invertebrates. In the mensurative experiment, we found differences in final community and invertebrate composition between sites, which clustered according to reef type (artificial vs. natural) for collector undersides. Invertebrate biomass was greater at both artificial reefs than at one (undersides) or both (topsides) natural reefs. In the manipulative experiment, we found similar differences in composition between sites/reef types as well as between treatments (exclusion vs. control), and the invertebrate biomass was greater on the artificial reef. Invertebrate biomass was greater in the exclusion treatment than the control on collector undersides, suggesting mobile consumers can affect community composition and abundance. Predominant fish species observed interacting with collectors differed between artificial and natural reefs, likely contributing to differences in patterns of colonization and succession between sites and reef types. Our findings suggest artificial reefs have the potential to enhance cover and biomass of certain reef-associated assemblages, particularly those occupying sheltered microhabitats.",

author = "Emily Higgins and Scheibling, {Robert E.} and Desilets, {Kelsey M.} and Anna Metaxas",

note = "Funding Information: Funding for this study was provided by the Schulich Ocean Studies Centre Initiative, Dalhousie University, Canada (Grant number: IR&D Ref: PROJ-14-09 to AM and RES), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grants program (RGPIN-2012-34851 to AM and RGPIN-2016-04878 to RES) and the 2015 Strategic Cooperative Education Incentive of the Nova Scotia Department of Labour and Advanced Education (project ref, # 20150137 and 2016000182 to AM). EH was partially supported by scholarships from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada CGS Masters, Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Scholarship, and the Faculty of Graduate Studies at Dalhousie. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We thank D. Shefy, M. Rousseau, T. Aruety, G. Koplovitz and A. Pertzelan for field assistance at FER and logistical support at the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences (IUI). N. Shenkar (Tel-Aviv University), G. Koplovitz (IUI), N. Sokolover (Tel-Aviv University), H. ten Hove (Naturalis Biodiversity Centre, Netherlands), and T. Shlesinger (Tel Aviv University) assisted with species identification. We gratefully acknowledge A. Genin and IUI staff for diving and boat support, and technical assistance in design and deployment of experimental units. Israel Nature and Parks Authority provided permits for research in the Coral Beach Nature Reserve (Permits: 2015/41064, 2016/41336). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 Higgins et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.",

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N1 - Funding Information: Funding for this study was provided by the Schulich Ocean Studies Centre Initiative, Dalhousie University, Canada (Grant number: IR&D Ref: PROJ-14-09 to AM and RES), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grants program (RGPIN-2012-34851 to AM and RGPIN-2016-04878 to RES) and the 2015 Strategic Cooperative Education Incentive of the Nova Scotia Department of Labour and Advanced Education (project ref, # 20150137 and 2016000182 to AM). EH was partially supported by scholarships from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada CGS Masters, Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Scholarship, and the Faculty of Graduate Studies at Dalhousie. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We thank D. Shefy, M. Rousseau, T. Aruety, G. Koplovitz and A. Pertzelan for field assistance at FER and logistical support at the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences (IUI). N. Shenkar (Tel-Aviv University), G. Koplovitz (IUI), N. Sokolover (Tel-Aviv University), H. ten Hove (Naturalis Biodiversity Centre, Netherlands), and T. Shlesinger (Tel Aviv University) assisted with species identification. We gratefully acknowledge A. Genin and IUI staff for diving and boat support, and technical assistance in design and deployment of experimental units. Israel Nature and Parks Authority provided permits for research in the Coral Beach Nature Reserve (Permits: 2015/41064, 2016/41336). Publisher Copyright: © 2019 Higgins et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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N2 - Evaluating the efficacy of artificial structures in enhancing or sustaining biodiversity on tropical coral reefs is key to assessing their role in reef conservation or management. Here, we compare spatial and temporal patterns of colonization and succession of the benthic assemblage on settlement collectors (ceramic tiles) in a 13-mo mensurative experiment on a suspended artificial reef, a seafloor artificial reef, and two nearby natural reefs at Eilat, Gulf of Aqaba. We also conducted a concurrent 7-mo manipulative experiment on the suspended reef and one of the natural reefs, and monitored fish feeding behaviour on experimental collectors, to examine effects of large mobile consumers on these patterns. In both experiments, taxonomic composition as percent planar cover for the whole community or biomass for the invertebrate component differed between collector topsides, dominated by a filamentous algal matrix, and shaded undersides with a profuse assemblage of suspension- or filter-feeding invertebrates. In the mensurative experiment, we found differences in final community and invertebrate composition between sites, which clustered according to reef type (artificial vs. natural) for collector undersides. Invertebrate biomass was greater at both artificial reefs than at one (undersides) or both (topsides) natural reefs. In the manipulative experiment, we found similar differences in composition between sites/reef types as well as between treatments (exclusion vs. control), and the invertebrate biomass was greater on the artificial reef. Invertebrate biomass was greater in the exclusion treatment than the control on collector undersides, suggesting mobile consumers can affect community composition and abundance. Predominant fish species observed interacting with collectors differed between artificial and natural reefs, likely contributing to differences in patterns of colonization and succession between sites and reef types. Our findings suggest artificial reefs have the potential to enhance cover and biomass of certain reef-associated assemblages, particularly those occupying sheltered microhabitats.

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Benthic community succession on artificial and natural coral reefs in the northern Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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PubMed: MeSH publication types

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