Temperate Reef Fish Ecology

A special issue of Fishes (ISSN 2410-3888). This special issue belongs to the section "Biology and Ecology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 June 2024 | Viewed by 1837

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Subtidal Ecology Laboratory (Subelab), Estación Costera de Investigaciones Marinas (ECIM), Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 114-D, Santiago, Chile
Interests: reef fish ecology; mesophotic; scientific diving; ecological interactions; sustaibability

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 114-D, Santiago, Chile
Interests: dispersal; larval ecology; ecophysiology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Reef fishes have been a study model for multiple disciplines, nurturing the scientific literature for the understanding of behavioral, ecological, and evolutionary processes. This level knowledge has been critical in informing the management, conservation, and use of reef fishes. Many species of fish are caught for human consumption; in fact, one-third of the human population live very close to the coast and reef sites, representing one of the main stressors for reef fish fauna. Therefore, ecological knowledge using reef fishes will help to recognize the values and services that communities provide to humans and to inform appropriate management and conservation strategies. However, ecological information on many of the described processes has been demonstrated in tropical reef fishes, but corresponding patterns and mechanisms remain poorly understood in temperate regions. Furthermore, research has mainly been concentrated on shallow reef habitats, leaving aside those mesophotic reefs (where light penetrates sufficiently to support photosynthesis) which can represent refuge areas for overexploited reef fish species from shallow environments and may characterize unique habitats supporting many new species, functions, and species traits. Not restricted to temperate or mesophotic ecosystems, this Special Issue aims to explore new advances in the understanding of reef fish ecology, fish behavior, diet, reproduction and mating systems, spatial use and movement, links and habitat use, as well as historical and ecological processes of reef fishes as models to underpin the challenges of the new decades.

Dr. Alejandro Perez Matus
Dr. Ricardo Beldade
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • fish species traits
  • fish behavior
  • patterns of reef fish species richness
  • mesophotic reef fish assemblages
  • shallow reef fish assemblages
  • ecological interactions
  • phylogeny
  • habitat use and movement
  • management, conservation, and policy

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 2946 KiB  
Article
Rockfish Species Trends in Puget Sound, Washington, USA, 2009–2023
by Katharine N. Shelledy, Amy Y. Olsen, Alexander Tanz, Megan H. Williams, Jeff Christiansen, Heidi Wilken, Chris Van Damme and Shawn Larson
Fishes 2023, 8(10), 508; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes8100508 - 11 Oct 2023
Viewed by 1457
Abstract
Rockfishes (Sebastes spp.) are a long-lived, understudied, multi-species fish assemblage in inland Washington (USA) waters. Driven by large-scale fishery removals in the 1970s, their numbers declined and have yet to recover, perhaps due to slow maturation and rare recruitment success. Since then, [...] Read more.
Rockfishes (Sebastes spp.) are a long-lived, understudied, multi-species fish assemblage in inland Washington (USA) waters. Driven by large-scale fishery removals in the 1970s, their numbers declined and have yet to recover, perhaps due to slow maturation and rare recruitment success. Since then, rockfish fishing restrictions have increased within Puget Sound, culminating in a 2010 total ban. Here, we analyze rockfish community trends (abundance and Shannon Diversity) within Puget Sound from 2009 to 2023. Our dataset includes 157 recorded dive transects from nine rocky or artificial reef habitats at depths 5–24 m throughout four Puget Sound basins: Admiralty Inlet (2 sites), Central Puget Sound (4 sites), Hood Canal (2 sites), and South Puget Sound (1 site). Significant differences in community species composition between basins were observed; we noted more Black (S. melanops), Yellowtail (S. flavidus), and Puget Sound (S. emphaeus) rockfish and fewer Brown rockfish (S. auriculatus) at sites in Admiralty Inlet vs. Central Puget Sound. Adult rockfish counts and Shannon Diversity varied seasonally, with higher rockfish counts and diversity indices in summer/autumn vs. winter/spring. Notably, we observed that total adult rockfish count per survey tended downward over time, driven partly by significant downward trends in Hood Canal Copper rockfish (S. caurinus) counts. We recommend continued monitoring and additional investigation into what factors besides fishing may be driving the trends reported here. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Temperate Reef Fish Ecology)
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