Edinburgh Research Explorer Global affiliation of juvenile fishes and invertebrates with mangrove habitats Citation for published version: Zu Ermgassen, PS, Grove, T & Nagelkerken, I 2019, 'Global affiliation of juvenile fishes and invertebrates with mangrove habitats', Bulletin of Marine Science, vol. 96, no. 3. https://doi.org/10.5343/bms.2019.0044 Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.5343/bms.2019.0044 Link: Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research Explorer Document Version: Peer reviewed version Published In: Bulletin of Marine Science General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 07. Oct. 2021 rsmas.miami.edu/bms Bulletin of Marine Science Accepted Manuscript Title: Global affiliation of juvenile fishes and invertebrates with mangrove habitats Authors: Zu Ermgassen PSE, Grove T, Nagelkerken I DOI: https://doi.org/10.5343/bms.2019.0044 Date submitted: 21 March, 2019 Date accepted: 10 October, 2019 Available online: 18 October, 2019 Citation: Zu Ermgassen PSE, Grove T, Nagelkerken I. In Press. Global affiliation of juvenile fishes and invertebrates with mangrove habitats. 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Accepted Manuscript 1 Title: Global affiliation of juvenile fishes and invertebrates with mangrove habitats 2 Running title: Global mangrove affiliation of juvenile fishes and invertebrates 3 Authors: Philine S.E. zu Ermgassen1*, Thomas Grove1, Ivan Nagelkerken2 4 Affiliations 5 1 Changing Oceans Group, School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Grant Institute, 6 Edinburgh, UK 7 2 School of Biological Sciences and The Environment Institute, The University of Adelaide, 8 Adelaide, South Australia, Australia 9 *Corresponding author e-mail: <[email protected]> 10 Abstract 11 Mangroves are critical fish and invertebrate habitats, however, identifying to what degree 12 species are affiliated to mangrove systems remains challenging. Here we outline and apply 13 two quantitative and one qualitative method for assessing the degree of mangrove affiliation 14 globally at a species level, based on habitat-specific fish and invertebrate species densities 15 extracted from an exhaustive search of the literature, for mangroves and their associated 16 coastal habitats. We assessed all 121 species for which we had 7 mangrove records and 17 where data allowed, quantified the percentage contribution of mangroves to the summed 18 species density across all habitats. We set the threshold for identifying a species as ‘highly 19 mangrove-affiliated’ as 70% relative density, and examined its validity by subjecting a 20 subset ofACCEPTED species either side of the threshold toMANUSCRIPT a thorough review of evidence for mangrove 21 affiliation in the peer reviewed literature. We found that 53 were highly mangrove-affiliated, 22 including 24 fish and three invertebrate species from the Atlantic East Pacific, and nine fish 23 and 15 invertebrate species from the Indo West Pacific (n=2 had global distributions). 36 of 24 the 53 species are of value to artisanal, subsistence or commercial fisheries; 21 in the Atlantic 25 East Pacific, and 13 in the Indo West Pacific. While this list of highly mangrove-affiliated 1 Accepted Manuscript 26 species is far from complete due to data limitations, it represents the first attempt to 27 undertake a global overview of highly mangrove-affiliated species, and a proof of concept for 28 a quantitative and objective method of assessment. 29 30 Introduction 31 Mangroves provide a nutrient rich and highly structured habitat which dominates many 32 tropical and subtropical estuaries and coastlines. The habitat complexity provided by 33 mangrove forests support increased biodiversity (Gratwicke and Speight 2005) and 34 contributes significant productivity into the systems in which they are found (see Hutchison 35 et al. 2014 for a review). They are also a highly threatened habitat, suffering continuing high 36 rates of loss globally (Polidoro et al. 2010). 37 Mangroves provide a wide range of critically important ecosystem services, including 38 shoreline protection, carbon sequestration, water quality regulation and wood provision 39 (UNEP-WCMC 2005), as well as fish production. Mangroves support fish production, in 40 particular through their role as a nursery habitat (Igulu et al. 2014), both through providing 41 juveniles with shelter from predation (Rönnbäck et al. 1999, Laegdsgaard and Johnson 2001) 42 and through increased food abundance (Dittel et al. 1997, Cocheret de la Moriniére et al. 43 2003). 44 The importance of mangroves in supporting commercial fish catch has been quantified or 45 inferredACCEPTED in several systems (Manson et al. 2005a, MANUSCRIPT Aburto-Oropeza et al. 2008, Carrasquilla- 46 Henao and Juanes 2016). Nevertheless, the degree to which fish and invertebrate species are 47 reliant on mangrove habitats as opposed to the associated estuarine and coastal habitats 48 remains poorly resolved (Lee 2004). Furthermore, the degree to which mangroves increase 49 growth of individuals varies with the habitat setting of the mangrove (Faunce and Serafy 50 2008a). The inability to disentangle the association between fish and mangroves from other 2 Accepted Manuscript 51 associated habitats, such as seagrasses (Nagelkerken et al. 2001) or indeed the estuaries 52 themselves (Lee 2004, Manson et al. 2005b) has contributed to a number of unsubstantiated 53 claims about the importance of mangroves to fisheries (Sheaves 2017). 54 There have been many efforts to quantify the association between individual fish and 55 invertebrate species and mangroves, but quantification of the magnitude of this effect is 56 largely missing (exceptions include Pantallano et al. 2018). An understanding of whether or 57 not mangroves are important during any single life history stage of a species, and indeed 58 which species this may be the case for, is critical in moving forward the debate regarding the 59 role of mangroves as fish habitat, and for quantifying the contribution of the nursery function 60 of mangroves to fish catches. Previous efforts to quantify mangrove dependency (sic.) have 61 relied on comparing the abundance of species in the presence or absence of mangroves 62 (Nagelkerken et al. 2001, Pantallano et al. 2018). Such efforts represent a valuable 63 contribution to research into mangroves as fish habitat, but there are a limited number of 64 locations where such a paired presence/absence of mangroves can be applied and hence there 65 is a need to develop alternative methods to determine the importance of mangrove habitats to 66 fish and invertebrate species. 67 Here we present a method for quantifying the degree to which species in mangrove regions 68 are affiliated with mangrove habitats during their juvenile life stage (fish) or throughout their 69 lives (resident molluscs and decapods), using a global dataset. We assess the threshold of 70 relativeACCEPTED abundance above which there is strong MANUSCRIPT evidence of a high degree of mangrove 71 affiliation. “Highly mangrove-affiliated species” include species which are fully mangrove 72 dependent (i.e. do not typically occur in any other habitat) as well as species that are 73 consistently found as juveniles at highest densities in mangrove habitats where that option is 74 present (but may use alternative habitats where mangroves are absent). The methodology 75 outlined does not consider all life history stages for fish and non-resident invertebrates and 3 Accepted Manuscript 76 therefore does not imply a sole dependence on mangrove habitats. Indeed we acknowledge 77 the importance of a range of accessible near shore habitats for ontogenetic shifts in some 78 species, which are not captured in this methodology (e.g. Nagelkerken et al. 2000). 79 80 Methods 81 A large-scale review of the published literature was undertaken to identify studies containing 82 quantitative, habitat specific, fish and invertebrate densities from mangrove regions of the 83 world. Mangrove regions were identified using the global map of mangrove forests produced 84 by Giri et al. (2011). A database of fish and invertebrate densities derived from 263 85 publications was compiled, yielding 13,414 species records with a broad geographic spread 86 (Figure 1). Densities represented a variety of shallow coastal habitats, including mangrove, 87 mud flat, sand, seagrass, saltmarsh, macroalgal beds, oyster, rocky, coral reef, and open 88 water. Mangrove data were selected so as to represent the mangrove habitat as opposed to the 89 broader system. While a small number of studies (n=13) included sampling 5-50m from the 90 mangrove edge, the vast majority represented in-mangrove sampling or sampling within 5m 91 of the mangrove fringe. We included sampling 5-50m from the fringe in situations where 92 mangrove creeks and small estuaries were sampled and mangrove was the dominant habitat 93 type.