Nutritional Basis of Butterflyfish Corallivory in the Red Sea a Thesis
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Nutritional Basis of Butterflyfish Corallivory in the Red Sea A Thesis by Jessica Masterman In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Science King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia December 2012 2 EXAMINATION COMMITTEE FORM The thesis of Jessica Masterman is approved by the examination committee. Committee Chairperson: Michael Berumen Committee Co-Chair: Randi Rotjan Committee Member: David Raubenheimer 3 ABSTRACT The overall goal of this study was to elucidate the relationship between coral nutrition and the observed prey preferences exhibited by corallivorous butterflyfishes. Fifteen species of coral (thirteen hard, two soft) and stomach/hindgut contents from six species of butterflyfish were analyzed in this study, all collected from the central Saudi Arabian Red Sea. All samples were analyzed for lipid, total-nitrogen (proxy for protein), and ash (proxy for minerals and when combined with lipid data, allows for calculation of carbohydrate). Unfortunately, substantial errors were encountered in the experimental lipid data, precluding the use of this data set. Using the value of (protein/ash) as a proxy for potential nutritional quality, it was determined that Pocillopora cf. verrucosa and P. damicornis have the highest nutritional quality, while Acropora hyacinthus and Stylophora pistillata have intermediate nutritional quality, and all remaining 11 species have low nutritional quality. This suggests that the high nutritional quality of Pocillopora damicornis and Acropora hyacinthus may be the cause of the well documented predator preferences for these two species. Fish gut content samples were, on average, twice as rich in protein and half as rich in minerals as the coral tissue samples, suggesting either selective consumption of especially rich parts of the coral colony, or consumption of other food sources (facultative corallivores). In all six butterflyfish species, stomach content samples were consistently richer in protein and poorer in mineral content than the hindgut content samples; this suggests significant and measureable uptake of protein in the butterflyfish digestion process. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to first thank my MS thesis advisors Dr. Michael Berumen, Dr. Randi Rotjan, and Dr. David Raubenheimer. Without their support and guidance, I would never have been able to complete this work. Particularly, I would like to thank Mike and Randi for allowing me to utilize the parrotfish and butterflyfish samples that they had collected from the Red Sea in February 2011. Many thanks also go to Randi for the dedication and enthusiasm she has shown toward this project. Without Randi’s constant encouragement, I surely would not have gotten as far as I did in this work. Unfortunately, time constraints did not permit me to take advantage of David’s expertise as much as I would have liked in this project, although I hope to work with David much more in the future. I would also like to thank KAUST for providing all the resources and financial support for this project. Thanks also to the University of Wisconsin Soil and Plant Analysis Lab. Their work on the ash measurement of my samples was not only well planned, but also highly meticulous. I must also thank Mae Noble for acting as my dive buddy and helping me to collect all my coral fragments. I’d also like to thank Jessica Bouwmeester for her help in confirming my coral species identifications. Lastly, I’m very grateful to all of the amazing friends I’ve had during my stay at KAUST. Some of you have graduated already and some of you will continue attending KAUST, but I will never forget the time we’ve spent here and all the wonderful experiences we’ve shared together. Thank you all for joining me in this Saudi Arabian adventure! 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXAMINATION COMMITTEE FORM ................................................................................... 2 ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................... 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................. 5 LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... 7 LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 11 1.1 Importance and Degradation of Coral Reefs ................................................................... 11 1.2 Corallivory .................................................................................................................................. 12 1.3 Corallivory in Butterflyfish (f: Chaetodontidae) ............................................................. 13 1.4 Butterflyfish Species Studied ................................................................................................ 14 1.4.1 Chaetodon auriga ............................................................................................................................... 14 1.4.2 Chaetodon austriacus ....................................................................................................................... 14 1.4.3 Chaetodon fasciatus .......................................................................................................................... 15 1.4.4 Chaetodon larvatus ........................................................................................................................... 15 1.4.5 Chaetodon paucifasciatus ............................................................................................................... 15 1.4.6 Chaetodon trifascialis ....................................................................................................................... 15 1.5 A New Approach ....................................................................................................................... 16 CHAPTER TWO: MATERIALS AND METHODS .............................................................. 17 2.1 Sample Collection and Preparation .................................................................................... 17 2.2 Lipid Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 19 2.2.1 Modified Folch method for lipid analysis ............................................................................... 20 2.2.2 Preliminary standardization tests ............................................................................................. 22 2.3 Protein Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 26 2.3.1 Preliminary standardization tests ............................................................................................. 27 2.4 Carbohydrate Analysis ........................................................................................................... 28 2.4.1 Preliminary attempts to measure ash content ..................................................................... 29 2.4.2 Successful measurement of ash content ................................................................................. 30 CHAPTER THREE: RESULTS ............................................................................................... 31 3.1 Prey: Coral Tissue Macronutrient Content ..................................................................... 31 3.1.1 Protein Results ................................................................................................................................... 31 3.1.2 Ash Content Results ......................................................................................................................... 35 3.1.3 Combination of Protein Content and Ash Content Results ............................................. 37 3.2 Predator: Stomach/Hindgut Macronutrient Content in Butterflyfishes .............. 44 3.2.1 Protein Content Results .................................................................................................................. 45 3.2.2 Ash Content Results ......................................................................................................................... 48 3.2.3 Combination of Protein and Ash Content Results ............................................................... 51 3.3 Predator vs. Prey ..................................................................................................................... 54 3.3.1 Chaetodon auriga: Stomach Content vs. Feeding Preferences ....................................... 55 3.3.2 Chaetodon austriacus: Stomach Content vs. Feeding Preferences ............................... 56 3.3.3 Chaetodon fasciatus: Stomach Content vs. Feeding Preferences .................................. 57 3.3.4 Chaetodon larvatus: Stomach Content vs. Feeding Preferences .................................... 58 6 3.3.5 Chaetodon trifascialis: Stomach Content vs. Feeding Preferences ............................... 59 3.4 Lipid Results: Issues and Errors ......................................................................................... 60 CHAPTER