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Spatial Dynamics of Red Sea Coral Reef Fish Assemblages: a Taxonomic And

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Spatial Dynamics of Red Sea Coral Reef Fish Assemblages: a Taxonomic And Spatial dynamics of Red Sea coral reef fish assemblages: a taxonomic and ecological trait approach Thesis by Gloria Lisbet Gil Ramos 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 April, 2021 2 EXAMINATION COMMITTEE PAGE The thesis of Gloria Lisbet Gil Ramos is approved by the examination committee. Committee Chairperson: Dr. Michael Lee Berumen Committee Members: Dr. Susana Carvalho, Dr. Raquel Peixoto 3 © April, 2021 Gloria Lisbet Gil Ramos All Rights Reserved 4 ABSTRACT Spatial dynamics of Red Sea coral reef fish assemblages: a taxonomic and ecological trait approach Gloria Lisbet Gil Ramos Despite the increases in the intensity and frequency of disturbances on coral reefs in the Red Sea over the past decade, patterns of variability in fish communities are still poorly understood. This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of how fish communities vary along multiple spatial scales (10-100’ of kilometers) and to provide a baseline for future comparisons, fundamental to assess responses to climate change and other disturbances. Coral reefs along the Saudi Arabian Red Sea coast were surveyed from 2017 to 2019. The reefs ranged from 28° N to 18 °N and were categorized according their geographical location and grouped within three regions, namely north (24-28.5°N; 12 reefs), central (20.4-22.3°N; 11 reefs), and south (18.5-21.2°N; 30 reefs). The quantification of spatial patterns was conducted based on both taxonomic- and trait-based approaches. Considering the dependence of fish communities on the benthic habitat the relationship between different attributes of the fish assemblages and coral cover was also investigated. A consistent pattern of separation between assemblages of the northern and central region from the ones in the south was observed in nearshore reefs but was not evident for offshore reefs. The southern region supported higher densities, biomass, 5 and species richness than the other two regions. The analysis showed that transect and reef scales contributed to the greatest variation in fish communities, suggesting higher levels of variability within small spatial scales. Several parameters of the fish community (total species, total density, total biomass, total functional entities, functional richness, functional redundancy) were positively correlated to coral cover, particularly in the northern region. Responses were not consistent across the Red Sea basin, suggesting that management plans should be regionally based. This study can be helpful to design management strategies as it provides a current baseline from both taxonomic and trait perspectives for Red Sea reefs that can be used to evaluate future changes due to natural and human-based disturbances. 6 AKNOWLEDGMENTS My deepest thanks go to Dr. Michael Berumen for believing in me, for his help, support, and for enforcing an environment of solidarity and cooperativeness in the Lab and facilitating many expeditions in the Red Sea. Thanks go next to Dr. Susana Carvalho, who has been so supportive every single step of the way. Thank you, Susana, for your patience, always encouraging us, and sharing your time and knowledge, and basically for everything. I could never find enough words to tell you how grateful I am to have been under your guidance. I want to say thanks to João for all his help with the analysis and explanations and to all the lab members who helped in the data collection, particularly to Dr. Darren Coker, who always was willing to help and giving helpful feedback: thank you, Darren, for all your input. Also, thank you very much, Lucía, for your time and help with the functional analysis. Of course, I also want to thank my family, mainly my parents Livier and Martín, and my sister Marisol who have always been so supportive and cheerful and always tell me to “echarle ganas”. This is a tribute to all of you. I could not finish this section without saying thanks to all my friends who have been with me in every step of this journey. Thank you, Karla, Laura, Anuj, Julian, Bogdan, Safwan and Abdullah. You are the ones that constantly motivate me to do and to be better. I love you all so much. -Thank you all. 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXAMINATION COMMITTEE PAGE ...................................................................... 2 COPYRIGHT PAGE…………………………………………………………………..…..3 ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. 4 AKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................ 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................... 7 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................... 8 LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................. 9 LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................. 12 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 14 1.1 Fish and habitat relationships....................................................................... 15 1.2 Scales of variability in the fish communities ................................................. 16 1.3 Fish and the functional roles they play ......................................................... 17 1.4 Reef fish communities of the Red Sea ......................................................... 19 1.5 Objectives .................................................................................................... 21 1.6 Expected results ........................................................................................... 22 MATERIALS AND METHODS ............................................................................... 23 2.1 Study sites ................................................................................................... 23 2.2 Data collection.............................................................................................. 27 2.3 Data analysis................................................................................................ 30 RESULTS .............................................................................................................. 35 3.1 General descriptors of the fish community ................................................... 35 3.2 Multivariate Community Patterns ................................................................. 37 3.3 Components of variability in the community in the fish community .............. 59 3.4 Relationships between the fish variables and Hard Coral cover .................. 60 DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................ 69 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................... 82 APPENDICES ....................................................................................................... 91 8 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CRS-Central Red Sea GBR-Great Barrier Reef MC-Monte Carlo Test NRS-Northern Red Sea PCO-Principal Coordinate Analysis PERMANOVA-Permutational Multivariate Analysis of Variance SIMPER-Similarity Percentages SRS-Southern Red Sea 9 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1. Survey sites along the Saudi Arabian Red Sea Coast……………..……25 Figure 3.1. Fish community indices for the 53 reefs surveyed…………………...….36 Figure 3.2. Principal Components Analysis (PCO) showing the dissimilarity of fish assemblages in three regions of the Red Sea based on density after square root transformation using Bray Curtis similarity index……………………………………...37 Figure 3.3. Principal Components Analysis (PCO) showing the dissimilarity of fish assemblages in nearshore reefs of three regions of the Red Sea based on density after square root transformation using Bray Curtis similarity index……………….....40 Figure 3.4. Principal Components Analysis (PCO) showing the dissimilarity of fish assemblages in midshore reefs of two regions of the Red Sea based on density after square root transformation using Bray Curtis similarity index…………………...…...41 Figure 3.5. Principal Components Analysis (PCO) showing the dissimilarity of fish assemblages in offshore reefs of two regions of the Red Sea based on density after square root transformation using Bray Curtis similarity index…………………...…...42 Figure 3.6. Principal Components Analysis (PCO) showing the dissimilarity of fish assemblages in three regions of the Red Sea based on biomass after square root transformation using Bray Curtis similarity index……………..………………….…...43 Figure 3.7. Principal Components Analysis (PCO) showing the dissimilarity of fish assemblages in the nearshore reefs of three regions of the Red Sea based on biomass after square root transformation using Bray Curtis similarity index…..……45 Figure 3.8. Principal Components Analysis (PCO) showing the dissimilarity of fish assemblages in the midshore reefs of two regions of the Red Sea based on biomass after square root transformation using Bray Curtis similarity index………………….46 Figure 3.9. Principal Components Analysis (PCO) showing the dissimilarity of fish assemblages in the offshore reefs of two regions of the Red Sea based on biomass after square root transformation using Bray Curtis similarity index…………….……47 Figure 3.10. Relationship between the number
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