4.6 Article

Habitat degradation increases interspecific trophic competition between three spiny lobster species in Seychelles

期刊

ESTUARINE COASTAL AND SHELF SCIENCE
卷 256, 期 -, 页码 -

出版社

ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecss.2021.107368

关键词

Resource partitioning; Climate change; Coral bleaching; Decapod crustaceans; Benthic predators; Western Indian Ocean

资金

  1. Seychelles Government
  2. European Fisheries Partnership Agreement (EU-FPA)
  3. Institute for Research and Development (IRD)

向作者/读者索取更多资源

The study found potential interspecific competition among three species of Seychelles spiny lobsters, with P. penicillatus showing greater adaptive capacity. Results suggest that competition between Seychelles spiny lobsters may increase in the future as the frequency and severity of bleaching events is predicted to increase with climate change.
Spiny lobsters (P. penicillatus, P. longipes and P. versicolor) are heavily dependent on habitats like coral reefs, known to be highly vulnerable to climate change-driven degradation. Yet, little is known about their trophic ecology and their adaptive capacity to a changing environment. In this study, we used fatty acids (FA) analysed in the hepatopancreas and 813C and 815N stable isotopes analysed in the tail muscle of three spiny lobster species from the Seychelles coastal waters to (1) infer habitat use, dietary patterns and potential for resource competition and (2) investigate the effects of reef type and coral bleaching on their trophic niche metrics. We found that there was a potential for interspecific competition between the three species, shown by their high dietary overlap (mean FA niche overlap ranging from 71.2% to 99.5% for P. longipes and P. versicolor in P. penicillatus) and similar habitat use (813C value ranges). P. penicillatus, the largest of the three species, was more a generalist than the two other species (i.e., had a larger FA niche) and P. versicolor seemed to feed on smaller/earlier life stage prey than P. longipes (based on differences in 815N values). The potential for resource competition of Seychelles spiny lobsters appeared higher in granite than carbonate reefs, and in post-2016 coral bleaching reefs. Our results suggest that P. penicillatus could have a greater adaptive capacity to climate change due to its higher dietary plasticity and that competition between Seychelles spiny lobsters may increase in the future as the frequency and severity of bleaching events is predicted to increase with climate change.

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