Diversity and Composition of Demersal Fishes along a Depth Gradient Assessed by Baited Remote Underwater Stereo-Video

Background: Continental slopes are among the steepest environmental gradients on earth. However, they still lack finer quantification and characterisation of their faunal diversity patterns for many parts of the world.Methodology/Principal Findings: Changes in fish community structure and diversity...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Zintzen, V., Anderson, M., Roberts, C., Harvey, Euan, Stewart, A., Struthers, C.
Format:	Journal Article
Published:	Public Library of Science 2012
Online Access:	http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0048522 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/28027

id	curtin-20.500.11937-28027
recordtype	eprints
spelling	curtin-20.500.11937-280272017-02-28T01:42:35Z Diversity and Composition of Demersal Fishes along a Depth Gradient Assessed by Baited Remote Underwater Stereo-Video Zintzen, V. Anderson, M. Roberts, C. Harvey, Euan Stewart, A. Struthers, C. Background: Continental slopes are among the steepest environmental gradients on earth. However, they still lack finer quantification and characterisation of their faunal diversity patterns for many parts of the world.Methodology/Principal Findings: Changes in fish community structure and diversity along a depth gradient from 50 to 1200 m were studied from replicated stereo baited remote underwater video deployments within each of seven depth zones at three locations in north-eastern New Zealand. Strong, but gradual turnover in the identities of species and community structure was observed with increasing depth. Species richness peaked in shallow depths, followed by a decrease beyond 100 m to a stable average value from 700 to 1200 m. Evenness increased to 700 m depth, followed by a decrease to 1200 m. Average taxonomic distinctness ?+ response was unimodal with a peak at 300 m. The variation in taxonomic distinctness ?+ first decreased sharply from 50 to 300 m, then increased beyond 500 m depth, indicating that species from deep samples belonged to more distant taxonomic groups than those from shallow samples. Fishes with northern distributions progressively decreased in their proportional representation with depth whereas those with widespread distributions increased.Conclusions/Significance:This study provides the first characterization of diversity patterns for bait-attracted fish species on continental slopes in New Zealand and is an imperative primary step towards development of explanatory and predictive ecological models, as well as being fundamental for the implementation of efficient management and conservation strategies for fishery resources. 2012 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/28027 http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0048522 Public Library of Science restricted
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Curtin University Malaysia
building	Curtin Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
description	Background: Continental slopes are among the steepest environmental gradients on earth. However, they still lack finer quantification and characterisation of their faunal diversity patterns for many parts of the world.Methodology/Principal Findings: Changes in fish community structure and diversity along a depth gradient from 50 to 1200 m were studied from replicated stereo baited remote underwater video deployments within each of seven depth zones at three locations in north-eastern New Zealand. Strong, but gradual turnover in the identities of species and community structure was observed with increasing depth. Species richness peaked in shallow depths, followed by a decrease beyond 100 m to a stable average value from 700 to 1200 m. Evenness increased to 700 m depth, followed by a decrease to 1200 m. Average taxonomic distinctness ?+ response was unimodal with a peak at 300 m. The variation in taxonomic distinctness ?+ first decreased sharply from 50 to 300 m, then increased beyond 500 m depth, indicating that species from deep samples belonged to more distant taxonomic groups than those from shallow samples. Fishes with northern distributions progressively decreased in their proportional representation with depth whereas those with widespread distributions increased.Conclusions/Significance:This study provides the first characterization of diversity patterns for bait-attracted fish species on continental slopes in New Zealand and is an imperative primary step towards development of explanatory and predictive ecological models, as well as being fundamental for the implementation of efficient management and conservation strategies for fishery resources.
format	Journal Article
author	Zintzen, V. Anderson, M. Roberts, C. Harvey, Euan Stewart, A. Struthers, C.
spellingShingle	Zintzen, V. Anderson, M. Roberts, C. Harvey, Euan Stewart, A. Struthers, C. Diversity and Composition of Demersal Fishes along a Depth Gradient Assessed by Baited Remote Underwater Stereo-Video
author_facet	Zintzen, V. Anderson, M. Roberts, C. Harvey, Euan Stewart, A. Struthers, C.
author_sort	Zintzen, V.
title	Diversity and Composition of Demersal Fishes along a Depth Gradient Assessed by Baited Remote Underwater Stereo-Video
title_short	Diversity and Composition of Demersal Fishes along a Depth Gradient Assessed by Baited Remote Underwater Stereo-Video
title_full	Diversity and Composition of Demersal Fishes along a Depth Gradient Assessed by Baited Remote Underwater Stereo-Video
title_fullStr	Diversity and Composition of Demersal Fishes along a Depth Gradient Assessed by Baited Remote Underwater Stereo-Video
title_full_unstemmed	Diversity and Composition of Demersal Fishes along a Depth Gradient Assessed by Baited Remote Underwater Stereo-Video
title_sort	diversity and composition of demersal fishes along a depth gradient assessed by baited remote underwater stereo-video
publisher	Public Library of Science
publishDate	2012
url	http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0048522 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/28027
first_indexed	2018-09-06T21:15:47Z
last_indexed	2018-09-06T21:15:47Z
_version_	1610894328712921088

Diversity and Composition of Demersal Fishes along a Depth Gradient Assessed by Baited Remote Underwater Stereo-Video

Similar Items