How important are mangroves and seagrass beds for coral-reef fish? The nursery hypothesis tested on an island scale Export

@article{citeulike:933571, abstract = {There has been much controversy over the degree to which mangroves and seagrass beds function as nursery habitats for the juveniles of fish species that live on coral reefs as adults. In previous studies we have shown that the juveniles of at least 17 Caribbean reef-fish species are highly associated with bays containing mangroves and seagrass beds as nurseries, and that juveniles of these species are absent in bays lacking such habitats. In this study we therefore hypothesised that on islands lacking these bay nursery habitats, adults of these fish species will be absent or show low densities on the coral reef. Densities of the 17 species were compared between the reefs of Caribbean islands with and without mangroves and seagrass beds. On reefs of islands lacking these habitats, complete absence or low densities were observed for 11 of the 17 species, several of which are of commercial importance to fisheries. This finding suggests a very important nursery function of such habitats and implies that the densities of several fish species on coral reefs are a function of the presence of nearby bays containing mangroves and seagrass beds as nurseries. The results indicate that degradation or loss of these habitats could have significant impacts on reef-fish stocks in the Caribbean.}, author = {Nagelkerken and Roberts, C. M. and van der Velde, G. and Dorenbosch, M. and van Riel, M. C. and Cocheret and Nienhuis, P. H.}, citeulike-article-id = {933571}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v244/p299-305/}, comment = {This article tries to support a very important connection between different coastal/marine ecosystems. Some of it's data regarding part of the fish species studied seems to be conclusive in the relation between nursery ecosystems (mangrove and seagrass beds) and the adult life ecosystem of some fish species (coral reefs). The other part of the data is fragile and requires more sampling and analysis before allowing any state about connectivity between "nursery" and "adult" ecosystems.}, day = {29}, journal = {Marine Ecology Progress Series}, keywords = {connectivity, coral-reefs, mangrove, seagrass}, month = {November}, pages = {299--305}, posted-at = {2006-11-06 15:37:53}, priority = {0}, title = {How important are mangroves and seagrass beds for coral-reef fish? The nursery hypothesis tested on an island scale}, url = {http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v244/p299-305/}, volume = {244}, year = {2002} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:933571 L3 - citeulike-article-id:933571 N2 - There has been much controversy over the degree to which mangroves and seagrass beds function as nursery habitats for the juveniles of fish species that live on coral reefs as adults. In previous studies we have shown that the juveniles of at least 17 Caribbean reef-fish species are highly associated with bays containing mangroves and seagrass beds as nurseries, and that juveniles of these species are absent in bays lacking such habitats. In this study we therefore hypothesised that on islands lacking these bay nursery habitats, adults of these fish species will be absent or show low densities on the coral reef. Densities of the 17 species were compared between the reefs of Caribbean islands with and without mangroves and seagrass beds. On reefs of islands lacking these habitats, complete absence or low densities were observed for 11 of the 17 species, several of which are of commercial importance to fisheries. This finding suggests a very important nursery function of such habitats and implies that the densities of several fish species on coral reefs are a function of the presence of nearby bays containing mangroves and seagrass beds as nurseries. The results indicate that degradation or loss of these habitats could have significant impacts on reef-fish stocks in the Caribbean. JF - Marine Ecology Progress Series EP - 305 TI - How important are mangroves and seagrass beds for coral-reef fish? The nursery hypothesis tested on an island scale VL - 244 SP - 299 KW - connectivity KW - coral-reefs KW - mangrove KW - seagrass N1 - This article tries to support a very important connection between different coastal/marine ecosystems. Some of it's data regarding part of the fish species studied seems to be conclusive in the relation between nursery ecosystems (mangrove and seagrass beds) and the adult life ecosystem of some fish species (coral reefs). The other part of the data is fragile and requires more sampling and analysis before allowing any state about connectivity between "nursery" and "adult" ecosystems. AU - Nagelkerken AU - Roberts, CM AU - van der Velde, G AU - Dorenbosch, M AU - van Riel, MC AU - Cocheret AU - Nienhuis, PH PY - 2002/11/29/ UR - http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v244/p299-305/ ER -