Scott Anna, Dixson Danielle L
National Marine Science Centre and Marine Ecology Research Centre, School of Environment, Science and Engineering, Southern Cross University, PO Box 4321, Coffs Harbour, New South Wales 2450, Australia
School of Biology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 310 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332-0230, USA School of Marine Science and Policy, University of Delaware, 111 Robinson Hall, Newark, DE 19716, USA.
Proc Biol Sci. 2016 May 25;283(1831). doi: 10.1098/rspb.2015.2694.
Understanding how bleaching impacts the settlement of symbiotic habitat specialists and whether there is flexibility in settlement choices with regard to habitat quality is essential given our changing climate. We used five anemonefishes (Amphiprion clarkii, Amphiprion latezonatus, Amphiprion ocellaris, Amphiprion percula and Premnas biaculeatus) and three host sea anemones (Entacmaea quadricolor, Heteractis crispa and Heteractis magnifica) in paired-choice flume experiments to determine whether habitat naive juveniles have the olfactory capabilities to distinguish between unbleached and bleached hosts, and how this may affect settlement decisions. All anemonefishes were able to distinguish between bleached and unbleached hosts, and responded only to chemical cues from species-specific host anemones irrespective of health status, indicating a lack of flexibility in host use. While bleached hosts were selected as habitat, this occurred only when unbleached options were unavailable, with the exception of A. latezonatus, which showed strong preferences for H. crispa regardless of health. This study highlights the potential deleterious indirect impacts of declining habitat quality during larval settlement in habitat specialists, which could be important in the field, given that bleaching events are becoming increasingly common.
鉴于我们不断变化的气候，了解白化如何影响共生栖息地专家的定居，以及在栖息地质量方面定居选择是否具有灵活性至关重要。我们在配对选择水槽实验中使用了五种小丑鱼（克氏双锯鱼、宽带双锯鱼、眼斑双锯鱼、公子小丑鱼和棘颊雀鲷）和三种宿主海葵（四色地毯海葵、卷曲海葵和巨大海葵），以确定对栖息地不熟悉的幼鱼是否具有嗅觉能力来区分未白化和白化的宿主，以及这可能如何影响定居决策。所有小丑鱼都能够区分白化和未白化的宿主，并且仅对来自特定物种宿主海葵的化学信号做出反应，而不管其健康状况如何，这表明在宿主选择上缺乏灵活性。虽然白化宿主被选为栖息地，但这仅在没有未白化选项时才会发生，除了宽带双锯鱼，无论健康状况如何，它都对卷曲海葵表现出强烈的偏好。这项研究强调了栖息地质量下降在栖息地专家幼体定居期间可能产生的有害间接影响，鉴于白化事件越来越普遍，这在野外可能很重要。
