Andradi-Brown Dominic A, Macaya-Solis Consuelo, Exton Dan A, Gress Erika, Wright Georgina, Rogers Alex D
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, The Tinbergen Building, South Parks Road, Oxford United Kingdom.
Operation Wallacea, Wallace House, Old Bolingbroke, Spilsby, Lincolnshire United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2016 Dec 13;11(12):e0168235. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0168235. eCollection 2016.
Fish surveys form the backbone of reef monitoring and management initiatives throughout the tropics, and understanding patterns in biases between techniques is crucial if outputs are to address key objectives optimally. Often biases are not consistent across natural environmental gradients such as depth, leading to uncertainty in interpretation of results. Recently there has been much interest in mesophotic reefs (reefs from 30-150 m depth) as refuge habitats from fishing pressure, leading to many comparisons of reef fish communities over depth gradients. Here we compare fish communities using stereo-video footage recorded via baited remote underwater video (BRUV) and diver-operated video (DOV) systems on shallow and mesophotic reefs in the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, Caribbean. We show inconsistent responses across families, species and trophic groups between methods across the depth gradient. Fish species and family richness were higher using BRUV at both depth ranges, suggesting that BRUV is more appropriate for recording all components of the fish community. Fish length distributions were not different between methods on shallow reefs, yet BRUV recorded more small fish on mesophotic reefs. However, DOV consistently recorded greater relative fish community biomass of herbivores, suggesting that studies focusing on herbivores should consider using DOV. Our results highlight the importance of considering what component of reef fish community researchers and managers are most interested in surveying when deciding which survey technique to use across natural gradients such as depth.
鱼类调查是整个热带地区珊瑚礁监测和管理举措的核心内容，若要使调查结果最佳地实现关键目标，了解不同技术之间偏差的模式至关重要。偏差通常在诸如深度等自然环境梯度中并不一致，这导致结果解释存在不确定性。最近，中光层珊瑚礁（深度为30 - 150米的珊瑚礁）作为免受捕捞压力的避难栖息地备受关注，这引发了许多关于珊瑚礁鱼类群落沿深度梯度的比较研究。在此，我们使用通过诱饵远程水下视频（BRUV）和潜水员操作视频（DOV）系统在加勒比地区中美洲堡礁的浅海和中光层珊瑚礁上记录的立体视频片段，对鱼类群落进行比较。我们发现，在整个深度梯度上，不同方法在科、物种和营养类群之间的反应不一致。在两个深度范围内，使用BRUV记录的鱼类物种和科的丰富度更高，这表明BRUV更适合记录鱼类群落的所有组成部分。在浅海珊瑚礁上，不同方法记录的鱼的长度分布没有差异，但BRUV在中光层珊瑚礁上记录到更多小鱼。然而，DOV始终记录到食草动物的相对鱼类群落生物量更大，这表明专注于食草动物的研究应考虑使用DOV。我们的结果强调了在决定跨深度等自然梯度使用哪种调查技术时，考虑珊瑚礁鱼类群落中研究人员和管理人员最感兴趣调查哪个组成部分的重要性。
