Tebbett Sterling B, Goatley Christopher H R, Bellwood David R
College of Science and Engineering, and, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia.
PLoS One. 2017 Jan 3;12(1):e0169479. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0169479. eCollection 2017.
Herbivorous and detritivorous fishes interact closely with the epilithic algal matrix (EAM) on coral reefs. While sediment and organic detrital loads within the EAM might influence this interaction, the responses of functionally distinct fishes to changing sediment and organic loads have not been investigated. Aquarium based feeding trials were performed to assess how different sediment and organic loads affected feeding by the highly abundant surgeonfishes, Ctenochaetus striatus, a detritivore, and Acanthurus nigrofuscus, a herbivore. C. striatus were highly sensitive to even small increases in sediment loads (of just 75 g m-2), displaying a significant decline in feeding rates as sediment loads increased. Although C. striatus is a specialised detritivore, changing organic loads had no effect and suggests that selection of feeding surfaces is primarily mediated by total sediment loads rather than organic loads. By contrast, A. nigrofuscus displayed no changes to its feeding behaviour regardless of sediment or organic load. These findings highlight the complex, species-specific way that sediments may mediate key ecological processes on coral reefs.
草食性和碎屑食性鱼类与珊瑚礁上的附石藻基质（EAM）密切相互作用。虽然EAM中的沉积物和有机碎屑负荷可能会影响这种相互作用，但功能不同的鱼类对沉积物和有机负荷变化的反应尚未得到研究。进行了基于水族箱的摄食试验，以评估不同的沉积物和有机负荷如何影响数量众多的刺尾鱼的摄食情况，其中栉齿刺尾鱼是一种碎屑食性鱼类，黑背鼻鱼是一种草食性鱼类。栉齿刺尾鱼对沉积物负荷的微小增加（仅75克/平方米）就高度敏感，随着沉积物负荷的增加，摄食率显著下降。尽管栉齿刺尾鱼是一种特殊的碎屑食性鱼类，但有机负荷的变化没有影响，这表明摄食表面的选择主要由总沉积物负荷而非有机负荷介导。相比之下，无论沉积物或有机负荷如何，黑背鼻鱼的摄食行为都没有变化。这些发现突出了沉积物可能介导珊瑚礁关键生态过程的复杂、物种特异性方式。
