TY - JOUR
T1 - Environmental extremes are associated with dietary patterns in arabian gulf reef fishes
AU - Shraim, Rasha
AU - Dieng, Mame M.
AU - Vinu, Manikandan
AU - Vaughan, Grace
AU - Dain, McParland
AU - Idaghdour, Youssef
AU - Burt, John A.
N1 - Funding Information:
The study is supported by New York University Abu Dhabi research funds to RS, YI, and JB.
Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the New York University Abu Dhabi Internal Review Board for IACUC approval and the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi for sampling permits. Sequencing and data processing were supported by the New York University Abu Dhabi Sequencing and Bioinformatics Core teams, and their assistance is greatly appreciated.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Shraim, Dieng, Vinu, Vaughan, McParland, Idaghdour and Burt.
PY - 2017/9/5
Y1 - 2017/9/5
N2 - Climate change is affecting the trophic ecology of reef fishes through changes in reef-associated food availability and fish feeding behavior. The southern Arabian Gulf is a thermally extreme environment, providing an opportunity to study fish diets on reefs with summer temperatures representative of next-century conditions elsewhere. Using 18S metagenomic analyses of stomach contents, we provide the first description of the dietary composition of three abundant reef fishes (Pomacanthus maculosus, Pomacentrus aquilus, and Pomacentrus trichrourus) fromthe thermally extreme southern Arabian Gulf, with five sampling periods across 1 year used to assess seasonal variation in diet. In total, 146 stomach content samples were sequenced, resulting in 9.6 million filtered reads that aligned to 17 classes in 14 phyla. Corals (Cnidaria, Anthozoa) dominated stomach contents of all three fishes (overall mean: 74.6, 40.6, and 21.2% of stomach reads, respectively), suggesting coral consumption to be characteristic of reef fish diet in the region. Sanger sequencing validated the presence of corals in the stomach contents and identified two common genera in the region, Porites and Platygyra, as part of the diet. Other common phyla included sponges and annelid worms (P.maculosus: 14.9%, 4.1%; P.aquilus: 5.9%, 16.7%; P.trichrourus: 8.2%, 14.7%, respectively), with the remainder comprised of 11 other phyla. Algae were virtually absent in diets of all three species. The P. maculosus diet was consistently coral/sponge dominated across the year, but there was substantial seasonal variation in the damselfishes, with diets dominated by coral in the hottest month (August; P.aquilus: 89.4%, P.trichrourus: 51.5%) but broadest in spring (March, May) when corals became less common (<19.8% each) and bivalves, free living ascidians, and various arthropods increased; parasitic cestodes were also abundant in damselfish stomachs in spring (mean: >16.4%).These results suggest that these fishes have developed a feeding ecology responsive to the fluctuating and extreme environmental conditions of their region. These results broaden our understanding of the diets of these three species and document the nature, complexity and temporal dynamics of reef fish diets in the most thermally extreme coral reef environment on earth.
AB - Climate change is affecting the trophic ecology of reef fishes through changes in reef-associated food availability and fish feeding behavior. The southern Arabian Gulf is a thermally extreme environment, providing an opportunity to study fish diets on reefs with summer temperatures representative of next-century conditions elsewhere. Using 18S metagenomic analyses of stomach contents, we provide the first description of the dietary composition of three abundant reef fishes (Pomacanthus maculosus, Pomacentrus aquilus, and Pomacentrus trichrourus) fromthe thermally extreme southern Arabian Gulf, with five sampling periods across 1 year used to assess seasonal variation in diet. In total, 146 stomach content samples were sequenced, resulting in 9.6 million filtered reads that aligned to 17 classes in 14 phyla. Corals (Cnidaria, Anthozoa) dominated stomach contents of all three fishes (overall mean: 74.6, 40.6, and 21.2% of stomach reads, respectively), suggesting coral consumption to be characteristic of reef fish diet in the region. Sanger sequencing validated the presence of corals in the stomach contents and identified two common genera in the region, Porites and Platygyra, as part of the diet. Other common phyla included sponges and annelid worms (P.maculosus: 14.9%, 4.1%; P.aquilus: 5.9%, 16.7%; P.trichrourus: 8.2%, 14.7%, respectively), with the remainder comprised of 11 other phyla. Algae were virtually absent in diets of all three species. The P. maculosus diet was consistently coral/sponge dominated across the year, but there was substantial seasonal variation in the damselfishes, with diets dominated by coral in the hottest month (August; P.aquilus: 89.4%, P.trichrourus: 51.5%) but broadest in spring (March, May) when corals became less common (<19.8% each) and bivalves, free living ascidians, and various arthropods increased; parasitic cestodes were also abundant in damselfish stomachs in spring (mean: >16.4%).These results suggest that these fishes have developed a feeding ecology responsive to the fluctuating and extreme environmental conditions of their region. These results broaden our understanding of the diets of these three species and document the nature, complexity and temporal dynamics of reef fish diets in the most thermally extreme coral reef environment on earth.
KW - 18S rRNA
KW - Angelfish
KW - Arabian Gulf
KW - Damselfish
KW - Diet
KW - Persian Gulf
KW - Trophic
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85028995201&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fmars.2017.00285
DO - 10.3389/fmars.2017.00285
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85028995201
SN - 2296-7745
VL - 4
JO - Frontiers in Marine Science
JF - Frontiers in Marine Science
IS - SEP
M1 - 285
ER -