Algae associated with coral degradation affects risk assessment in coral reef fishes

Habitat degradation alters the chemical landscape through which information about community dynamics is transmitted. Olfactory information is crucial for risk assessment in aquatic organisms as predators release odours when they capture prey that lead to an alarm response in conspecific prey. Recent studies show some coral reef fishes are not unable to use alarm odours when surrounded by dead-degraded coral. Our study examines the spatial and temporal dynamics of this alarm odour-nullifying effect, and which substratum types may be responsible. Field experiments showed that settlement-stage damselfish were not able to detect alarm odours within 2 m downcurrent of degraded coral, and that the antipredator response was re-established 20 - 40 min after transferral to live coral. Laboratory experiments indicate that the chemicals from common components of the degraded habitats, the cyanobacteria, Okeania sp., and diatom, Pseudo-nitzschia sp., prevented an alarm odour response. The same nullifying effect was found for the common red algae, Galaxauria robusta, suggesting that the problem is of a broader nature than previously realised. Those fish species best able to compensate for a lack of olfactory risk information at key times will be those potentially most resilient to the effects of coral degradation that operate through this mechanism.

 

    Data Record Details
    Data record related to this publication Algae associated with coral degradation affects risk assessment in coral reef fishes
    Data Publication title Algae associated with coral degradation affects risk assessment in coral reef fishes
  • Description

    Habitat degradation alters the chemical landscape through which information about community dynamics is transmitted. Olfactory information is crucial for risk assessment in aquatic organisms as predators release odours when they capture prey that lead to an alarm response in conspecific prey. Recent studies show some coral reef fishes are not unable to use alarm odours when surrounded by dead-degraded coral. Our study examines the spatial and temporal dynamics of this alarm odour-nullifying effect, and which substratum types may be responsible. Field experiments showed that settlement-stage damselfish were not able to detect alarm odours within 2 m downcurrent of degraded coral, and that the antipredator response was re-established 20 - 40 min after transferral to live coral. Laboratory experiments indicate that the chemicals from common components of the degraded habitats, the cyanobacteria, Okeania sp., and diatom, Pseudo-nitzschia sp., prevented an alarm odour response. The same nullifying effect was found for the common red algae, Galaxauria robusta, suggesting that the problem is of a broader nature than previously realised. Those fish species best able to compensate for a lack of olfactory risk information at key times will be those potentially most resilient to the effects of coral degradation that operate through this mechanism.

     

  • Other Descriptors
    • Descriptor

      This dataset is available as a spreadsheet in MS Excel (.xlsx) and Open Document formats (.ods)

    • Descriptor type Note
  • Data type dataset
  • Keywords
    • chemical alarm odours
    • climate change
    • Coral reef fish
    • predator-prey
    • risk assessment
    • ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
  • Funding source
    • Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (EI140100117)
    • Australian Research Council Discovery (DP170103372)
  • Research grant(s)/Scheme name(s)
    • 21109 - (James Cook University Research Activities) ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrated Coral Reef Studies
    • 22622 - (James Cook University Research Activities) Coping with habitat degradation on coral reefs
  • Research themes
    Tropical Ecosystems, Conservation and Climate Change
    FoR Codes (*)
    SEO Codes
    Specify spatial or temporal setting of the data
    Temporal (time) coverage
  • Start Date 2016/10/26
  • End Date 2016/12/10
  • Time Period
    Spatial (location) coverage
  • Locations
    • Lizard Island, Queensland, Australia
    Data Locations

    Type Location Notes
    Attachment Experimental_data.xlsx MS Excel (.xlsx) format
    Attachment Experimental_data.ods Open Document (.ods) format
    The Data Manager is: Mark McCormick
    College or Centre
    Access conditions Open: free access under license
  • Alternative access conditions
  • Data record size 25K
  • Related publications
      Name McCormick, Mark I., Barry, Randall P., and Allan, Bridie J. M. (2017) Algae associated with coral degradation affects risk assessment in coral reef fishes. Scientific Reports, 7.
    • URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-17197-1
    • Notes
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    Citation McCormick, Mark (2017): Algae associated with coral degradation affects risk assessment in coral reef fishes. James Cook University. https://doi.org/10.4225/28/59b89728339a9