engleski

The effects of interference interactions on fish communities as assessed by baited remote underwater videography (BRUV)

Interference competition can exclude subordinate species from habitats and alter community structure. An example is the predatory release of mesopredators resulting in changes in their prey and competitor community. Baited, remote, underwater videography is a powerful census tool that can be biased if dominance excludes species from view. At interspecific encounters during BRUV deployments in the Adriatic Sea, Croatia, no such general bias occurred. BRUVS detected few negative co - occurrences for species pairs and they rarely interfered at opportunities near the bait. Most species pairs positively co -occurred and were unique for each habitat type, which indicates that habitat heterogeneity plays an important role in driving fish biodiversity. This research was supported by the Croatian Science Foundation under the project COREBIO (3107).

fish behavior ; biodiversity ; competition ; monitoring ; Mediterranean sea

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