hrvatski

Strukturalna kompleksnost susjednih staništa utječe na relativnu vrijednost naselja morske cvjetnice Posidonia oceanica kao staništa za ribe

Seagrass habitats play an important role in fish community assemblage, affecting among other variables, taxonomic diversity, abundance and fish behavior. We performed lure assisted visual census transects using SCUBA diving at 10 meters of depth during June 2011 – September 2012 to identify the relative importance of Posidonia oceanica meadows as a habitat for fishes. We predicted significant effects of varying structural complexity of Posidonia- neighboring habitats and also of matrix habitats which support Posidonia meadows as the focal habitat, on fish assemblage descriptors. We further predicted that individual fish species will exhibit significant differences in their preference for P. oceanica meadows depending on the types of habitats in close proximity. Using unconstrained, non- metric multidimensional scaling (nMDS) and permutational non-parametric MANOVA we demonstrate significant effects of the predictor variable neighboring habitat on fish community structure. These effects were maintained when controlling for other significant variables, including percentage of Posidonia cover, water temperature and compactness of the meadow.

Posidonia oceanica ; morske cvjetnice ; ribe ; struktura zajednice ; stanište

nije evidentirano

engleski

Neighboring habitat drives fish community structure of Posidonia oceanica meadows in Croatian Adriatic

Seagrass habitats play an important role in fish community assemblage, affecting among other variables, taxonomic diversity, abundance and fish behavior. We performed lure assisted visual census transects using SCUBA diving at 10 meters of depth during June 2011 – September 2012 to identify the relative importance of Posidonia oceanica meadows as a habitat for fishes. We predicted significant effects of varying structural complexity of Posidonia- neighboring habitats and also of matrix habitats which support Posidonia meadows as the focal habitat, on fish assemblage descriptors. We further predicted that individual fish species will exhibit significant differences in their preference for P. oceanica meadows depending on the types of habitats in close proximity. Using unconstrained, non- metric multidimensional scaling (nMDS) and permutational non-parametric MANOVA we demonstrate significant effects of the predictor variable neighboring habitat on fish community structure. These effects were maintained when controlling for other significant variables, including percentage of Posidonia cover, water temperature and compactness of the meadow.

Posidonia oceanica ; seagrass ; fish ; community structure ; habitat

nije evidentirano