Extent of Mangrove Nursery Habitats Determines the Geographic Distribution of a Coral Reef Fish in a South-Pacific Archipelago

Christelle Pallion1, Kevin Mackay2, Laurent Wantiez3, Michel Kulbicki4, Maylis Labonne5, Laurent Vigliola6

1 Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), UR227 CoRéUs, Laboratoire Excellence LABEX corai, Nouméa, New Caledonia; 2 NIWA, Private Bag 14-901, Kilbirnie, New Zealand; 3 Université de Nouvelle-Calédonie (UNC), LIVE (EA4243),, Nouméa, New Caledonia; 4 Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), UR227 CoRéUs, Laboratoire Excellence LABEX corail, Banyuls sur Mer, France; 5 Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), LEMAR (UMR 6539), Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer, Plouzane, France; 6 Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), UR227 CoRéUs, Laboratoire Excellence LABEX corail, Nouméa, New Caledonia

Corresponding author(s): Christelle Pallion, Kevin Mackay

Received {date}; Revised {date}; Accepted {date}; Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Resource Citation

Paillon C, Wantiez L, Kulbicki M, Labonne M, Vigliola L (2014) Data from: Extent of Mangrove Nursery Habitats Determines the Geographic Distribution of a Coral Reef Fish in a South-Pacific Archipelago. Southwestern Pacific OBIS, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Wellington, New Zealand, 30 records, Online http://nzobisipt.niwa.co.nz/resource.do?r=lfulviflamma released on February 26, 2016.

Abstract

Understanding the drivers of species' geographic distribution has fundamental implications for the management of biodiversity. For coral reef fishes, mangroves have long been recognized as important nursery habitats sustaining biodiversity in the Western Atlantic but there is still debate about their role in the Indo-Pacific. Here, we combined LA-ICP-MS otolith microchemistry, underwater visual censuses (UVC) and mangrove cartography to estimate the importance of mangroves for the Indo-Pacific coral reef fish Lutjanus fulviflamma in the archipelago of New Caledonia. Otolith elemental compositions allowed high discrimination of mangroves and reefs with 83.8% and 98.7% correct classification, respectively. Reefs were characterized by higher concentrations of Rb and Sr and mangroves by higher concentrations of Ba, Cr, Mn and Sn. All adult L. fulviflamma collected on reefs presented a mangrove signature during their juvenile stage with 85% inhabiting mangrove for their entire juvenile life (about 1 year). The analysis of 2942 UVC revealed that the species was absent from isolated islands of the New Caledonian archipelago where mangroves were absent. Furthermore, strong positive correlations existed between the abundance of L. fulviflamma and the area of mangrove (r = 0.84 for occurrence, 0.93 for density and 0.89 for biomass). These results indicate that mangrove forest is an obligatory juvenile habitat for L. fulviflamma in New Caledonia and emphasize the potential importance of mangroves for Indo-Pacific coral reef fishes.

Keywords: Occurrence, Observation

General description

Additional information: marine, harvested by iOBIS

Data published through GBIF: https://nzobisipt.niwa.co.nz/resource?r=lfulviflamma

Taxonomic coverage

Taxonomic ranks
Species: Lutjanus fulviflamma

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: New Caledonia
Coordinates: 22°26'42''S and 20°13'30''S Latitude; 163°55'30''E and 166°55'33.6''E Longitude 

Temporal coverage: 2009 - 2011

Methods

Method step description: All equipment used for otolith handling was previously decontaminated in 5% ultrapure nitric acid bath during 24 h, rinsed three times with ultrapure water (18.2 MΩ), dried under a laminar flow hood (HEPA 100) and stored dry in plastic bag under the flow hood. At the lab, fish samples were unfrozen and each individual was measured (Fork length, FL) to the nearest mm and weighted to the nearest gram. Paired sagittal otoliths were extracted using ceramic tweezers, cleaned with ultrapure water (18.2 MΩ) and stored dry in plastic vials.
Study extent description: Fish were sampled for otolith analysis in different mangrove and reef habitats at 11 sites around the main land of New Caledonia over three years (2009, 2010 and 2011). Adults were collected in reef habitats by spear fishing and juveniles were collected in mangroves using small mesh (7 mm) gillnets surrounding an isolated mangrove tree. Gillnets were deployed at high tide and fish collected with handnets in a few cm of water and/or on the ground at low tide. Immediately after collection, fish were put on iced water (<5°C) to be anesthetized. Afterwards, they were transported to the laboratory where they were stored in a freezer (at −20°C) until dissection.
Sampling description: The first sampling took place during austral summer 2009 in the mangroves and inner barrier reefs of two sites (Gatope and St Vincent). The second sampling was carried out during austral winter 2010 in the mangroves and inner barrier reefs of eleven sites around the main island. During this sampling, fringing and intermediate reefs were also sampled at four sites (Gatope, Ouano, Prony and St Vincent). Sampling in the mangroves, fringing, intermediate and inner barrier reefs at these 4 sites was repeated during austral winter 2011

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive Extent of Mangrove Nursery Habitats Determines the Geographic Distribution of a Coral Reef Fish in a South-Pacific Archipelago
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: https://nzobisipt.niwa.co.nz/archive.do?r=lfulviflamma
Publication date of data: 2018-08-08
Language: English
Licences of use: Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2016-04-21
Hierarchy level: Dataset

References
Paillon C, Wantiez L, Kulbicki M, Labonne M, Vigliola L (2014) Data from: Extent of Mangrove Nursery Habitats Determines the Geographic Distribution of a Coral Reef Fish in a South-Pacific Archipelago. PLoS ONE 9(8): e105158. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0105158