The influence of habitat availability on juvenile fish abundance in a northeastern New Zealand estuary

14Citations
Citations of this article
35Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

This article is free to access.

Abstract

Management of fish populations is often focused on the exploitation of adult fish. Maintaining the habitat requirements of all life stages may also be an important consideration. We investigated the value of structured habitat to juvenile fishes within a northeastern New Zealand harbour using artificial seagrass units (ASUs). Specifically, we deployed ASUs across treatments with high vs. low habitat manipulations. We hypothesised that if the abundance of recruiting juvenile fishes was greater on the high habitat availability treatments this would suggest that the availability of habitat was limiting juvenile fish abundance. Our analyses were focused on the four most abundant fishes that settled on our ASUs: snapper (Pagrus auratus); spotty (Notolabrus celidotus); trevally (Pseudocaranx dentex); and an assemblage of pipefish species. For snapper, spotty and pipefish, abundance was greater on the high habitat availability treatments. This result would be unlikely to occur if the availability of juvenile fishes was limiting, suggesting that juvenile fish abundance is more likely to be limited by habitat. In terms of spatial gradients, spotty abundance and size increased with distance into the harbour. The spatial gradient present for spotty indicates the importance of placing the habitat dependency of juvenile fish into a landscape context. Overall, these results demonstrate that maintaining structured habitats may be an important consideration for some valuable inshore fish populations in northeastern New Zealand. © 2014 The Royal Society of New Zealand.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Parsons, D. M., Middleton, C., Smith, M. D., & Cole, R. G. (2014). The influence of habitat availability on juvenile fish abundance in a northeastern New Zealand estuary. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 48(2), 216–228. https://doi.org/10.1080/00288330.2013.875927

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free