Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-9-2020
Keywords
Community ecology, environmental impact
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-62574-y
Abstract
Large-scale anthropogenic disturbances can have direct and indirect effects on marine communities, with direct effects often taking the form of widespread injury or mortality and indirect effects manifesting as changes in food web structure. Here, we report a time series that captures both direct and indirect effects of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (DWH) on northern Gulf of Mexico (nGoM) reef fish communities. We observed significant changes in community structure immediately following the DWH, with a 38% decline in species richness and 26% decline in Shannon-Weiner diversity. Initial shifts were driven by widespread declines across a range of trophic guilds, with subsequent recovery unevenly distributed among guilds and taxa. For example, densities of small demersal invertivores, small demersal browsers, generalist carnivores, and piscivores remained persistently low with little indication of recovery seven years after the DWH. Initial declines among these guilds occurred prior to the arrival of the now-widespread, invasive lionfish (Pterois spp.), but their lack of recovery suggests lionfish predation may be affecting recovery. Factors affecting persistently low densities of generalist carnivores and piscivores are not well understood but warrant further study given the myriad ecosystem services provided by nGoM reef fishes.
Rights Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
No
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Scientific Reports, v. 10, art. 5621
Scholar Commons Citation
Lewis, Justin P.; Tarnecki, Joseph H.; Garner, Steven B.; Chagaris, David D.; and Patterson, William F. III, "Changes in Reef Fish Community Structure Following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill" (2020). C-IMAGE Publications. 3.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cimage_pubs/3
Comments
Data used in this article are available for download.
Reef fish densities (per 1,000 m3) at natural reefs sites estimated with ROV video sampling in the northern Gulf of Mexico from November 2010 – August 2011
Reef fish densities (per 1,000 m3) at natural reef sites estimated with remotely operated vehicle (ROV) video sampling in the northern Gulf of Mexico from 2015-08-30 to 2017-11-02