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Detrimental effects of host anemone bleaching on anemonefish populations

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Abstract

Coral bleaching and related reef degradation have caused significant declines in the abundance of reef-associated fishes. Most attention on the effects of bleaching has focused on corals, but bleaching is also prevalent in other cnidarians, including sea anemones. The consequences of anemone bleaching are unknown, and the demographic effects of bleaching on associated fish recruitment, survival, and reproduction are poorly understood. We examined the effect of habitat degradation including host anemone bleaching on fish abundance, egg production, and recruitment of the panda anemonefish (Amphiprion polymnus) near Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Following a high-temperature anomaly in shallow waters of the region, most shallow anemones to a depth of 6 m (approximately 35% of all the anemones in this area) were severely bleached. Anemone mortality was low but bleached anemones underwent a ~34% reduction in body size. Total numbers of A. polymnus were not affected by bleaching and reduction in shelter area. While egg production of females living in bleached anemones was reduced by ~38% in 2009 compared to 2008, egg production of females on unbleached anemones did not differ significantly between years. Total recruitment in 2009 was much lower than in 2008. However, we found no evidence of recruiting larvae avoiding bleached anemones at settlement suggesting that other factors or different chemical cues were more important in determining recruitment than habitat quality. These results provide the first field evidence of detrimental effects of climate-induced bleaching and habitat degradation on reproduction and recruitment of anemonefish.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Chris McKelliget, Vanessa Messmer, Juan David Arango, and Motupore Island Research Centre staff for assistance in the field. Special thanks to Steve Neale for deployment of temperature loggers and to Ray Berkelmans and Alex Hendry for access to the AIMS temperature database. Funding has been provided by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, the National Science Foundation (OCE 0424688), the Coral Reef Initiatives for the Pacific (CRISP), the TOTAL Foundation, Populations Fractionees et Insulares (PPF EPHE), and the Connectivity Working Group of the global University of Queensland—World Bank—Global Environmental Facility project, Coral Reef Target Research and Capacity Building for Management for financial support. Special thanks to Motupore Island Research Centre, Dik Knight, and Loloata Island resort for logistic support and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments in a previous version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. USR 3278 CNRS-EPHE, CRIOBE, Centre de Biologie et d’Ecologie Tropicale et Méditerrannéenne, Université de Perpignan, 66860, Perpignan Cedex, France

    P. Saenz-Agudelo & S. Planes

  2. School of Marine and Tropical Biology, and ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia

    P. Saenz-Agudelo & G. P. Jones

  3. Biology Department MS # 50, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, 02543, USA

    S. R. Thorrold

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  1. P. Saenz-Agudelo
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  2. G. P. Jones
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  3. S. R. Thorrold
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  4. S. Planes
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Correspondence to P. Saenz-Agudelo.

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Communicated by Environment Editor Prof. Rob van Woesik

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Saenz-Agudelo, P., Jones, G.P., Thorrold, S.R. et al. Detrimental effects of host anemone bleaching on anemonefish populations. Coral Reefs 30, 497–506 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-010-0716-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-010-0716-0

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