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No detectable effect of lionfish (Pterois volitans and P. miles) invasion on a healthy reef fish assemblage in Archipelago Los Roques National Park, Venezuela

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Abstract

There is an increasing concern that invasive lionfish will have dramatic impacts on native reef fish assemblages in the Caribbean. However, the intensity and speed of such changes will probably depend on the initial structure of each assemblage and on the lionfish population characteristics. The species composition of native fishes, diet and size structures were analyzed on a protected Venezuelan reef, through visual census on zones with and without lionfish, 1 and 3 years after the first sighting of Pterois (lionfish). Lionfish mean density ± SD increased from 30 ± 83.5 (n = 22) to 121 ± 164  ind ha−1 (n = 22), with an important increase in lionfish over 30 cm and the near absence of juveniles. Native species richness and densities remained stable through time. No significant change of native fish assemblage structure, species richness and density of potential Pterois prey, predators and competitors was found over time, but zones with lionfish had significantly higher levels of prey and predators, and significantly different fish assemblage structures. Most importantly, there was no interaction between time and the presence of Pterois on these metrics. Our results may suggest that: 1—a healthy composition of the initial structure of the reef fish assemblage may moderate the early impact of lionfish, and the observed lionfish densities (mean ± SD = 121 ± 164  ind ha−1, n = 22) were not sufficient to induce a significant change in the assemblage; and 2—lionfish probably select zones where species richness and density of prey are the highest.

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Acknowledgments

This work was made possible thanks to the gracious collaboration of Fundación Científica Los Roques (FCLR). We are grateful to the foundation for having provided free access to their installations on Dos Mosquises island and for their invaluable logistical support. Thank you to JC. Bastidas from Arrecifes divers for providing diving equipment in Gran Roque, to P. Marquez-Lossada for the accomodation and to the National Parks Institute of Venezuela (INPARQUES)’s office in Gran Roque for their logistical support. We would like to thank L.T.A. and Albatros airline for carrying us and the INPARQUES for issuing the permits to work in the park. Thank you to F. Mazeas from DEAL Guadeloupe for providing data of local lionfish captures, to IM. Côté and SJ. Green for their valuable comments on this manuscript and to V. Parravicini for his assistance on statistics.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standard

Our study complies with the current laws of Venezuela and was allowed by the National Parks Institute of Venezuela (INPARQUES).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. 30 place Rigaud, 66000, Perpignan, France

    Simon Elise & Isabel Urbina-Barreto

  2. Los Bagres, Calle Velásquez, casa S/N, Municipio Díaz, Isla de Margarita, Venezuela

    Hazael Boadas-Gil

  3. Los Rosales, Avenida El Cortijo, Quinta Belucha (#40), Caracas, 1040, Venezuela

    Miguel Galindo-Vivas

  4. UR 227 - “CoReUs”, IRD - Laboratoire Arago, BP 44 - 66651, Banyuls/mer, France

    Michel Kulbicki

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  1. Simon Elise
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Correspondence to Michel Kulbicki.

Additional information

Communicated by K. Clements.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Online Resource 1 List of potential lionfish prey, competitors and predators considered in our study (PDF 119 kb)

227_2014_2571_MOESM2_ESM.pdf

Online Resource 2 Mean densities (ind.m−2) of the life-history traits groups and functional entities of the Dos Mosquises’ reef fish assemblage, between zones, habitats and years. Meaning of the groups is given in chapter Materials and Methods (PDF 211 kb)

227_2014_2571_MOESM3_ESM.pdf

Online Resource 3 Results of the Moran I tests performed on the residuals of the ANOVAs and MANOVAs. Meaning of the groups is given in chapter Materials and Methods. SR Species Richness; DENS Density; NS not significant; * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001 (PDF 153 kb)

Online Resource 4 Results of the SLM on prey and competitor densities (PDF 265 kb)

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Elise, S., Urbina-Barreto, I., Boadas-Gil, H. et al. No detectable effect of lionfish (Pterois volitans and P. miles) invasion on a healthy reef fish assemblage in Archipelago Los Roques National Park, Venezuela. Mar Biol 162, 319–330 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-014-2571-y

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