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Responses of fish assemblage structures to sandy beach types in Kyushu Island, southern Japan

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Abstract

To determine differences in fish assemblage structures between beach morphodynamic types on an exposed sandy shore, three beach types (reflective, intermediate, and dissipative) were sampled at Fukiagehama Beach, Kyushu Island, southern Japan, in May, August, and November 2006 and 2007. Distinct differences in physical conditions and the amount of major prey invertebrates, such as copepods, mysids, and amphipods, were recognized between the three beach types. The reflective beach was characterized mainly by turbulent swashes, coarse sediment, and a low abundance of major prey invertebrates. In contrast, the dissipative beach was characterized mostly by benign swashes, fine sediment, and a high abundance of prey invertebrates. The intermediate beach tended toward an intermediate condition between the reflective and dissipative beaches. The fish assemblage structures also differed clearly between the three beach types, with species and individual numbers being greatest on the dissipative beach and lowest on the reflective beach. A similarity index indicated differences in species composition of the assemblages between the beach types. Such differences arose primarily from the differential distributions of two dominant trophic groups, zooplankton (mostly copepods) and epibenthic crustacean (mainly mysids and amphipods) feeders, between the beach types, both groups tending to increase in species and individual numbers from the reflective beach to the dissipative beach. In addition, the mean standard length of all fish collected in each month tended to decrease toward the dissipative beach. These results suggested that beach types strongly influence sandy beach fish assemblage structures.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to J Ohtomi, Y Hayakawa, and students of the Laboratory of Coastal Ecosystem Conservation, National Fisheries University, for assistance with fieldwork. Constructive comments on the manuscript from H Kurokura, G Hardy, and anonymous reviewers were much appreciated. This study was funded by the 21st Century COE Program ‘Biodiversity and Ecosystem Restoration Research Project’ of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecosystem Studies, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8657, Japan

    Yukinori Nakane & Mitsuhiko Sano

  2. Department of Applied Aquabiology, National Fisheries University, Nagata-honmachi, Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, 759-6595, Japan

    Yusuke Suda

Authors
  1. Yukinori Nakane
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  2. Yusuke Suda
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  3. Mitsuhiko Sano
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yukinori Nakane.

Additional information

Communicated by M. Huettel.

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Table 4.

Table 4 Three- and two-way ANOVAs of mean values of intertidal slope: summary of significant differences
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Appendix 2

See Table 5.

Table 5 Three- and one-way ANOVAs of mean values of intertidal length: summary of significant differences
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Appendix 3

See Table 6.

Table 6 Three-, two-, and one-way ANOVAs of mean values of particulate organic matter: summary of significant differences
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Appendix 4

See Table 7.

Table 7 Three- and one-way ANOVAs of mean grain size: summary of significant differences
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Appendix 5

See Table 8.

Table 8 Three-way ANOVA of abundance of calanoid copepod density: summary of significant differences
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Appendix 6

See Table 9.

Table 9 Three- and one-way ANOVAs of abundance of cyclopoid copepods: summary of significant differences
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Appendix 7

See Table 10.

Table 10 Three-way ANOVA of abundance of harpacticoid copepods: summary of significant differences
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Appendix 8

See Table 11.

Table 11 Three- and one-way ANOVAs of mean individual number of mysids: summary of significant differences
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Appendix 9

See Table 12.

Table 12 Three- and one-way ANOVAs of mean individual number of amphipods: summary of significant differences
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Appendix 10

See Table 13.

Table 13 Three- and two-way ANOVAs of mean number of fish species: summary of significant differences
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Appendix 11

See Table 14.

Table 14 Three- and two-way ANOVAs of mean number of individuals: summary of significant differences
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Appendix 12

See Table 15.

Table 15 Three- and one-way ANOVAs of mean SL of fish pooled for the whole species: summary of significant differences
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Appendix 13

See Table 16.

Table 16 Three- and one-way ANOVAs of mean numbers of species of zooplankton feeders: summary of significant differences
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Appendix 14

See Table 17.

Table 17 Three- and one-way ANOVAs of mean numbers of individuals of zooplankton feeders: summary of significant differences
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Appendix 15

See Table 18.

Table 18 Three-, two-, and one-way ANOVAs of mean number of fish species of epibenthic feeders: summary of significant differences
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Appendix 16

See Table 19.

Table 19 Three-way ANOVA of abundance of epibenthic feeders: summary of significant differences
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Nakane, Y., Suda, Y. & Sano, M. Responses of fish assemblage structures to sandy beach types in Kyushu Island, southern Japan. Mar Biol 160, 1563–1581 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-013-2209-5

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