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Analyses of fish community structure changes in three subtropical estuaries from the Iranian coastal waters

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Abstract

In this study, we analyse the fish species diversity and distribution patterns to determine the potential role of environmental variables as drivers of fish community structure and composition. Thus, we investigated the distributional patterns of estuarine fish and their environmental correlates along a broad spatial scale encompassing three subtropical estuaries from the Iranian coastal waters using multivariate techniques. According to their relative densities, the fish fauna was dominated by the following ten species: Leiognathus brevirostris (17.1 %), Valamugil seheli (16.4 %), Ambassis gymnocephalus (10.4 %), Gerres filamentosus (9.3 %), Gerres longirostris (7.4 %), Leiognathus bindus (7.2 %), Thryssa vitrirostris (4.6 %), Sillago sihama (4.1 %), Megalops cyprinoides (3.9 %), and Nematalosa nasus (3.8 %). Leiognathidae and Mugilidae, represented by seven and six species, contributed 26.17 % and 19.11 % of numerical abundance of the total catch. Hierarchical cluster analysis and nMDS showed a clear spatial segregation of stations from different parts of estuaries according to similarities in their species compositions. Canonical correspondence analyses indicated that temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH and salinity were the four main variables influencing the occurrence of fishes within the estuarine systems. Our results support the effectiveness of the mangrove forests on fish communities in subtropical estuaries subjected to multiple environmental changes. Overall, the details of these findings are beneficial to understanding and developing suitable conservation strategies for the restoration and management of fish resources in the Markazi, Khalasi and Gabrik estuaries, as well as the other estuaries of the Iranian coastal waters.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the collaboration of colleagues for valuable assistance. We would like to extend thanks to all the fieldworkers who are too numerous to mention for their valued assistance in fish sampling. Special thanks to Dr. Wang Mengben for valuable assistance. This investigation was supported by Hormozgan University and Bandar-Abbas Islamic Azad University. We wish to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their valuable comments towards the improving this manuscript.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marine Biology, Faculty of Marine Science and Technology, Hormozgan University, P.O. Box: 3995, Bandar Abbas, Iran

    Ehsan Kamrani, Moslem Sharifinia & Seyed Hassan Hashemi

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  1. Ehsan Kamrani
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  2. Moslem Sharifinia
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  3. Seyed Hassan Hashemi
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Correspondence to Moslem Sharifinia.

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Communicated by O. A. Bergstad

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Kamrani, E., Sharifinia, M. & Hashemi, S.H. Analyses of fish community structure changes in three subtropical estuaries from the Iranian coastal waters. Mar Biodiv 46, 561–577 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-015-0398-5

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