Acronym LINKFISH
Category
Fisheries
Title Investigating the link between sub-littoral algae habitats and fish communities in the Mediterranean Sea Programme FP7
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
FP7 - Intra-European Fellowships (IEF)
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
PEOPLE – Marie Curie Actions
Specific Programme (FP7)
People
Funding source European Coordinator Enric Massuti Coordinator email enric.massuti@ba.ieo.es
Coordinator institution
IEO - Spanish Institute of Oceanography (Spain)
Institutions involved
NA
Start year 2013 End year 2015 Funding (€) € 233,705 Website https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/299552 Summary Despite the obvious importance of macroalgae in oligotrophic seas as primary producers, their role in sustaining biodiversity and secondary production has thus far only received limited attention. Most research effort to date has been concentrated on shallow water species, in particular sea grasses, while other algae communities in deeper waters (50-100 metres), that are equally widespread but morphologically and chemically very different, have received far less attention. As a consequence little information exist about these habitats, their productivity, biodiversity of associated benthic fauna and how energy is transferred from the algae to higher trophic levels such as fish. The few descriptive studies of these habitats that do exist do, however, indicate a strong link between algae beds and an abundant and diverse fish fauna. A key aim of the ecosystem approach to fisheries management is to identify, conserve and restore habitats critical to fish in order to regenerate and sustain fish populations. Thus knowledge of habitat fish associations as well as the mechanistic link between them will be an important component towards implementing this approach. Within this fellowship application it is proposed to study the demersal community and food-web structure of three algal model systems, one shallow water system (Cystoseira) and two deep water (Osmundaria - Phyllophora and Peyssonnalia) systems that have a widespread occurrence in the Mediterranean by adopting a multidisciplinary approach, combining traditional benthic community ecology with stable isotope techniques and field as well as laboratory experiments. Furthermore, food-web modelling approaches will be adopted to integrate these results into a wider ecological framework. The expected outcome of the proposal is to increase our understanding of the ecology of macroalgae habitats in the Mediterranean and the role they play in sustaining fish production.
The proposed study combines field as well as laboratory experiments to gain in-depth understanding of how algae are utilized by fish and how energy is transferred from algae biomass to higher trophic levels. Within this experimental part stable isotope techniques will be used to trace the mechanism and rate of energy transfer from algae to fish. Objectives: (1) Determine if the presence or absence of mesograzers determines the feeding behaviour of fish and thus their distribution and diversity i.e. comparing the attraction of fish towards algae containing associated fauna in comparison with algae without associate fauna; (2) Establish which species of mesograzers are important for the energy transfer from mesograzers to fish and the rate of biomass transfer between these components. Additionally to these experiments an observational study is proposed to explore the wider faunal community and trophic composition of these different algae systems with the ultimate aim of modelling their food-web structure. Both traditional benthic techniques to establish trophic linkages from stomach content analysis as well as stable isotope techniques will be adopted. Biomass of algae and secondary production will be determined for all three algae systems. Food-web structures of the respective three model systems will be compared and related to factors such as algal morphology, energy content and palatability of algae; (3) Determine food-web structures and identify key linkages within food-webs; (4) Compare food-webs of the three model systems to identify synergies and differences in their network structure. Furthermore, to test responses of these food-web models to potential disturbance scenarios anticipated from climate change and fishing impacts.
Keywords
Fish habitat;
Fish;
Food web;
Ecosystem approach;
Algae;
Marine Region
54
Balearic Island (GSA 5)
1
Marine Region Map
