Author : Jana L. D. Davis
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (318 download)
Book Synopsis Temporal and Spatial Dynamics of a Tidepool Fish Assemblage in San Diego, California by : Jana L. D. Davis
Download or read book Temporal and Spatial Dynamics of a Tidepool Fish Assemblage in San Diego, California written by Jana L. D. Davis and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a rocky intertidal tidepool habitat, factors like temperature, salinity, oxygen, and wave energy fluctuate tidally, daily, seasonally, and interannually. Unlike sessile organisms, motile organisms can adjust their locations in response to environmental fluctuations; therefore, they may not fit into general intertidal ecological models based on sessile emergent communities. Fish populations were sampled at several sites in San Diego, California, from 1996 to 2000, to test effects of temporal environmental variability on habitat use, assemblage structure, and population dynamics of the major tidepool fishes of San Diego: Clinocottus analis (woolly sculpin), Girella nigricans (opaleye), Gobiesox rhessodon (California clingfish), Hypsoblennius gilberti (rockpool blenny), Gibbonsia elegans (spotted kelpfish), and Paraclinus integripinnis (reef finspot). These fishes were found to spatially and temporally partition tidepool habitat among species and ontogenetically within species. Habitat use and assemblage structure were variable on the three time scales addressed in the study (diel, seasonal, and El Niño Southern Oscillation). Middle intertidal fishes used high and low intertidal pools differently depending on time of day. Fishes used higher tidepools during the fall, when sea level is seasonally highest. Recruitment and growth were seasonal and were the main influence on temporal variability in population growth rate of the assemblage dominant, C. analis.