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Long-term patterns in estuarine fish growth across two climatically divergent regions
Citation
Doubleday, ZA and Izzo, C and Haddy, JA and Lyle, JM and Ye, Q and Gillanders, BM, Long-term patterns in estuarine fish growth across two climatically divergent regions, Oecologia, 179, (4) pp. 1079-1090. ISSN 0029-8549 (2015) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
© 2015 Springer-Verlag This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Oecologia. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3411-6
DOI: doi:10.1007/s00442-015-3411-6
Abstract
Long-term ecological datasets are vital for
investigating how species respond to changes in their environment,
yet there is a critical lack of such datasets from
aquatic systems. We developed otolith growth ‘chronologies’
to reconstruct the growth history of a temperate estuarine
fish species, black bream (Acanthopagrus butcheri).
Chronologies represented two regions in south-east Australia:
South Australia, characterised by a relatively warm,
dry climate, and Tasmania, characterised by a relatively
cool, wet climate. Using a mixed modelling approach, we
related inter-annual growth variation to air temperature,
rainfall, freshwater inflow (South Australia only), and El
Niño–Southern Oscillation events. Otolith chronologies
provided a continuous record of growth over a 13- and
21-year period for fish from South Australia and Tasmania,
respectively. Even though fish from Tasmania were sourced across multiple estuaries, they showed higher levels of
growth synchronicity across years, and greater year-to-year
growth variation, than fish from South Australia, which
were sourced from a single, large estuary. Growth in Tasmanian
fish declined markedly over the time period studied
and was negatively correlated to temperature. In contrast,
growth in South Australian fish was positively correlated to
both temperature and rainfall. The stark contrast between
the two regions suggests that Tasmanian black bream populations
are more responsive to regional scale environmental
variation and may be more vulnerable to global warming.
This study highlights the importance of examining species
response to climate change at the intra-specific level and
further validates the emerging use of growth chronologies
for generating long-term ecological data in aquatic systems.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | fish growth, otolith, biochronologies |
| Research Division: | Agricultural, Veterinary and Food Sciences |
| Research Group: | Fisheries sciences |
| Research Field: | Aquaculture |
| Objective Division: | Animal Production and Animal Primary Products |
| Objective Group: | Fisheries - aquaculture |
| Objective Field: | Fisheries - aquaculture not elsewhere classified |
| UTAS Author: | Haddy, JA (Dr James Haddy) |
| UTAS Author: | Lyle, JM (Associate Professor Jeremy Lyle) |
| ID Code: | 102280 |
| Year Published: | 2015 |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 27 |
| Deposited By: | IMAS Research and Education Centre |
| Deposited On: | 2015-08-10 |
| Last Modified: | 2018-11-28 |
| Downloads: | 25 View Download Statistics |
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