| Title: | An invasive herbivorous fish (Siganus rivulatus) influences both benthic and planktonic microbes through defecation and nutrient excretion |
| Author(s): | Escalas A; Avouac A; Belmaker J; Bouvier T; Cledassou V; Ferraton F; Rieuvilleneuve F; Rilov G; Rovirosa Mulet A; Shapiro Goldberg D; Villeger S; |
| Address: | "MARBEC, Universite de Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, IFREMER, Montpellier, France. Electronic address: arthur.escalas@gmail.com. MARBEC, Universite de Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, IFREMER, Montpellier, France. George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, School of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel; The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. National Institute of Oceanography, Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research (IOLR), Haifa, Israel. George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, School of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. MARBEC, Universite de Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, IFREMER, Montpellier, France. Electronic address: sebastien.villeger@cnrs.fr" |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156207 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1879-1026 (Electronic) 0048-9697 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Direct and indirect impacts by invasive animals on plants and other animals through predation and competition have been evidenced in many ecosystems. For instance, the rabbitfish Siganus rivulatus, originating from the Red Sea, is now the most abundant species in costal habitats of South-Eastern Mediterranean Sea where it overgrazes algae. However, little is known about its impacts on microbes through release of metabolic wastes and feces. We used a mesocosm experiment to test the effect of S. rivulatus on planktonic and benthic microbial communities. Excretion of dissolved nutrients by fish resulted in higher concentrations of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (NH(4), NO(2)/NO(3)). This increase in availability of N was associated with higher N content in macroalgae, higher biomass of phytoplankton, higher abundance of bacterioplankton and shift in the structure of planktonic bacterial communities. The feces released mostly under the shelters where the fish rest at night, led to significant increases in diversity of sediment bacterial communities and shifts in their structure. The impact of S. rivulatus on planktonic microbes was related to the indirect bottom-up effect induced by excreted dissolved nutrients while its effect on benthic microbes was due to the direct release of both organic matter and microbes present in feces. Overall, this first evidence of the impacts of invasive species on planktonic and benthic microbes highlights that ongoing changes in fish biodiversity could have ecosystem-wide consequences" |
| Keywords: | Animals Defecation *Ecosystem Fishes Mediterranean Sea Nutrients *Plankton Biological invasion Coastal marine ecosystem Lessepsian species Microbiome Nutrient excretion Nutrient recycling Siganus rivulatus; |
| Notes: | "MedlineEscalas, Arthur Avouac, Amandine Belmaker, Jonathan Bouvier, Thierry Cledassou, Valentin Ferraton, Franck Rieuvilleneuve, Fabien Rilov, Gil Rovirosa Mulet, Anna Shapiro Goldberg, Daphna Villeger, Sebastien eng Netherlands 2022/06/01 Sci Total Environ. 2022 Sep 10; 838(Pt 3):156207. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156207. Epub 2022 May 27" |
