Abstract
A combination of traditional fish sampling methods (hand-line and gill net) and modern hydroacoustic techniques were used to study fish community structure, distribution, and diel movements of fish on Zhubi Reef to enhance understanding of the ecosystem. We collected 126 individuals from 29 species, 20 genera, 17 families, three orders, and two classes using traditional gear. Perciforms were the dominant group in terms of species richness and biomass. The acoustic data indicated that very small (target strength [TS], dB) <-60 dB) and small (-60 dB≤TS<-45 dB) fish contributed the most to abundance and species richness on the coral reef, and that the proportion of medium-sized (-45 dB≤TS<-35 dB) and large-sized (-35 dB≤TS) fish increased gradually as depth increased. The single-target detection method revealed two distinct size classes during the day in the 12–16 and 16–20-m layers. One group consisted of very small-sized fish (TS<-60 dB) and the other consisted of medium and large-sized fish (TS>-55 dB). The number of single-target detections was significantly higher during the night than during the day (P<0.05). The singletarget TS frequency distribution during the day was significantly different than during the night at depths of 4–8, 8–12, 12–16, and 16–20 m. Significant differences were observed among the 4–8, 8–12, 12–16, and 16–20-m-depth layers during day and night. Diel vertical movement was evidenced as fish began to spread and move upward just before sunset and began to assemble and descend shortly (15 min) after sunrise.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Allen G R, Erdmann M V. 2012. Reef Fishes of the East Indies: volumes I-III, Tropical Reef Research. University of Hawai’i Press, Perth, Australia.
Anderson C I H, Brierley A S, Armstrong F. 2005. Spatiotemporal variability in the distribution of epi-and mesopelagic acoustic backscatter in the Irminger Sea, North Atlantic, with implications for predation on Calanus finmarchicus. Marine Biology, 146(6): 1177–1188.
Bellwood D R, Hughes T P, Folke C, Nyström M. 2004. Confronting the coral reef crisis. Nature, 429(6994): 827–833.
Bolden S K. 2000. Long-distance movement of a Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus) to a spawning aggregation in the central Bahamas. Fishery Bulletin, 98(3): 642–645.
Chen G B, Li Y Z, Chen P M, Zhang J, Fang L C, Li N N. 2012. Measurement of single-fish target strength in the South China Sea. Chinese Journal of Oceanology and Limnology, 30(4): 554–562.
Chen G B, Li Y Z, Chen X J. 2007. Species diversity of fishes in the coral reefs of South China Sea. Biodiversity Science, 15(4): 373–381. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Chen G B, Li Y Z. 2005. Composition and distribution of Serranidae in main coral reef waters of South China Sea. South China Fisheries Science, 1(3): 18–25. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Chen Q C. 1997. Current status and prospects of marine biodiversity in China. Chinese Biodiversity, 5(2): 142–146. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Fabi G, Sala A. 2002. An assessment of biomass and diel activity of fish at an artificial reef (Adriatic Sea) using a stationary hydroacoustic technique. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 59(2): 411–420.
Foote K G, Knudsen H P, Vestnes G, MacLennan D N, Simmonds E J. 1987. Calibration of acoustic instruments for fish density estimation: a practical guide. International Council for the Exploration of the Sea Cooperative Research Report, No. 144. p.1–57.
Foote K G. 1980. Importance of the swimbladder in acoustic scattering by fish: a comparison of gadoid and mackerel target strengths. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 67(6): 2084–2089.
Foote K G. 1987. Fish target strengths for use in echo integrator surveys. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 82(3): 981–987.
Foote K G. 1996. Coincidence echo statistics. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 99(1): 266–271.
Gledhill C T, Lyczkowski-Shultz J L, Rademacher K, Kargard E, Crist G, Grace M A. 1996. Evaluation of video and acoustic index methods for assessing reef-fish populations. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 53(2): 483–485.
Harris P T, Bridge T C L, Beaman R J, Webster J M, Nichol S L, Brooke B P. 2013. Submerged banks in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, greatly increase available coral reef habitat. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 70(2): 284–293.
Heidelberg K B, Sebens K P, Purcell J E. 2004. Composition and sources of near reef zooplankton on a Jamaican forereef along with implications for coral feeding. Coral Reefs, 23(2): 263–276.
Higginbottom I, Woon S, Schneider P. 2008. Echoview Technical Manual-Hydroacoustic Data Processing for Standard Stock Assessment Using Echoview. Myriax software Pty Ltd publication, Hobart.
Huse I, Ona E. 1996. Tilt angle distribution and swimming speed of overwintering Norwegian spring spawning herring. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 53(5): 863–873.
Koslow J A. 2009. The role of acoustics in ecosystem-based fishery management. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66(6): 966–973.
Lan Z H, Chen G Z. 2006. Destruction and conservation countermeasures of coral reef in South China Sea. Ecology and Environment, 15(2): 430–434. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Li Y Z, Jia X P, Chen G B, Chen P M, Shu L M, Zeng X G. 2007. The South China Sea Coral Reef Fish Resources. China Ocean Press, Beijing, China. (in Chinese)
Li Y Z, Lin Z J, Chen P M, Sun D R, Chen Y, Chen G B, Zhang X F. 2003. Survey for coral reef fish resources in the center & north waters of the Nansha Islands. Journal of Fisheries of China, 27(4): 315–321. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Lu W D. 2010. SPSS Statistics Analysis. 4 th edn. Publishing House of Electronics Industry, Beijing, China. (in Chinese)
Luo J G, Serafy J E, Sponaugle S, Teare P B, Kieckbusch D. 2009. Movement of gray snapper Lutjanus griseus among subtropical seagrass, mangrove, and coral reef habitats. Inter -Research Marine Ecology Progress Series, 380(12): 255–269.
MacLennan D N, Simmonds E J. 1992. Fisheries Acoustics. Chapman & Hall, New York.
Mason D M, Johnson T B, Harvey C J, Kitchell J F, Schram S T, Bronte C R, Hoff M H, Lozano S J, Trebitz A S, Schreiner D R, Lamon E C, Hrabik T. 2005. Hydroacoustic estimates of abundance and spatial distribution of pelagic prey fishes in western Lake Superior. Journal of Great Lakes Research, 31(4): 426–438.
Melbourne-Thomas J, Johnson C R, Aliño P M, Geronimo R C, Villanoy C L, Gurney G G. 2011. A multi-scale biophysical model to inform regional management of coral reefs in the western Philippines and South China Sea. Environmental Modelling & Software, 26(1): 66–82.
Midttun L, Sætersdal G. 1957. On the Use of Echosounder Observations for Estimating Fish Abundance. Special Publication, International Commission for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries, 11: 260–266.
Mitson R B, Simard Y, Goss C. 1996. Use of a two-frequency algorithm to determine size and abundance of plankton in three widely spaced locations. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 53(2): 209–215.
Ng P K L, Tan K S. 2000. The state of marine biodiversity in the South China Sea. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, (8): 3–7.
Nyström M, Folke C, Moberg F. 2000. Coral reef disturbance and resilience in a human-dominated environment. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 15(10): 413–417.
Pandolfi J M, Bradbury R H, Sala E, Hughes T P, Bjorndal K A, Cooke R G, McArdle D, Mc Clenachan L, Newman M J H, Paredes G, Warner R R, Jackson J B C. 2003. Global trajectories of the long-term decline of coral reef ecosystems. Science Magazine, 301(5635): 955–958.
Polovina J J. 1984. Model of a coral reef ecosystem. Coral Reefs, 3(1): 1–11.
Rudstam L G, Parker S L, Einhouse D W, Witzel L D, Warner D M, Stritzel J L, Parrish D L, Sullivan P J. 2003. Application of in situ target-strength estimations in lakes: examples from rainbow-smelt surveys in Lakes Erie and Champlain. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 60(3): 500–507.
Sale P F, Douglas W A. 1984. Temporal variability in the community structure of fish on coral patch reefs and the relation of community structure to reef structure. Ecology, 65(2): 409–422.
Sale P F, Dybdahl R. 1978. Determinants of community structure for coral reef fishes in isolated coral heads at lagoonal and reef slope sites. Oecologia, 34(1): 57–74.
Sale P F. 1980. The ecology of fishes on coral reefs. Oceanography and Marine Biology-An Annual Review, 18: 367–421.
Shi Y R, Li Y Z, Lu W H, Sun D F. 2009. Taxonomic diversity of fish species in coral reef area from Dongsha Islands. South China Fisheries Science, 5(2): 10–16. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Simmonds E J, MacLennan D N. 2005. Fisheries Acoustics: Theory and Practice. 2 nd edn. Blackwell Scientific Publication, Oxford.
Simrad. 2008. Simrad ER60, Scientific Echo Sounder Software, Reference Manual. Simrad Maritime AS Kongsberg, Horten. p.19–31.
Soule M, Barange M, Solli H, Hampton I. 1997. Performance of a new phase algorithm for discriminating between single and overlapping echoes in a split-beam echosounder. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 54(5): 934–938.
Sun D R, Lin Z J, Qiu Y S, Wang X H. 2005. Fish fauna of coral reef waters of the Xisha Islands. South China Fisheries Science, 1(5): 18–25. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Trout G C, Lee A J, Richardson I D, Harden Jones F R. 1952. Recent echo sounder studies. Nature, 170(4315): 71–72.
UNEP. 2004. Coral Reef in the South China Sea. UNEP Press, Bangkok.
Wang X H, Du F Y, Lin Z J, Sun D R, Qiu Y S, Huang S L. 2011. Fish species diversity and community pattern in coral reefs of the Xisha Islands, South China Sea. Biodiversity Science, 19(4): 463–469. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Wu L X, Wang H K, Lin H Y, Chen Q C. 2001. Physical and chemical environment characteristics of Zhubi Coral Reef in southern South China Sea. Journal of Tropical Oceanography, 20(3): 1–7. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Yin J Q, Huang L M, Li K Z, Xiong L L. 2011. Species diversity and community structure of zooplankton in the Zhubi Atoll, Nansha Islands, South China Sea. Biodiversity Science, 19(6): 685–695. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Zhang J, Chen P M, Chen G B, Fang L C, Tang Y. 2013. Acoustic target strength measurement of banded grouper [Epinephelus awoara (Temming & Schlegel, 1842)] and threadsial filefish [Stephanolepis cirrhifer (Temming & Schlegel, 1850)] in the South China Sea. Journal of Applied Ichthyology, 29(6): 1453–1455.
Zhao M X, Yu K F, Zhang Q M, Shi Q, Price G J. 2012. Longterm decline of a fringing coral reef in the northern South China Sea. Journal of Coastal Research, 28(5): 1088–1099.
Zhao X Y, Chen Y Z, Li X S, Sun J M, Jin X S, Chen W Z, Li Y Z. 2003. Acoustic estimation of multi-species marine fishery resources. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 25 (S1): 192–202. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Zhao X Y, Wang Y, Dai F Q. 2006. Depth-dependent target strength of anchovy (Engraulis japonicus) measured in situ. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 65(5): 882–888.
Zwolinski J, Morais A, Marques V, Stratoudakis Y, Fernandes P G. 2007. Diel variation in the vertical distribution and schooling behaviour of sardine (Sardina pilchardus) off Portugal. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 64(5): 963–972.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Supported by the National Key Technology Research and Development Program (No. 2013BAD13B06), the Financial Project of the Ministry of Agriculture (No. NFZX2013), the Special Scientific Research Funds for Central Non-profit Institutes, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences (Nos. 2014TS18, 2013ZD03), and the National Agricultural Finance Project “South China Sea Fishing Information Dynamic Acquisition”
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhang, J., Chen, G., Chen, Z. et al. Application of hydroacoustics to investigate the distribution, diel movement, and abundance of fish on Zhubi Reef, Nansha Islands, South China Sea. Chin. J. Ocean. Limnol. 34, 964–976 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-016-5019-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-016-5019-z