Effects of Shipwrecks on Fish Community Assemblages at Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Coral reefs worldwide face threats from numerous human impacts. One problem that has been little-studied is the short- and long-term effects of shipwrecks that wash up on remote coral atolls in the Pacific. Various changes to the surrounding benthic communities have been observed at shipwrecks in the Northern Line Islands, but the corresponding fish communities have not been analyzed for changes. This study examined the fish communities at the shipwrecks on Palmyra Atoll and Kingman Reef, and their differences from the fish communities at nearby unaffected sections of reef in terms of total fish abundance, body type diversity, feeding group diversity, and length abundance. No significant differences were observed between the affected wreck and nearby unaffected site at either Palmyra or Kingman. The Palmyra unaffected site had slightly higher abundance and lower diversity, as well as more large (>15 cm) fish, than the affected site did. The Kingman affected site had higher abundance and diversity than the unaffected site, and no difference in terms of length. In terms of individual feeding groups, both affected sites had higher levels of crustaceavores, and lower levels of corallivores. The Kingman affected site also had a noticeable presence of large piscivores, compared to a complete absence at the unaffected site. The fish around the Palmyra wreck site appear to have adapted to the corallimorph expansion and created community comparable to the unaffected site, possibly due to the long time period since the wreck. The Kingman wreck appears to be fueling a more abundant and diverse fish community than the nearby unaffected corals. In terms of wreck removal, the Palmyra wreck is a well-established enough community that removal would likely cause worse disturbance. The fish community around the Kingman wreck has so far shown resilience to disturbances from the black reef, but long-term effects are yet unknown.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | June 12, 2011 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Lilly, Laura |
|---|---|
| Author | Evans, Briana |
Subjects
| Subject | Stanford@SEA |
|---|---|
| Subject | S-235 |
| Subject | Hopkins Marine Station |
| Subject | Department of Biology |
| Subject | Department of Earth System Science |
| Subject | BIOHOPK 182H |
| Subject | BIOHOPK 323H |
| Subject | EARTHSYS 323 |
| Subject | ESS 323 |
| Subject | Palmyra Atoll |
| Subject | coral reef |
| Subject | Kingman Reef |
| Subject | shipwreck |
| Subject | fish community |
| Genre | Student project report |
Bibliographic information
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- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Laura Lilly and Briana Evans, 2011. Effects of Shipwrecks on Fish Community Assemblages at Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll. Unpublished student research paper, S-235, Stanford@SEA, Stanford Digital Repository. https://purl.stanford.edu/tp025mq4329.
Collection
Stanford@SEA -- Student papers
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- thalassa@stanford.edu
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