Graba-Landry PhD thesis: The effect of increasing temperature to algae-fish interactions on coral reefs

Full description

This thesis investigated the role of temperature in influencing algae-fish interactions on coral reefs. Specifically the aims of the thesis were to determine: (1) the relative influence of natural variations in water temperature on the feeding rates of herbivorous fishes; (2) how rates of turf algae growth and feeding rates of herbivorous fishes change with seasonal variation in temperature; (3) how predicted increases in temperature are likely to affect the growth and survival of common coral reef macroalgae; (4) how individual metabolism, feeding rates, growth and body condition of a common herbivorous fish changes with temperature.  These aims were addressed in the following five chapters.

Chapter 2 investigates the influence of natural variation in temperature versus resource availability in influencing herbivore feeding rates by quantifying feeding of three functionally distinct herbivores among three latitudes and two seasons on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), and among reefs with distinct algal communities.

Chapter 3 builds on the findings of Chapter 2, and investigates how seasonal variation in temperature influences the relative rates of herbivore feeding and turf algal growth in the northern GBR.

Chapter 4 uses experimental manipulation of temperature to investigate the influence of increasing temperature on the growth, survival, tissue quality and susceptibility to herbivory of adult and juvenile life stages of the common coral reef macroalgae Sargassum.

Chapter 5 uses juvenile Siganus doliatus, a common herbivorous reef fish, to investigate the effect of rearing temperature on physiological processes (i.e., oxygen uptake, feeding rate, growth and body condition).

This dataset consists of 27 files in comma-separated values (.csv) format:

• Benthic_Latitude_sub_1.csv - Chapter 2: Benthic Count data from point intercept transects across three latitudes
• Cross_Shelf_Benthos_MDS.csv - Chapter 2: Benthic Count data from point intercept transects across the continental shelf in the northern GBR
• Cross_Shelf_Feeding_nonorthpoint.csv - Benthic Count data from point intercept transects across the continental shelf in the northern GBR, no north point site
• Latitude_with_resource.csv - Chapter 2: Herbivore feeding data across the three latitudes along the GBR
• CrossShelf_with_Resource.csv - Chapter 2: Herbivore feeding data across the continental shelf in the northern GBR
• RESOURCE_Seasonal_Comparison.csv - Chapter 2: Herbivore feeding data between two seasons in the northern GBR
• Community_Subreps_Total_R.csv - Chapter 3: Feeding rate data of herbivore assemblages from video analysis on 1m^2 quadrats
• Dry_Wt_n10.csv - Chapter 3: Algal growth data from tiles across four seasons at Lizard Island
• Lizard_Temp_8.8.csv - Chapter 3: Temperature data from AIMS loggers at 8.8 m at Lizard Island
• Seasonal_Benthic.csv - Chapter 3: Benthic Count data from point intercept transects over four seasons at Lizard Island
• Seasonal_Feeding_Contrasts .csv - Chapter 3: Seasonal Feeding Contrasts for catapillar plots
• Seasonal_with_Resouce.csv - Chapter 3: Herbivore Feeding rates of 8 species over four seasons at Lizard Island
• Fish_Abundance_Counts.csv - Chapter 3: Herbivore Count data from 50x5m transects over four seasons at Lizard Island
• Carbon_New.csv - Chapter 4: Carbon data for three species of Sargassum grown in different temperatures
• Nitrogen_New.csv - Chapter 4: Nitrogen data for three species of Sargassum grown in different temperatures
• glm_mass_consumed.csv - Chapter 4: Data for mass consumed by the wild herbivore assemblage on Sargassum grown in three different temperature treatments.
• Penetrometer_nocris2016.csv - Chapter 4: Physical toughness data for three species of Sargassum grown in three different temperature treatments
• RGRNew.csv - Chapter4: Relative Growth Rate of Sargassum propagules grown in three different temperature treatments
• Survival.csv - Chapter 4: Survival data for Sargassum propagules grown in three different temperature treatments
• RGR_NEW.csv - Chapter 4: Relative Growth Rate of three different species of Sargassum grown in different temperature treatments
• Mass_Std_glm.csv - Chapter 4: Mass standardized bites from the wild herbivorous fish assemblage on three species of Sargassum grown in different temperature treatments. From video analysis
• Feeding_Assay_Total_Bites.csv - Chapter 5: Feeding assay: bites from fishes grown in different temperature treatments on different seaweeds
• Hepatosomatic_Index.csv - Chapter 5: Hepatosomatic index of juvenile S. doliatus grown in different temperature treatments
• MARFU Temperature Data.csv - Chapter 5: Tank temperature data for experimental duration
• MO2_metadata_bottom_10.csv - Chapter 5: MO2 Rest data for fishes grown in different temperature treatments
• RGR_LENGTH_ALL_R.csv - Chapter 5: Relative growth rate data for fish grown in different temperature treatments, by total length (cm)
• RGR_WEIGHT_ALL_R.csv - Chapter 5: Relative growth rate data for fishes grown in different temperature treatments by wet weight (g)