ORCID Profile
0000-0002-8731-1367
Current Organisation
University of Wollongong
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Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 18-06-2021
DOI: 10.1101/2021.06.17.448906
Abstract: While habitat is often a limiting resource for group-living animals, we have yet to understand what aspects of habitat are particularly important for the maintenance of sociality. As anthropogenic disturbances rapidly degrade the quality of many habitats, site-attached animals are facing additional stressors that may alter the trade-offs of moving or remaining philopatric. Here we examined how habitat health, size and saturation affect movement decisions of a coral-dwelling goby, Gobiodon quinquestrigatus , that resides within bleaching-susceptible Acropora coral hosts. To assess effects of habitat health, we translocated in iduals far from their home corals into dead corals with the choice of adjacent healthy corals. To assess effects of habitat size and saturation, we manipulated coral sizes and the number of residents in healthy corals. Remarkably, 55% of gobies returned home regardless of treatment, 7% stayed in the new coral, and the rest were not found. Contrary to expectations, habitat factors did not affect how costs of movement influence group-living decisions in this species. These site-attached fishes preferred to home instead of choosing alternative habitat, which suggests a surprising awareness of their ecological surroundings. However, disregarding alternative high-quality habitat is concerning as it may affect population persistence under conditions of rapid habitat degradation.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2021
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-2023
DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.10209
Abstract: Mutualisms are prevalent in many ecosystems, yet little is known about how symbioses are affected by ecological pressures. Here, we show delayed recovery for 13 coral‐dwelling goby fishes (genus Gobiodon ) compared with their host Acropora corals following four consecutive cyclones and heatwaves. While corals became twice as abundant in 3 years postdisturbances, gobies were only half as abundant relative to predisturbances and half of the goby species disappeared. Although gobies primarily occupied one coral species in greater abundance predisturbances, surviving goby species shifted hosts to newly abundant coral species when their previously occupied hosts became rare postdisturbances. As host specialization is key for goby fitness, shifting hosts may have negative fitness consequences for gobies and corals alike and affect their survival in response to environmental changes. Our study is an early sign that mutualistic partners may not recover similarly from multiple disturbances, and that goby host plasticity, while potentially detrimental, may be the only possibility for early recovery.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2021
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 2017
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 30-09-2015
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 03-06-2022
DOI: 10.1101/2022.06.01.494455
Abstract: Mutualisms are prevalent in many ecosystems, yet little is known about how symbioses are affected by multiple disturbances. Here we show delayed recovery for 13 coral-dwelling goby fishes (genus Gobiodon ) compared with their host Acropora corals following 4 consecutive cyclones and heatwaves. While corals became twice as abundant 3 years post-disturbances, their symbiotic gobies were only half as abundant relative to pre-disturbances and half of the goby species disappeared. Although goby species preferred particular coral species, surviving goby species shifted hosts to newly abundant coral species when their preferred hosts became rare. As host specialization is key for goby fitness, shifting hosts may have negative fitness consequences for gobies and corals alike and affect their survival in response to environmental changes. Our study demonstrates that mutualist partners do not respond identically to multiple disturbances, and that goby host plasticity, while potentially detrimental, may be the only possibility for early recovery.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-08-2021
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-021-95778-X
Abstract: With the onset and increasing frequency of multiple disturbances, the recovery potential of critical ecosystem-building species and their mutual symbionts is threatened. Similar effects to both hosts and their symbionts following disturbances have been assumed. However, we report unequal declines between hosts and symbionts throughout multiple climate-driven disturbances in reef-building Acropora corals and cryptobenthic coral-dwelling Gobiodon gobies. Communities were surveyed before and after consecutive cyclones (2014, 2015) and heatwaves (2016, 2017). After cyclones, coral diameter and goby group size (i.e., the number of gobies within each coral) decreased similarly by 28–30%. After heatwave-induced bleaching, coral diameter decreased substantially (47%) and gobies mostly inhabited corals singly. Despite several coral species persisting after bleaching, all goby species declined, leaving 78% of corals uninhabited. These findings suggest that gobies, which are important mutual symbionts for corals, are unable to cope with consecutive disturbances. This disproportionate decline could lead to ecosystem-level disruptions through loss of key symbiont services to corals.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 14-01-2021
DOI: 10.1101/2021.01.13.426488
Abstract: With the onset and increasing frequency of multiple disturbances, the recovery potential of critical ecosystem-building species and their mutual symbionts is threatened. Similar effects to both hosts and their symbionts following disturbances have been assumed. However, we report unequal declines between hosts and symbionts throughout multiple climate-driven disturbances in reef-building Acropora corals and cryptobenthic coral-dwelling Gobiodon gobies. Communities were surveyed before and after consecutive cyclones (2014, 2015) and heatwaves (2016, 2017). After cyclones, coral size and goby group size decreased similarly by 28-30%. After heatwave-induced bleaching, coral size decreased substantially (47%) and the few gobies recorded mostly inhabited corals singly. Despite several coral species still occurring after bleaching, all goby species declined, leaving 78% of corals uninhabited. These findings suggest that gobies, which are important mutual symbionts for corals, are unable to cope with consecutive disturbances. This disproportionate decline could lead to ecosystem-level disruptions through loss of key symbiotic services to corals.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2022
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 05-05-2021
DOI: 10.3389/FMARS.2021.665780
Abstract: Research on sociality in marine fishes is a vibrant field that is providing new insights into social evolution more generally. Here, we review the past two decades of research, identifying knowledge gaps and new directions. Two coral reef fishes, with social systems similar to other cooperative breeders, have emerged as models: the clown anemonefish Amphiprion percula and the emerald goby Paragobiodon xanthosoma . In these systems, non-breeders do not forgo their own reproduction to gain indirect genetic benefits. Rather, they do so because they stand to inherit the territory in the future and there are strong ecological and social constraints. The reasons why breeders tolerate non-breeders remain obscure, though it is plausibly a combination of weak kin selection, bet-hedging, and benefits mediated via mutualistic interactions with cnidarian hosts. The latter is particularly interesting, given the parallels with other social animals with mutualistic partners, such as acacia ants. Looking beyond the two model species, our attention is turning to species with more complex social organization, such as the damselfish Dascyllus aruanus . Here, variable group stability, conflict intensity, and reproductive skew provide opportunities to test theories of social evolution that have only been tested in a few taxa. New methods like social network analysis are enabling us to uncover more subtle effects of ecology on social interactions. More recently, comparative methods have yielded insights into the correlates of interspecific variation in sociality in the genera to which our model species belong. Phylogenetically controlled contrasts within the genus Gobiodon , have revealed the role of ecology, life history traits, and their interaction in sociality: smaller bodied species are more social than larger bodied species, which are only social on large corals. As climate change affects coral reefs, there is a pressing need to understand the many ways in which environmental disturbance influences these unique social systems. In sum, coral reef fishes have enabled us to test the robustness of current theories of social evolution in new taxa and environments, and they have generated new insights into social evolution that are applicable to a wider variety of taxa.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2019
Location: United States of America
Location: United States of America
No related grants have been discovered for Catheline Froehlich.