48 / 100
MESOPHOTIC CORAL ECOSYSTEMS – A LIFEBOAT FOR CORAL REEFS?
48
Table 1.
Zooxanthellate scleractinian coral species observed below 50 m off La Parguera Puerto Rico.
Table 2.
Rank of top four fish species occurring at mesophotic depths off La Parguera, Puerto Rico (Data from Bejarano et al. 2014).
- Whitestar sheet coral
- Scroll plate coral
- Dimpled sheet coral
- Great star coral
- Star coral
- Ridgeless cactus coral
- Mustard hill coral
- Massive starlet coral
- Blushing star coral
- Artichoke coral
- Smooth ower coral
- Deep thin lettuce coral
- Elliptical star coral
- Lettuce coral
- Boulder star coral
- Low relief lettuce coral
- Knobby cactus coral
Agaricia lamarcki
Agaricia undata*
Agaricia grahamae*
Montastraea cavernosa
Madracis pharensis
#
Undaria humilis
Undaria agaricites
Leptoseris cailleti*
Porites astreoides
Agaricia fragilis*
Orbicella franksi
Siderastrea siderea
Dichocoenia stockesii
Stephanocoenia intersepta
Eusmilia fastigiata
Mycetophyllia reesi*
Scolymia cubensis
- Fragile saucer coral
Mycetophyllia aliciae
Zooxanthellate scleractinian coral species observed below 50 metres
- o La Parguera, Puerto Rico
* not common above 50 metres
#
both zooxanthellae and azooxaenthellae forms
Coryphopterus personatus
Clepticus parrae
Stegastes partitus
Masked goby
Creole wrasse
Bicolor damsel sh
1
2
3
Species
Common name
Depth in metres
Halichoeres garnoti
Chromis cyanea
Serranus tortugarum
Yellowhead wrasse
Blue chromis
Chalk bass
Chromis insolata
Chromis scotti
Purple ree sh
Sunshine sh
4
Rank of top four sh in four depth zones
1
3
4
2
1
3
4
2
2
3.5
3.5
1
40
50
60
70
species observed from 40 to 70 m. The most common and
abundant species found only below 40 m is the sunshine fish,
Chromis insolata
, representing on average 23 per cent of the
individuals within transects. Additional common species are
Liopropoma mowbrayi
(cave basslet),
Lutjanus buccanella
(blackfin snapper),
Prognathodes aculeatus
(longsnout
butterflyfish) and
Sparisoma atomarium
(greenblotch
parrotfish).
Xanthichthys ringens
(sargassum triggerfish) is
also common down to 60 m.
At 50 m or deeper, fish assemblages are dominated (in terms
of density) by planktivores; dominance which progressively
increases with depth. While constituting only 18 per cent
of fish species, zooplanktivores make up over 80 per cent