TY - JOUR
T1 - A baited remote underwater video system (BRUVS) assessment of elasmobranch diversity and abundance on the eastern Caicos Bank (Turks and Caicos Islands); an environment in transition
AU - Bruns, Stephan
AU - Henderson, Aaron C.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the staff and students of the School for Field Studies, Center for Marine Resource Studies, for their help in BRUVS deployment and retrieval during this study. The work was funded by The School for Field Studies, and by Global FinPrint through a grant from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Springer Nature B.V.
PY - 2020/9/1
Y1 - 2020/9/1
N2 - The present study was undertaken to assess the diversity and abundance of elasmobranch fishes in coral reef and sand flat environments on the eastern Caicos Bank, with a view to informing marine spatial planning as the island of South Caicos and its environs transition to a tourism-based economy. Using baited remote underwater video systems (BRUVS), the nurse shark Ginglymostoma cirratum, Caribbean reef shark Carcharhinus perezi, spotted eagle ray Aetobatus narinari, southern stingray Hypanus americanus, lemon shark Negaprion brevirostris, tiger shark Galeocerdo cuvier, blacknose shark Carcharhinus acronotus, and great hammerhead shark Sphyrna mokarran were observed to use these waters, with G. cirratum and C. perezi being particularly abundant. Species diversity and overall abundance was greater in the reef environment than on the sand flats, but G. cirratum was equally abundant in both environments. Furthermore, even reef-associated species such as C. perezi were occasionally encountered on the flats a considerable distance from the reef. This indicates that although marine conservation efforts in the Turks and Caicos Islands should continue to focus on coral reef areas, less dramatic environments such as sand flats should not be ignored.
AB - The present study was undertaken to assess the diversity and abundance of elasmobranch fishes in coral reef and sand flat environments on the eastern Caicos Bank, with a view to informing marine spatial planning as the island of South Caicos and its environs transition to a tourism-based economy. Using baited remote underwater video systems (BRUVS), the nurse shark Ginglymostoma cirratum, Caribbean reef shark Carcharhinus perezi, spotted eagle ray Aetobatus narinari, southern stingray Hypanus americanus, lemon shark Negaprion brevirostris, tiger shark Galeocerdo cuvier, blacknose shark Carcharhinus acronotus, and great hammerhead shark Sphyrna mokarran were observed to use these waters, with G. cirratum and C. perezi being particularly abundant. Species diversity and overall abundance was greater in the reef environment than on the sand flats, but G. cirratum was equally abundant in both environments. Furthermore, even reef-associated species such as C. perezi were occasionally encountered on the flats a considerable distance from the reef. This indicates that although marine conservation efforts in the Turks and Caicos Islands should continue to focus on coral reef areas, less dramatic environments such as sand flats should not be ignored.
KW - BRUVS
KW - Biodiversity
KW - Caribbean region
KW - Chondrichthyes
KW - Coral reef
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U2 - 10.1007/s10641-020-01004-4
DO - 10.1007/s10641-020-01004-4
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85087659623
SN - 0378-1909
VL - 103
SP - 1001
EP - 1012
JO - Environmental Biology of Fishes
JF - Environmental Biology of Fishes
IS - 9
ER -