Biology subjects

Bauman, A. G.

Publications and source records attributed to Bauman, A. G..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Algal turf sediment dynamics across the Florida Reef Tract

Algal turfs and their associated sediments are dominant components of many degraded reefs, where they mediate key ecosystem processes. However, the quantification of algal turfs and their sediments across reef shelves is limited outside Indo-Pacific reef systems. We quantified algal turf length, sediment loads, and sediment grain size distribution across four reef positions (nearshore, inner, middle, and outer) at three locations along the northern Florida Reef Tract (FRT). Sediment loads were positively associated with algal turf length and generally declined moving offshore. Nearshore reefs supported algal turfs that were both 1.6-fold longer and contained 1.6-fold higher sediment loads than on outer reefs, while sediment composition shifted toward finer grain sizes offshore. Nevertheless, regardless of reef position, all algal turfs had high sediment loads ranging from 1,445 to 16,639 g m-2. Our findings suggest that cross-shelf patterns in algal turf sediment dynamics are present on Western Atlantic reefs and reveal that long sediment-laden algal turfs dominate on the FRT. These results highlight the pervasive nature of sediment-laden algal turfs on degraded reefs and emphasize the need to monitor and manage their expansion on reefs subject to chronic coastal development and climate-driven disturbance.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2023

Downscaling global reference points to assess the sustainability of local fisheries

Multispecies coral reef fisheries are typically managed by local communities who often lack research and monitoring capacity, which prevents estimation of well-defined sustainable reference points to perform locally relevant fishery assessments. Recent global advances in modelling coral reef fisheries have developed pathways to use environmental indicators to estimate multispecies sustainable reference points. These global reference points are a promising tool for assessing data-poor reef fisheries but need to be downscaled to be relevant to resource practitioners. Here, using a small-scale multispecies reef fishery from Papua New Guinea, we estimate sustainable reference points and assess the sustainability of the fishery by integrating global-scale analyses with local-scale environmental conditions, fish catch, reef area, standing biomass estimates, and fishers perceptions. We found that assessment results from global models applied to the local context of our study location provided results consistent with local fishers perceptions. Specifically, our downscaled results suggest that the fishing community is overfishing their reef fish stocks (i.e., catching more than can be sustained) and stocks are below BMMSY (i.e., below biomass levels that maximize production), making the overall reef fishery unsustainable. These results were consistent with fisher perceptions that reef fish stocks were declining in abundance and mean fish length, and that they had to spend more time finding fish. Our downscaled site-level assessment reveals severe local resource exploitation, whose dynamics are masked in national-scale assessments, emphasizing the importance of matching assessments to the scale of management. More broadly, our study shows how global reference points can be applied locally when long-term data are not available, providing baseline assessments for sustainably managing previously un-assessed multispecies reef fisheries around the globe.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2020

Growth impacts in a changing ocean: insights from two coral reef fishes in an extreme environment

Determining the life history consequences for fishes living in extreme and variable environments will be vital in predicting the likely impacts of ongoing climate change on reef fish demography. Here, we compare size-at-age and maximum body size of two common reef fish species (Lutjanus ehrenbergii and Pomacanthus maculosus) between the environmentally extreme Arabian/Persian Gulf (‘Arabian Gulf’) and adjacent comparably benign Oman Sea. Additionally, we use otolith increment width profiles to investigate the influence of temperature, salinity and productivity on the individual growth rates. Individuals of both species showed smaller size-at-age and lower maximum size in the Arabian Gulf compared to conspecifics in the less extreme and less variable environment of the Oman Sea, suggesting a life-history trade-off between size and metabolic demands. Salinity was the best environmental predictor of interannual growth across species and regions, with low growth corresponding to more saline conditions. However, salinity had a weaker negative effect on interannual growth of fishes in the Arabian Gulf than in the Oman Sea, indicating Arabian Gulf populations may be better able to acclimate to changing environmental conditions. Temperature had a weak positive effect on the interannual growth of fishes in the Arabian Gulf, suggesting that these populations may still be living within their thermal windows. Our results highlight the potential importance of osmoregulatory cost in impacting growth, and the need to consider the effect of multiple stressors when investigating the consequences of future climate change on fish demography.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.View Full Text

ecology↗

bioRxiv2020

MinION-in-ARMS: Nanopore Sequencing To Expedite Barcoding Of Specimen-Rich Macrofaunal Samples From Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures

Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structure (ARMS) are standardised devices for sampling biodiversity in complex marine benthic habitats such as coral reefs. When coupled with DNA sequencing, these devices greatly expand our ability to document marine biodiversity. Unfortunately, the existing workflow for processing macrofaunal samples (>2-mm) in the ARMS pipeline—which involves Sanger sequencing—is expensive, laborious, and thus prohibitive for ARMS researchers. Here, we propose a faster, more cost-effective alternative by demonstrating a successful application of the MinION-based barcoding approach on the >2mm-size fraction of ARMS samples. All data were available within 3.5–4 h, and sequencing costs relatively low at approximately US$3 per MinION barcode. We sequenced the 313-bp fragment of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) for 725 samples on both MinION and Illumina platforms, and retrieved 507–584 overlapping barcodes. MinION barcodes were highly accurate (~99.9%) when compared with Illumina reference barcodes. Molecular operational taxonomic units inferred between MinION and Illumina barcodes were consistently stable, and match ratios demonstrated highly congruent clustering patterns (≥0.96). Our method would make ARMS more accessible to researchers, and greatly expedite the processing of macrofaunal samples; it can also be easily applied to other small-to-moderate DNA barcoding projects (<10,000 specimens) for rapid species identification and discovery.View Full Text

zoology↗