Ierecê Lucena Rosa

Reefs, mangroves and seagrass biotopes often occur in close association, forming a complex and highly productive ecosystem that provide significant ecologic and economic goods and services. Different anthropogenic disturbances are increasingly affecting these tropical coastal habitats leading to growing conservation concern. In this field-based study, we used a visual census technique (belt transects 50 m x 2 m) to investigate the interactions between fishes and microhabitats at the Mamanguape Mangrove-Reef system, NE Brazil. Overall, 144 belt transects were performed from October 2007 to September 2008 to assess the structure of the fish assemblage. Fish trophic groups and life stage (juveniles and adults) were recorded according to literature, the percent cover of the substrate was estimated using the point contact method. Our results revealed that fish composition gradually changed from the Estuarine to the Reef zone, and that fish assemblage was strongly related to the microhabitat availability, as suggested by the predominance of carnivores at the Estuarine zone and presence of herbivores at the Reef zone. Fish abundance and diversity were higher in the Reef zone and estuary margins, highlighting the importance of structural complexity. A pattern of nursery area utilization, with larger specimens at the Transition and Reef Zone and smaller individuals at the Estuarine zone, was recorded for Abudefduf saxatilis, Anisotremus surinamensis, Lutjanus alexandrei, and Lutjanus jocu. Our findings clearly suggests ecosystem connectivity between mangrove, seagrass and reef biotopes, and highlighted the importance of Mamanguape Mangrove-Reef System as a priority area for conservation and research, whose habitat mosaics should be further studied and protected.

This paper presents novel sex-related characteristics in Hippocampus reidi, expressed as a prominent and pigmented keel (males only), and by a row of dorsolateral spots mostly (97.4%) found in males. While the keel was found even in the smallest males sampled, the dorsolateral spots appear to be associated with body size. Ex situ observations revealed that during courtship males highlighted both characters by turning pale their background body colour. Understanding such colour and behavioural patterns is relevant to increase our knowledge about sexual selection in a morphologically and biologically unique group of fishes.

This paper presents the results of the first analysis of the natural diet of Hippocampus reidi, one of the most sought after seahorse species in the international aquarium trade. Its main goals were to investigate food items and prey categories consumed by the species, and to discuss feeding strategy and inter and intra-individual components of niche breadth. Data were gathered from October 2005 to September 2006 at the Mamanguape estuary, State of Paraíba, NE Brazil. Food items from seahorses anaesthetized with clove oil were obtained by using a modified version of the flushing method, and were counted and identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level. Specimens were marked and had their height, sex, life and reproductive stage recorded, and then returned to the same place where they were found for the further assessment of anaesthetization/gut flushing on seahorses. Food items were analyzed using frequency of occurrence, relative abundance, index of preponderance and prey-specific abundance using the points method. The graphic method of Amundsen et al. (1996) was used to interpret the feeding strategy and contribution to niche breadth. Nematodes and crustaceans were the most important items found, the latter item usually being the most commonly found in the gut contents of syngnathids. No significant differences in diet composition were found between reproductive stages, however, a higher proportion of large items were consumed by the larger seahorses. The feeding strategy and niche breadth analysis suggests that H. reidi has a generalist feeding strategy, with high variation between phenotypes. Our results suggest that the anaesthetization-flushing technique has the potential to be a useful tool in seahorse research.