Large-scale environmental DNA survey reveals niche axes of a regional coastal fish community
Abstract
Abstract The concept of the ecological niche, defined as the basic habitat requirements for a species, is central to understanding species geographic distributions and predicting their responses to environmental change. However, identifying the essential niche for large regional communities remains a challenge because niche axes can be “hidden” by the complexity of the underlying ecological processes. Here, applying advanced species distribution modelling to nationwide environmental DNA survey data, we identified hidden niche axes of the Japanese coastal fish community and investigated the response diversity to these axes. Our survey detected 1,220 coastal fish species. The hidden niche axes collectively explained most of the variation in fish biodiversity and revealed five biogeographic boundaries for the regional community. These niches of the Japanese fish community may primarily relate to several processes due to ocean currents, such as environmental filters, transport from source areas and dispersal barriers. We also found that the response diversity to niche axes was positively correlated with species richness, although local communities with particularly high response diversity were geographically biased. A better understanding of the niche axes of the regional ecological community should help to mitigate the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services caused by ongoing environmental change.
Article Details
Authors (39)
Yutaka Osada
Masaki Miya
Hitoshi Araki
Hideyuki Doi
Akihide Kasai
Reiji Masuda
Toshifumi Minamoto
Satoquo Seino
Teruhiko Takahara
Satoshi Yamamoto
Hiroki Yamanaka
Mitsuhiro Aizu-Hirano
Keiichi Fukaya
Takehiko Fukuchi
Ryo O. Gotoh
Masakazu Hori
Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency
Midori Iida
Tomohito Imaizumi
Tadashi Kajita
Takashi Kanbe
Tanaka Kenta
Yumi Kobayashi
Tomohiko Matsuura
Hiroki Mizumoto
Hiroyuki Motomura
Hiroaki Murakami
Kenji Nohara
Shin-ichiro Oka
Tetsuya Sado
Hiroshi Senou
Koichi Shibukawa
Tomoki Sunobe
Hiroshi Takahashi
Koji Takayama
Katsuhiko Tanaka
Hisashi Yamakawa
Satoru Yokoyama
Seokjin Yoon
Michio Kondoh