Ecological Niche and Interspecific Association of the Main Fishes in the Coastal Waters of Hainan Island, China

Abstract

This study explored the ecological niche and interspecific relationships among the main fish species in the coastal waters of Hainan Island based on data from fishery stock surveys conducted in the spring and autumn of 2022. The methods of chi-square test, percentage of co-occurrence (PC), association coefficient (AC), cluster analysis, and redundancy analysis were used to analyze the interspecific associations and influence of environmental factors on the ecological niches of fish communities. According to the cluster analysis of niche breadth, 20 main fishes could be divided into broad, medium, and narrow niche species. There were four and eight broad niche species in spring and autumn, respectively. The ranges of niche overlap values were 0.001–0.91 in spring and 0–0.87 in autumn, indicating that the species differed and were similar in their ability to utilize resources, survive in habitats, and prey. According to the variance ratio and statistic value W, the main fishes in spring showed a significant positive association, whereas those in autumn showed a positive association, but not at a significant level, indicating that the main fishes in spring were more closely associated with each other. There were 56 species pairs in the 2 seasons that were significantly associated (χ2 ≥ 3.841). AC and PC tests revealed that the interspecific association was strong and tended to be positive. According to the redundancy analysis, environmental factors such as surface temperature, water depth, and pH significantly affected the main fishes in spring, while environmental factors such as dissolved oxygen, bottom temperature, surface salinity, and pH significantly affected those in autumn.