Mangrove-associated fish assemblages off the southern Panama Bight region (tropical eastern Pacific)

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Panama Bight ecoregion (PBE) in the eastern Pacific contains probably the best developed mangrove forests in the American continent. Fishes inhabiting the mangrove-estuary mosaic play fundamental ecological roles and sustain the artisanal fishery operating there. Here, using data collected along ~300 km between 2012 and 2017, we examine the spatial dynamics of mangrove fish assemblages that undertake intertidal migrations in the southern part of the PBE (southern Colombian Pacific coast), where the largest and least disturbed mangroves of Colombia are located. Sixty-one fish species used intertidal mangrove habitats in these areas, constituting ~30% of all fishes inhabiting the whole mosaic of mangrove habitats in this ecoregion. Species within Clupeidae, Ariidae, Centropomidae and Tetraodontidae, all common in mangroves of the eastern Pacific, were the most dominant. Half of the fish species found are commercially important to the artisanal fishery. Differences in fish community structure could be related to salinity differences, but other environmental and ecological factors could also play a role in explaining these differences. A better understanding of the ecological role of mangrove fishes in the region could be gained by examining the ichthyofauna of other habitats within the mosaic and their trophic relationships.