Aquaculture and Fisheries Commons^™

Examining Gradients In Novelty: Native And Non-Native Fish Assemblages In Everglades Canals, David A. Gandy

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Novel ecosystems emerge from alterations to historic abiotic regimes and contain new species combinations. Everglades canals offer an opportunity to understand the function of novel habitat for native and non-native fishes and how novel conditions in turn influence distribution, abundance and assembly patterns. I examined native and non-native fish assemblages collected across a gradient in novelty, defined by the loss of wetland connectivity and habitat complexity. As novelty increased, native species richness and abundance strongly declined, and the contribution of non-natives increased. Community structure vastly differed among canals and was strongly influenced by spatial factors and secondarily by hydrological factors. …