Damselfish face climate change: Impact of temperature and habitat structure on agonistic behavior

RESEARCH ARTICLE Damselfish face climate change: Impact of temperature and habitat structure on agonistic behavior Thalles da Silva-Pinto1, Mayara Moura Silveira1, Je´ ssica Ferreira de SouzaID1, Ana Luisa Pires Moreira1, Edson Aparecido Vieira2, Guilherme Ortigara LongoID2, Ana Carolina LuchiariID1* 1 Laborato´ rio de Peixes, Departamento de Fisiologia e Comportamento, Centro de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil, 2 Laborato´ rio de Ecologia Marinha, Departamento de Oceanografia e Limnologia, Centro de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil * analuchiari@yahoo.com.br Abstract Oceans absorb a huge part of the atmospheric heat, leading to the rise in water tempera- ture. Reefs are among the most affected ecosystems, where the complex behavioral reper- toire of fishes is usually an indicator of environmental impacts. Here, we examined whether temperature (28 and 34˚C) and habitat complexity (high and low) interact to affect the ago- nistic behavior (mirror test) of the dusky damselfish (Stegastes fuscus), a key species in Brazilian reefs because of its gardening capacity and territorial behavior. Higher tempera- tures altered basal behavior in both high and low-complexity conditions. Fish kept at 28˚C under the high-complexity condition were more aggressive than those at a higher tempera- ture (34˚C) and in a low-complexity condition, which also exhibited lower dispersion. Our data show that changes in behavior of coral reef fish is associated to fluctuations in environ-

mental conditions. Thus, it is important to implement management or conservation strate- gies that could mitigate global change effects. 1. Introduction Global warming has been singled out as one of the most devastating effects of human activities [1]., especially for oceans, which absorb around 90% of the atmospheric heat. For water- breathing ectothermic, physiological functioning depends on the thermal condition [2,3]. The rise in water temperature directly affects fishes’ metabolism, increasing respiration rate, nutri- tional requirements, and other physiological and behavioral responses such as reproduction and immunological defense [4–8]. Moreover, for the reef fishes the impact is exacerbated because algae and coral that make up reef’s structural foundation are even more sensitive to temperature rise. The three-dimensional structure and food source offered by the coral com- munities favor the establishment of hundreds of species, and the immediate impact of warm- ing will be loss of diversity and changes in fish community composition [9,10]. PLOS ONE PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0235389 June 30, 2020 1 / 13 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 OPEN ACCESS Citation: da Silva-Pinto T, Silveira MM, de Souza JF, Moreira ALP, Vieira EA, Longo GO, et al. (2020) Damselfish face climate change: Impact of temperature and habitat structure on agonistic behavior. PLoS ONE 15(6): e0235389. https://doi. org/10.1371/journal.pone.0235389 Editor: Hudson Tercio Pinheiro, California Academy of Sciences, UNITED STATES

Received: August 29, 2019 Accepted: June 16, 2020 Published: June 30, 2020 Peer Review History: PLOS recognizes the benefits of transparency in the peer review process; therefore, we enable the publication of all of the content of peer review and author responses alongside final, published articles. The editorial history of this article is available here: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0235389 Copyright: © 2020 da Silva-Pinto et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files.