Functional beta diversity of New Zealand fishes: characterising morphological turnover along depth and latitude gradients, with derivation of functional bioregions ...

• Main Authors: Myers, Elisabeth, Eme, David, Liggins, Libby, Harvey, Euan, Roberts, Clive, Anderson, Marti
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2021
• Subjects: FOS Natural sciences; functional homogeneity; spatial turnover; trait; deep-sea fishes; Auckland Islands; White Island
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.tdz08kq0d; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.tdz08kq0d

Changes in the functional structures of communities are rarely examined along multiple large-scale environmental gradients. Here, we describe patterns in functional beta diversity for New Zealand marine fishes vs depth and latitude, including broad-scale delineation of functional bioregions. We derived eight functional traits related to food acquisition and locomotion and calculated complementary indices of functional beta diversity for 144 species of marine ray-finned fishes occurring along large-scale depth (50 - 1200 m) and latitudinal gradients (29° - 51° S) in the New Zealand Exclusive Economic Zone. We focused on a suite of morphological traits calculated directly from in situ Baited Remote Underwater Stereo-Video (stereo-BRUV) footage and museum specimens. We found that functional changes were primarily structured by depth followed by latitude, and that latitudinal functional turnover decreased with increasing depth. Functional turnover among cells increased with increasing depth distance, but this ... : Fish community data Baited Remote Underwear Stereo-Video systems (Stereo-BRUVs) were used to sample marine ray-finned fishes (Class Actinopterygii) in situ at off-shore locations across northern, eastern and southern New Zealand (see Zintzen et al. 2012; 2017 for detailed positions). The Stereo-BRUVs were deployed in a stratified random sampling design at each of seven depths (50 m, 100 m, 300 m, 500 m, 700 m, 900 m and 1200 m) within each of seven locations (from north to south): Rangitāhua, the Kermadec Islands (KER), Three Kings Islands (TKI), Great Barrier Island (GBI), Whakaari, White Island (WI), Kaikōura (KKA), Otago Peninsula (OTA) and the Auckland Islands (AUC) that spanned 21° of latitude in New Zealand waters (with n = 5 - 7 replicate deployments per depth-by-location, see Figure 1 from Zintzen et al. 2017 for a detailed map showing exact sampling locations). Video footage was obtained from a total of 329 deployments (2 hours each) across 47 depth-by-location cells (2 cells were not sampled – ...