Knowledge of the ecology of the fish fauna associated with kelp (primarily Macrocystis pyrifera) forests in Southern Patagonia is scarce, especially in how abiotic and biotic variables influence their structure, diversity, and distribution. This information is important for the management and conservation of this unique ecosystem, which has minimal anthropogenic impacts at present. We analyzed data from 122 quantitative underwater transects conducted within kelp forests at 61 stations from Chile's southern Patagonian fjords to the Cape Horn and Diego Ramirez archipelagos and the southern tip of Argentina, including the Mitre Peninsula and Isla de los Estados. In total, 25 fish species belonging to 13 families were observed. Multivariate analysis indicated that there are significant differences in fish assemblage structure among locations and wave exposures, which was driven primarily by Patagonotothen sima and Paranotothenia magellanica, which occurred on exposed and semi-exposed stations. P. cornucola was mainly distributed across sheltered stations of the Kawésqar National Park. Temperature, salinity, depth, and kelp density influenced fish assemblage structure, with the highest diversity in areas with the lowest temperature and greater depth at Isla de los Estados. In contrast, species richness, diversity, abundance, and biomass were all lower in areas with high density of the understory kelp Lessonia spp., which might be driven by the absence of P. tessellata, P. squamiceps and P. cornucola, the most important species in terms of occurrence, abundance, and biomass. Our study provides the first broad-scale description of the fish assemblages associated with kelp forests along the southern cone of South America based on non-invasive visual transects, improving our knowledge of the distribution of fish assemblages across several environmental conditions in this vast and little-studied area.

中文翻译：

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巴塔哥尼亚南部海带森林相关鱼类的组合结构和空间多样性格局。


关于巴塔哥尼亚南部海带（主要是巨囊藻）森林的鱼类动物群的生态学知识很少，特别是非生物和生物变量如何影响其结构、多样性和分布。这些信息对于管理和保护这个独特的生态系统非常重要，目前该生态系统的人为影响很小。我们分析了从智利南部巴塔哥尼亚峡湾到合恩角群岛和迭戈拉米雷斯群岛以及阿根廷南端（包括米特半岛和埃斯塔多斯岛）的 61 个站点的海带森林内进行的 122 个定量水下样线的数据。总共观察到了属于13科的25种鱼类。多变量分析表明，不同地点和波浪暴露的鱼类组合结构存在显着差异，这主要是由发生在暴露和半暴露站的Patagonothen sima和Paranotothenia magellanica驱动的。 P. cornucola 主要分布在 Kawésqar 国家公园的庇护站。温度、盐度、深度和海带密度影响鱼类组合结构，在洛斯埃斯塔多斯岛温度最低和深度较大的地区，鱼类多样性最高。相比之下，在林下海带Lessonia spp.密度较高的地区，物种丰富度、多样性、丰度和生物量均较低，这可能是由于缺乏P. tessellata、P. squamiceps和P. cornucola（最常见的海带）。在发生率、丰度和生物量方面具有重要意义的物种。 我们的研究基于非侵入性视觉横断面，首次对与南美洲南锥体海带森林相关的鱼类群落进行了广泛的描述，提高了我们对鱼类群落在这片广阔和小岛屿上的几种环境条件下的分布的了解。 - 研究领域。