Tropical range extending herbivorous fishes gain foraging benefits by shoaling with native temperate species

Tropicalization creates novel species assemblages in temperate ecosystems as range-extending species move. The sociality of range-extending species could facilitate their establishment, particularly if they associate with natives. The eastern Mediterranean Sea has witnessed widespread collapses of vegetated ecosystems since the arrival of the tropical rabbitfishes Siganus rivulatus and Siganus luridus. We explored whether mixed-species shoaling influenced the fish foraging activity of the novel herbivore assemblage. We recorded 250 shoals, 30% composed exclusively of native species (i.e., Sarpa salpa and Sparisoma cretense), 43% of rabbitfish, and 27% of species from both origins. S. rivulatus was the most gregarious species, establishing positive shoaling associations with S. luridus and S. salpa, whereas S. cretense was the least sociable. Foraging differed between native and range-extending species. Compared to native species in mixed-species shoals, range-extending species increased their bite rates with shoal size, both in mono- and multi-specific groups, indicating that they boosted their foraging efficiency (i.e., increased bites per minute) when foraging in large groups, regardless of which species they shoaled with. Native species, in contrast, only increased their bite rates with shoal size while foraging in mono-specific groups. Thus, our study shows that, unlike natives, range-extending species may gain foraging benefits from facilitative associations in mixed-species shoals. This gregarious behaviour could help explain the disproportionate herbivory pressures range-extending species impose on tropicalized ecosystems.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Scientific Reports

• Publication date

  2025-10-08

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1038/s41598-025-19136-xPMID 41062646PMCID 12508093
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Temperate functional niche availability not resident-invader competition shapes tropicalisation in reef fishes

  2023cited by this paper
• The ecological and evolutionary consequences of tropicalisation.

  2023cited by this paper
• Invasive Fish and Sea Urchins Drive the Status of Canopy Forming Macroalgae in the Eastern Mediterranean

  2023influential reference
• Tropicalization shifts herbivore pressure from seagrass to rocky reef communities

  2023cited by this paper
• Author Correction: A new wave of marine fish invasions through the Panama and Suez canals

  2022cited by this paper
• Long‐duration remote underwater videos reveal that grazing by fishes is highly variable through time and dominated by non‐indigenous species

  2022cited by this paper
• Established non-indigenous species increased by 40% in 11 years in the Mediterranean Sea

  2022cited by this paper
• Maximization of fitness by phenological and phenotypic plasticity in range expanding rabbitfishes (Siganidae)

  2022cited by this paper
• Novel species interactions and environmental conditions reduce foraging competency at the temperate range edge of a range-extending coral reef fish

  2021cited by this paper
• Behavioural generalism could facilitate co-existence of tropical and temperate fishes under climate change.

  2021influential reference
• Habitat loss and range shifts contribute to ecological generalization among reef fishes

  2021cited by this paper
• Sequential overgrazing by green turtles causes archipelago-wide functional extinctions of seagrass meadows

  2021cited by this paper
• New Evidence of Mediterranean Climate Change and Variability from Sea Surface Temperature Observations

  2020cited by this paper
• Co-occurrence is not evidence of ecological interactions.

  2020cited by this paper
• Climate‐driven impacts of exotic species on marine ecosystems

  2020cited by this paper
• Predation avoidance and foraging efficiency contribute to mixed-species shoaling by tropical and temperate fishes.

  2020cited by this paper
• Range‐extending tropical herbivores increase diversity, intensity and extent of herbivory functions in temperate marine ecosystems

  2020cited by this paper
• The dominant seagrass herbivore Sarpa salpa shifts its shoaling and feeding strategies as they grow

  2020cited by this paper
• Dietary generalism accelerates arrival and persistence of coral‐reef fishes in their novel ranges under climate change

  2020cited by this paper
• Towards an ultimate explanation for mixed‐species shoaling

  2019influential reference
• Tropicalisation of temperate reefs: Implications for ecosystem functions and management actions

  2019cited by this paper
• ‘Stick with your own kind, or hang with the locals?’ Implications of shoaling strategy for tropical reef fish on a range‐expansion frontline

  2018influential reference
• Alien turf: Overfishing, overgrazing and invader domination in south‐eastern Levant reef ecosystems

  2018cited by this paper
• Friendship across species borders: factors that facilitate and constrain heterospecific sociality

  2018influential reference
• ggeffects: Tidy Data Frames of Marginal Effects from Regression Models

  2018cited by this paper
• Climate change and interconnected risks to sustainable development in the Mediterranean

  2018cited by this paper
• glmmTMB Balances Speed and Flexibility Among Packages for Zero-inflated Generalized Linear Mixed Modeling

  2017cited by this paper
• Trait structure reveals the processes underlying fish establishment in the Mediterranean

  2017cited by this paper
• Herbivory in the marine realm.

  2017cited by this paper
• Tropicalization strengthens consumer pressure on habitat-forming seaweeds

  2017cited by this paper
• Biodiversity redistribution under climate change: Impacts on ecosystems and human well-being

  2017cited by this paper
• Herbivory on freshwater and marine macrophytes: A review and perspective

  2016cited by this paper
• Climate-driven regime shift of a temperate marine ecosystem

  2016cited by this paper
• Long-term empirical evidence of ocean warming leading to tropicalization of fish communities, increased herbivory, and loss of kelp

  2016cited by this paper
• fitdistrplus: An R Package for Fitting Distributions

  2015cited by this paper
• Tropical herbivores provide resilience to a climate-mediated phase shift on temperate reefs.

  2015cited by this paper
• EcoSimR: Null Model Analysis for Ecological Data

  2015cited by this paper
• External morphology explains the success of biological invasions.

  2014influential reference
• The tropicalization of temperate marine ecosystems: climate-mediated changes in herbivory and community phase shifts

  2014cited by this paper
• Mechanisms underpinning climatic impacts on natural populations: altered species interactions are more important than direct effects

  2014cited by this paper
• Distribution patterns of the invasive herbivore Siganus luridus (Rüppell, 1829) and its relation to native benthic communities in the central Aegean Sea, Northeastern Mediterranean

  2014cited by this paper
• Tropical rabbitfish and the deforestation of a warming temperate sea

  2014influential reference
• Tropical Fishes Dominate Temperate Reef Fish Communities within Western Japan

  2013cited by this paper
• Global imprint of climate change on marine life

  2013cited by this paper
• Global patterns in the impact of marine herbivores on benthic primary producers.

  2012cited by this paper
• The Structure of Mediterranean Rocky Reef Ecosystems across Environmental and Human Gradients, and Conservation Implications

  2012cited by this paper
• Positive Relationships between Association Strength and Phenotypic Similarity Characterize the Assembly of Mixed-Species Bird Flocks Worldwide

  2012cited by this paper
• Alien Marine Fishes Deplete Algal Biomass in the Eastern Mediterranean

  2011influential reference
• Interspecific information transfer influences animal community structure.

  2010cited by this paper
• Global climate change amplifies the entry of tropical species into the eastern Mediterranean Sea

  2010cited by this paper
• Mixed Effects Models and Extensions in Ecology with R

  2009influential reference
• Resource partitioning among early colonizing Siganus luridus and native herbivorous fish in the Mediterranean: an integrated study based on gut-content analysis and stable isotope signatures

  2007cited by this paper
• Temporal Fluctuations and Settlement Patterns of Native and Lessepsian Herbivorous Fishes on the Lebanese Coast (Eastern Mediterranean)

  2004cited by this paper
• Lessepsian invasion without bottleneck: example of two rabbitfish species (Siganus rivulatus and Siganus luridus)

  2003cited by this paper
• Social learning in fishes : a review

  2003cited by this paper
• Overriding the oddity effect in mixed-species aggregations: group choice by armored and nonarmored prey

  2003cited by this paper
• Animal behavior: an essential component of invasion biology.

  1999cited by this paper
• Relations entre Sarpa salpa (Linnaeus, 1758) (Téléostéen, Sparidae), les autres poissons brouteurs et le phytobenthos algal méditérranéen

  1990cited by this paper
• Feeding habits of the Lessepsian migrant Siganus luridus in the eastern Mediterranean, its new environment

  1988cited by this paper
• Quantitative distribution of herbivorous reef fishes in the Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea)

  1981cited by this paper

• Tropicalisation of rocky shore gastropod communities along the Baja California Peninsula

  2025cites this paper