Abstract

The current study researches the ontogenetic distribution of Labridae family in the three shore ecosystems of mangroves, sea-grasses and reefs in San Andrés Island. For this we made visual census of juveniles and adults from 2009 to 2012 during rainy and dry seasons and recorded the levels of some abiotic factors. Here we found 24828 individuals bellowing to 96 species and 30 families. From those, the Labridae family was the second most abundant with 4884 individuals (19.7%) and the fourth most diverse with eight species. The species Halichoeres garnoti used all the three biotypes to develop their juveniles, Thalassoma bifasciatum and H. bivittatus used seagrasses and reefs, preferring the last one and H. radiatus, H. maculipinna, Clepticus parrae, and Bodianus rufus used only the reefs. The juveniles of H. poeyi were reported only in sea-grasses from which we concluded this biotype is essential for its ontogenic development. T. bifasciatum shows a relative abundance of 81%, however its populations can be threatened because comprises more than 83% of the diet of the invasive lionfish Pterois volitans. Comparisons between biotypes manifest that the highest similarity is in reefs, followed by sea-grasses and mangroves, additionally the seascape connected biotypes showed more richness (eight species). We do not find any relationships between climatic seasons or abiotic factors and species abundances (except for H. poeyi) according with the applied statistics. This research contributes to ecosystems connectivity, which is fundamental to guarantee the structure and functionality of marine protected areas, in Seaflower Biosphere Reserve, Colombian Caribbean.

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