Scarus fuscopurpureus

Taxonomy

Assessment Information

Geographic Range

Population

Habitat and Ecology

Threats

Conservation Actions

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Taxonomy [top]

Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family
ANIMALIA	CHORDATA	ACTINOPTERYGII	PERCIFORMES	LABRIDAE

Scientific Name:

Scarus fuscopurpureus

Species Authority:

(Klunzinger, 1871)

Common Name/s:

English	–	Purple-brown Parrotfish
French	–	Perroquet Pourpre-Marron
Spanish	–	Loro Púrpura

Synonym/s:

Pseudoscarus collana eques Steindachner, 1903

Pseudoscarus forskalii fuscopurpureus Klunzinger, 1871

Taxonomic Notes:

Westneat and Alfaro (2005) recognize the Scarini as a tribe within the family Labridae. The genera Chlororus and Scarus are two distinct monophyletic lineages (Smith et al. 2008).

Assessment Information [top]

Red List Category & Criteria:

Least Concern ver 3.1

Year Published:

2012

Assessor/s:

Russell, B., Clements, K.D., Choat, J.H., Rocha, L.A., Myers, R., Lazuardi, M.E., Muljadi, A., Pardede, S. & Rahardjo, P.

Reviewer/s:

McIlwain, J. & Craig, M.T.

Contributor/s:

Justification:
There is little information available on the population and the biology of this species. However, it is widely distributed from the Red Sea to the Arabian Gulf region and there are no known major threats. It is therefore listed as Least Concern.

History:

2010

–

Least Concern

Geographic Range [top]

Range Description:	This species is found from the Red Sea (Randall 1986) and Somalia (Sommer et al. 1996) to the Arabian Gulf (Parenti and Randall 2000). It was recorded from Kuwait (Carpenter et al. 1997).
Countries:	Native: Bahrain; Djibouti; Egypt; Eritrea; Iran, Islamic Republic of; Israel; Jordan; Kuwait; Oman; Qatar; Saudi Arabia; Somalia; Sudan; United Arab Emirates; Yemen
FAO Marine Fishing Areas:	Native: Indian Ocean – western
Range Map:	Click here to open the map viewer and explore range.

Population [top]

Population:	Abundance estimates from the Red Sea record 20.8 individuals per hectare (J.H. Choat pers comm. 2009). There is no other population information available for this species.
Population Trend:	Unknown

Habitat and Ecology [top]

Habitat and Ecology:	This species occurs in shallow water, in depths from 2-20 m, often over sand or weed bottoms with coral heads and is found in pairs or small groups (Lieske and Myers 1994).
Systems:	Marine

Threats [top]

Major Threat(s):	There are no major threats known for this species. Parrotfishes show varying degrees of habitat preference and utilization of coral reef habitats, with some species spending the majority of their life stages on coral reefs, while others primarily utilize seagrass beds, mangroves, algal beds, and /or rocky reefs. Although the majority of the parrotfishes occur in mixed habitat (primarily inhabiting seagrass beds, mangroves, and rocky reefs) approximately 78% of these mixed habitat species are experiencing greater than 30% loss of coral reef area and habitat quality across their distributions. Of those species that occur exclusively in coral reef habitat, more than 80% are experiencing a greater than 30% of coral reef loss and degradation across their distributions. However, more research is needed to understand the long-term effects of habitat loss and degradation on these species populations. Widespread coral reef loss and declining habitat conditions are particularly worrying for species that depend on live coral reefs for food and shelter especially as studies have shown that protection of pristine habitats facilitate the persistence of adult populations in species that have spatially separated adult and juvenile habitats. Furthermore, coral reef loss and declining habitat conditions are particularly worrying for some corallivorous excavating parrotfishes that play major roles in reef dynamics and sedimentation (Comeros-Raynal et al. 2012).

Major Threat(s):

There are no major threats known for this species.

Parrotfishes show varying degrees of habitat preference and utilization of coral reef habitats, with some species spending the majority of their life stages on coral reefs, while others primarily utilize seagrass beds, mangroves, algal beds, and /or rocky reefs. Although the majority of the parrotfishes occur in mixed habitat (primarily inhabiting seagrass beds, mangroves, and rocky reefs) approximately 78% of these mixed habitat species are experiencing greater than 30% loss of coral reef area and habitat quality across their distributions. Of those species that occur exclusively in coral reef habitat, more than 80% are experiencing a greater than 30% of coral reef loss and degradation across their distributions. However, more research is needed to understand the long-term effects of habitat loss and degradation on these species populations. Widespread coral reef loss and declining habitat conditions are particularly worrying for species that depend on live coral reefs for food and shelter especially as studies have shown that protection of pristine habitats facilitate the persistence of adult populations in species that have spatially separated adult and juvenile habitats. Furthermore, coral reef loss and declining habitat conditions are particularly worrying for some corallivorous excavating parrotfishes that play major roles in reef dynamics and sedimentation (Comeros-Raynal et al. 2012).

Conservation Actions [top]

Conservation Actions:	There are no species-specific conservation measures in place for this species. However, its distribution overlaps several marine protected areas within its range.

Conservation Actions:

There are no species-specific conservation measures in place for this species. However, its distribution overlaps several marine protected areas within its range.

Citation:	Russell, B., Clements, K.D., Choat, J.H., Rocha, L.A., Myers, R., Lazuardi, M.E., Muljadi, A., Pardede, S. & Rahardjo, P. 2012. Scarus fuscopurpureus. In: IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 21 May 2013.
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