Population Ecology of a Coral Reef Fish Across Multiple Spatial Scales

ISBN-10: 0549152423
ISBN-13: 9780549152422
Category: Fish populations
Pages: 332
Language: English
Published: 2007
Publisher: ProQuest
Author: J. Wilson White

Description

A major goal in ecology is to understand how processes observed on single habitat patches "scale up" to predict population- or metapopulation-scale dynamics. This issue is especially critical for marine species with widely-dispersing, planktonic larvae. I addressed this question by investigating the behavior, growth, and mortality of juvenile bluehead wrasse, bifasciatum, a small planktivore, on reefs around the Caribbean island of St. Croix. At a small spatial scale (centimeters), bluehead wrasse enjoyed safety-in-numbers: per-capita mortality was substantially lower in larger groups. This effect did not scale up, however, and mortality was density-dependent at the spatial scale of entire reefs (Chapter 1). The relative safety of groups may explain why settlers occurred in groups more often than expected by chance, but group sizes may be limited by competition for prey. Grouped fish spent more time foraging than solitary fish, but dietary and otolith analyses revealed that grouped fish obtained the same number of prey and grow slower than solitary fish despite foraging more. Behavior and growth were also affected by the local abundance of copepod prey, which varied consistently across reefs (Chapter 2). Of even greater interest is spatial variation in the recruitment and abundance of a major wrasse predator, which closely followed the spatial pattern of bluehead wrasse recruitment. Presumably this occurred because larvae of both species are affected by the same oceanographic forces. This spatial correlation in recruitment is noteworthy because predator density strongly affected the form and intensity of density-dependent mortality among recently settled wrasse (Chapter 3). Since the majority of marine metapopulation models assume that density dependence is spatially homogenous, models incorporating spatially correlated settlement of predators and their prey produce strikingly different results. Populations with consistently low larval settlement experience much weaker density-dependence and are consequently far more important to the persistence of the metapopulation than high-settlement, high-predation populations (Chapter 4). Far from supporting the idea that small-scale processes scale up, I have identified several new potential sources of large-scale, oceanographically-driven variability that may affect the fate of individual fish and entire metapopulations.

Get the book

Similar books

The Biology of Blennies
By Robert A Patzner
... and R. Galzin. 1997. Relationships between coral reef substrata and fish. Coral Reefs 16:93-102. Chittaro, P.M. 2000. Fish-habitat associations across multiple spatial scales. Coral Reefs 23: 235-244. Choat, J.H. and A.M. Ayling. 1987. The ...
Ecology of Fishes on Coral Reefs
By Camilo Mora
Draws on contributions from leading researchers to deliver a comprehensive overview of the latest knowledge on coral reef fishes.
Corals in a Changing World
By Carmenza Duque, Edisson Tello Camacho
2010;8:441‐452. DOI: 10.4319/lom.2010.8.441 Adey WH, Loveland K. Chapter 9: The Primary Nutrients – Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Silica: Limitation and Eutrophication. Dynamic Aquaria. 3rd ed. London: Academic Press. 2007. pp. 131‐140.
The Ecology of Fishes on Coral Reefs
By Peter F. Sale
This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the ecology of coral reef fishes presented by top researchers from North America and Australia.
Coral Reef Fishes: Dynamics and Diversity in a Complex Ecosystem
By Peter F. Sale
Coral Reef Fishes is the successor of The Ecology of Fishes on Coral Reefs. This new edition includes provocative reviews covering the major areas of reef fish ecology.
Changing Diversity in Changing Environment
By Oscar Grillo, Gianfranco Venora
... in coral reef fish families today reflect a long and complex history of geological, oceanographic, and biological interactions (Bellwood & Wainwright, 2002). The contemporary distribution and population structure of coral reef fishes appear ...
Tropical Fish Otoliths: Information for Assessment, Management and Ecology
By Bridget S. Green, Bruce D. Mapstone, Gary Carlos
... in an island population of a coral reef fish. Austral Ecol 32:122–130 Patterson HM, Thorrold SR, Shenker JM (1999) Analysis of otolith chemistry in Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus) from the Bahamas and Belize using solution-based ICP- ...
Handbook of Fish Biology and Fisheries: Fish Biology
By John D. Reynolds, Paul J. B. Hart
Szidat, L. (1969) Structure, development and behaviour of new strigeatoid metacercariae from subtropical fishes of South ... Woo, P.T.K. and Bruno, D.W. (1999) Fish Diseases and Disorders. Vol. 3: Viral, Bacterial and Fungal Infections.
Elements of Physical Oceanography: A derivative of the Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences
By John H. Steele, Steve A. Thorpe, Karl K. Turekian
... in situ. These characteristics make studies of reef fishes conceptually relevant to demersal fisheries and ecology in general. Population Dynamics Because reefs are patchy at all spatial scales and reef fish are largely sedentary, coral ...
Coral Reefs of the USA
By Bernhard M. Riegl, Richard E. Dodge
This book will therefore be of broad general interest.