| Contributors | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Buston, Peter | Boston University (BU) | Principal Investigator |
| Majoris, John | Boston University (BU) | Co-Principal Investigator, Contact |
| Ake, Hannah | Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI BCO-DMO) | BCO-DMO Data Manager |
Persistence of E. lori settlers seeded onto 120 tagged tubes sponges on the fore reef off South Water Caye.
These data were included in Figure 6 and Table 3 of:
Majoris, JE; D'Aloia CC, Francis RK, Buston PM (Accepted) Differential persistence favors habitat preferences that determine the distribution of a reef fish. Behav. Ecol.
Settlers were seeded onto sponges along the transect to test the hypothesis that the distribution of E. lori settlers is the result of variation in their persistence (i.e., defined here as the time a settler spent on a sponge as a result of mortality and/or movement) across settlement habitats. For each of the 120 tagged sponges, divers recorded the presence or absence of the seeded settler every other day for two weeks (n = 7 observations/settler). New settlers that arrived from the water column and individuals from elsewhere that moved to tagged sponges were identified using differences in size and pigmentation (Figure 3), removed from the sponge, and measured to confirm size (SL). Following completion of the first two-week trial, a second trial was carried out using the same sponges, but with a new group of 120 E. lori settlers.
R version 3.2.3
BCO-DMO Data Processing Notes:
- dates reformatted to yyyy/mm/dd
- periods replaced with underscores in column names
- missing identifier replaced with nd
| File |
|---|
persistence.csv (Comma Separated Values (.csv), 41.93 KB) MD5:aea058933c418e328f48f34b3a9c6f05 Primary data file for dataset ID 728458 |
| Parameter | Description | Units |
| Date | Date of observation; YYYY/MM/DD | unitless |
| Trial | Data was collected during trial 1 or 2 | unitless |
| Sp_ID | Tag number from 1 - 120 use to identify sponges | unitless |
| Sp_species | Sponge species: Aplysina fistularis (Y); or Agelas conifera (B) | unitless |
| Sp_size | Maximum tube length of sponge | centimeters |
| Sp_tubes | Number of sponge tubes greater than 10 centimeters | count |
| Sp_depth | Depth at base of the sponge in feet | feet |
| sp_depth_m | Depth at base of the sponge in meters | meters |
| Start_size | The standard length of each settler seeded onto sponge at the start of the persistence experiment | millimeters |
| End_size | The standard length of each seeded settler that persisted to the end of the experiment | millimeters |
| Start | Starting time of interval | days |
| Stop | Ending time of interval | days |
| Event_time | Indicates weather and event (i.e. settler disappearance) occurred (1) or did not occur (0) during the interval between observations. | unitless |
| Time | Time (days post seeding) that settlers experience an event (disappearance) or are censored | days |
| Event | Indicates whether an event (i.e. settler disappearance) occurred (1) or did not occur (0) at any time during the trial. | unitless |
| Seed_pres | Seeded settler presence (1) or absence (0) | unitless |
| Res_pres | Residents presence (1) or absence (0) | unitless |
| Lag_res_pres | Resident presence (1) or absence (0) during previous interval | unitless |
| Res_n | Number of residents observed on each sponge | count |
| Lag_res_n | Number of residents during the previous interval | count |
| New_set_pres | New settler presence (1) or absence (0) on a tagged sponge (i.e. individuals <10mm with minimal pigmentation that settled to the sponge from the water column) | unitless |
| New_set_n | Number of new settlers observed on a tagged sponge | count |
| Ps_pres | Post-settler presence (1) or absence (0) on a tagged sponge (i.e. E. lori individuals greater than or equal to 10mm but less than or equal to 18mm standard length that moved to the sponge from elsewhere on the reef) | unitless |
| Ps_n | Number of post-settlers observed on a tagged sponge | count |
Description from NSF award abstract:
Understanding how far young fish move away from their parents is a major goal of marine ecology because this dispersal can make connections between distinct populations and thus influence population size and dynamics. Understanding the drivers of population dynamics is, in turn, essential for effective fisheries management. Marine ecologists have used two different approaches to understand how fish populations are connected: genetic methods that measure connectivity and oceanographic models that predict connectivity. There is, however, a mismatch between the predictions of oceanographic models and the observations of genetic methods. It is thought that this mismatch is caused by the behavior of the young, or larval, fish. The objective of this research is to study the orientation capabilities of larval fish in the wild throughout development and under a variety of environmental conditions to see if the gap between observations and predictions of population connectivity can be resolved. The project will have broader impacts in three key areas: integration of research and teaching by training young scientists at multiple levels; broadening participation of undergraduates from underrepresented groups; and wide dissemination of results through development of a website with information and resources in English and Spanish.
The overall objective of the research is to investigate the role of larval orientation behavior throughout ontogeny in determining population connectivity. This will be done using the neon goby, Elacatinus lori, as a model system in Belize. The choice of study system is motivated by the fact that direct genetic methods have already been used to describe the complete dispersal kernel for this species, and these observations indicate that dispersal is less extensive than predicted by a high-resolution biophysical model; E. lori can be reared in the lab from hatching to settlement providing a reliable source of larvae of all ages for proposed experiments; and a new, proven behavioral observation platform, the Drifting In Situ Chamber (DISC), allows measurements of larval orientation behavior in open water. The project has three specific objectives: to understand ontogenetic changes in larval orientation capabilities by correlating larval orientation behavior with developmental sensory anatomy; to analyze variation in the precision of larval orientation in different environmental contexts through ontogeny; and to test alternative hypotheses for the goal of larval orientation behavior, i.e., to determine where larvae are heading as they develop.
| Funding Source | Award |
|---|---|
| NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE) |