An assessment of sampling biases across studies of diel activity patterns in marine ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii)

Abstract

ABSTRACT.-Understanding the promotion and regulation of circadian rhythms in marine fishes is important for studies spanning conservation, evolutionary biology, and physiology. Given numerous challenges inherent to quantifying behavioral activity across the full spectrum of marine environments and fish biodiversity, case studies offer a tractable means of gaining insights or forecasting broad patterns of diel activity. As these studies continue to accumulate, assessing whether, and to what extent, the cumulatively collected data are biased in terms of geography, habitat, or taxa represents a fundamentally important step in the development of a broad overview of circadian rhythms in marine fish. As such investigations require a phylogenetic framework, general trends in the phylogenetic sampling of marine fishes should be simultaneously assessed for biases in the sampling of taxa and trait data. Here, we compile diel activity data for more than 800 marine species from more than five decades of scientific studies to assess general patterns of bias. We found significant geographic biases that largely reflect a preference toward sampling warm tropical waters. Additionally, taxonomic biases likewise reflect a tendency toward conspicuous reef associated clades. Placing these data into a phylogenetic framework that includes all known marine fishes revealed significant under-dispersion of behavioral data and taxon sampling across the whole tree, with a few subclades exhibiting significant overdispersion. In total, our study illuminates substantial gaps in our understanding of diel activity patterns and highlights significant sampling biases that have the potential to mislead evolutionary or ecological analyses.

Eyes Wide Shut: the impact of dim‐light vision on neural investment in marine teleosts

“…All fish were collected on scuba using dip nets or via rod and reel in Curaçao, Hawaii or North Carolina in accordance with conditions stipulated in permits and in compliance with university standards of animal care and use (Macquarie University animal ethics permit 5201500020). Of the 60 species used in this study, 44 are diurnal and 16 nocturnal (Schmitz & Wainwright, ; Dornburg et al ., ). With regard to feeding guilds, the diurnal group is composed of 66% benthivores (29), 11% piscivores (5), 14% planktivores (6) and 9% herbivores (4); the nocturnal group is composed of 63% benthivores (10), 31% piscivores (5) and 6% planktivores (1) (Fig.…”

“…Marine teleosts, which comprise 25% of the planet's vertebrate diversity, present an exemplary system for assessing general trends of neural investment following transitions to dim‐light environments. Marine fishes such as bigeyes (Priacanthidae) or squirrelfishes (Holocentridae) represent some of the most iconic examples of a temporal niche in vertebrates and are just a few of the dozens of clades that have independently evolved true nocturnality (Schmitz & Wainwright, ; Dornburg et al ., ). These nocturnal fish lineages generally have larger eyes than diurnal fishes relative to body size (Goatley & Bellwood, ; Goatley et al ., ; Schmitz & Wainwright, ), as well as a larger lens and pupil, which increases light‐gathering capacity and is evidence that vision is still an important modality in nocturnal species.…”

Community size structure varies with predator–prey size relationships and temperature across Australian reefs

“…Below this upper size limit, many gape‐limited predators feed on a wide range of prey sizes, depending on predator traits such as morphology, behavior, and body size (Barnes et al, 2010 ; Scharf et al, 2000 ), which leads to considerable variation in individual‐level PPMRs. By averaging PPMR values across the range of individuals (and traits) that compose a community (deriving community level or cPPMR), insights can be gained into the energetics and functioning of the broader system (Bellwood et al, 2020 ; Dornburg et al, 2017 ; Troudet et al, 2017 ), including the number of trophic levels possible in the food web, and the steepness of size spectrum slopes.…”

Assessing temporal biases across aggregated historical spatial data: a case study of North Carolina’s freshwater fishes

“…In turn, analysis of this spatial data forms the basis for numerous conservation and management decisions (Tolley et al 2016), as well as predictions for how species or communities will respond to ecological changes (Daufresne and Bo€ et 2007, Jetz et al 2012, Franklin et al 2017. While these datasets have incredible statistical value, the information contained within is not necessarily uniformly or systematically sampled over time (Hortal et al 2007, Dornburg et al 2017b. Heterogeneity in the timing of sample collection (Bulluck et al 2006, Boakes et al 2010, Yang et al 2013, Tessarolo et al 2017, collection techniques (Patton et al 1998), target species (Dallas et al 2017), areas sampled (Botts et al 2011, Hickisch et al 2019, and other aspects of data collection remain a specter that haunts meta-analyses.…”

“…With a level of species richness that exceeds half of all living vertebrates (Near et al 2012b), understanding the distribution of the world's fishes has long been a major challenge. Over the past century, numerous logistical problems associated with sampling, including accessibility (Willis andBabcock 2000, Koenig andStallings 2015), as well as biases in the efficiency and detection rates of different monitoring equipment (Kjelson and Colby 1977, Beamesderfer and Rieman 1988, Dornburg et al 2017b, have had to be overcome. These efforts have resulted in an unprecedented picture of the spatial distribution of fishes that has been fundamental for studies of niche modeling (Bond et al 2011, Ruaro et al 2019, McMahan et al 2020, biogeography (Dornburg et al 2015, 2017a, Cowman et al 2017, Siqueira et al 2019, and population genetics (Rocha 2003, Echelle et al 2015, Healey et al 2018, Warren et al 2021 to name but a few.…”