Multispecies survey design for assessing reef-fish stocks, spatially explicit management performance, and ecosystem condition

Smith, Steven G.; Ault, Jerald S.; Bohnsack, James A.; Harper, Douglas E.; Luo, Jiangang; McClellan, David B.

doi:10.1016/j.fishres.2011.01.012

Cited by 88 publications

(130 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Red grouper comprised 79% of the acoustically tagged fish. Larger red grouper were, however, generally absent in our tagging study, despite the fact that they comprise a significant portion of the population as shown in estimates made by diver-based visual census methods (Ault et al 2007a, Smith et al 2011. Sample sizes for other species were limited.…”

Section: Acoustic Trackingmentioning

confidence: 76%

“…Low-profile contiguous reefs are the most common habitats in the Dry Tortugas (Ault et al 2006a) and contain the highest densities of red grouper (Smith et al 2011). Tagged red grouper underutilized isolated habitats relative to their availability.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Receiver placement was guided by maps of bathymetry (10 m resolution). coral reef habitats (200 m resolution), and a comprehensive fishery-independent monitoring database to provide acoustic coverage over a representative range of depths and complex coral reef habitats (Ault et al 2002, Franklin et al 2003, Smith et al 2011). Receivers were mounted 5 m above the seafloor to reduce benthic noise exposure, avoid signal blockage by habitat features (e.g.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These observations suggest that if red grouper are territorial fish, their defended home ranges (Schenkel 1966) must be smaller than the area covered by a single receiver in this study. However, the threshold biomass to induce density-dependent emigration in this species is still unclear.Low-profile contiguous reefs are the most common habitats in the Dry Tortugas (Ault et al 2006a) and contain the highest densities of red grouper (Smith et al 2011). Tagged red grouper underutilized isolated habitats relative to their availability.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Grouper and snapper movements and habitat use in Dry Tortugas, Florida

Farmer¹,

Ault²

2011

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Home ranges, activity patterns, and habitat preferences in and around no-take marine reserves (NTMRs) were evaluated for 5 exploited snapper-grouper species in diverse coral reef habitats in the Dry Tortugas, Florida. Movements of ultrasonic tagged reef fish were determined using a calibrated array of omnidirectional hydroacoustic receivers. Average home range sizes were 2.09 ± 0.39 km 2 (n = 28; total length, TL = 45 to 66 cm) for red grouper Epinephelus morio, 4.17 ± 1.75 km 2 (n = 5, TL = 48 to 55 cm) for yellowtail snapper Ocyurus chrysurus, 1.44 ± 1.04 km 2 (n = 2, TL = 57 to 75 cm) for black grouper Mycteroperca bonaci, and 7.64 km 2 (n = 1, TL = 70 cm) for mutton snapper Lutjanus analis. Red grouper and yellowtail snapper moved moderate distances (from 700 to 900 m) with moderate frequency. Observed movements for black groupers were relatively small and infrequent. Mutton snappers appeared to make short, frequent movements. A tracked gray snapper L. griseus made long-distance nocturnal migrations. Several exploited-phase groupers and snappers crossed into and out of reserve boundaries. They were most likely to do so in locations where boundaries were positioned over contiguous coral reef and close to home-range centers. We found that home ranges for red grouper, black grouper, and yellowtail snapper were relatively small in comparison to NTMR area. Our observations suggest that the Dry Tortugas NTMRs may reduce exposure to exploitation for these and other species with limited home ranges, especially where NTMR boundaries do not overlie contiguous reef. KEY WORDS: Acoustic tracking · Snapper-grouper complex · Movement patterns · Home range · Marine reserves · Coral reef fishesResale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisher reef habitats and helping to sustain the region's worldclass fisheries resources. Evidence has already emerged that they are reaching their intended goals (Ault et al. 2006b).Many marine fishes repeatedly use and move throughout particular areas, or home ranges (Burt 1943), for certain periods of the year or for particular life stages (Goeden 1978, Shapiro et al. 1994, Rooij et al. 1996, Zeller 1997, Kramer & Chapman 1999, Bell & Kramer 2000, Bolden 2001, Eristhee & Oxenford 2001, Baras et al. 2002, Lembo et al. 2002, Parsons et al. 2003. Occupation by marine fishes of a particular home range within a spatially heterogeneous landscape -given increased familiarity with key habitat features -may facilitate evasion of predators and increase foraging efficiency (review in Harris et al. 1990).Quantifying short-and longer-term fish movement patterns, home ranges, and habitat use is critical for advancing understanding of the dynamics of reef-fish community ecology and for informing intelligent NTMR design (Russ & Alcala 1996, Palumbi 2001, Meester et al. 2004, O'Dor et al. 2004. Unfortunately, data of this type are extremely limited (Kramer & Chapman 1999, Meyer et al. 2007. As a result, most reserves have been implemented with little quantitative desig...

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Section: Acoustic Trackingmentioning

confidence: 76%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Grouper and snapper movements and habitat use in Dry Tortugas, Florida

Farmer¹,

Ault²

2011

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…The iterative process of designing and implementing fish surveys can capitalize on analyses of fish distributional patterns as a means to inform and improve survey design characteristics (Ault et al 2005a;Smith et al 2011aSmith et al , 2011b. A common approach to delineating distribution patterns is to use resource selection functions (RSFs; Manly et al 2002).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cross‐Shelf Habitat Occupancy Probabilities for Juvenile Groupers in the Florida Keys Coral Reef Ecosystem

et al. 2016

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In the Florida Keys coral reef ecosystem, delineation of reef fish distributions in relationship to habitat patterns is important for improving the design characteristics of fishery‐independent surveys. Efficient survey design depends on analysis of fish distribution patterns to inform and improve the precision of future surveys. We used a diver visual survey to quantify occupancy patterns of preexploitation‐size Black Grouper Mycteroperca bonaci and Red Grouper Epinephelus morio. The survey was based on a stratified random sampling design with strata reflecting cross‐shelf coral reef habitat types. A multiple spatial scale modeling approach confirmed a cross‐shelf occurrence gradient for Red Grouper, with higher nearer‐to‐shore occupancy probability and lower offshore occupancy probability. Black Grouper occurrence followed a latitudinal gradient, with higher occurrence probabilities in the lower Florida Keys than in the upper Keys. Local habitat characteristics measured within reef strata suggested that occupancy relationships for both species varied according to vertical relief. Our analysis also included multilevel slope coefficients (random effects), which revealed unforeseen variance structure in Black Grouper occurrence probability among cross‐shelf reef strata. Our study improves on previous qualitative observations of juvenile grouper distributions in the Florida Keys and highlights the use of multilevel models in revealing variance structures of fish distributions not revealed by fixed‐effects models. Our analysis contributes to a discussion about foraging characteristics in producing the observed distributional patterns, and we suggest that examining the links between the distributions of forage fishes and larger predators (i.e., groupers) would be a useful step in improving survey stratification schemes. Received February 23, 2015; accepted July 2, 2015

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Identity of coral reef herbivores drives variation in ecological processes over multiple spatial scales

Ruttenberg

Adam

Durán

et al. 2019

Ecological Applications

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Overexploitation of key species can negatively impact ecosystem processes, so understanding the ecological roles of individual species is critical for improving ecosystem management. Here, we use coral reefs and the process of herbivory as a model to examine how species identity of consumers influence ecosystem processes to inform management of these consumers. Herbivorous fishes can facilitate the recruitment, growth, and recovery of corals by controlling the fast‐growing algae that can outcompete corals for space. However, herbivorous fish guilds are species rich with important differences among species in diet, movement, and habitat preferences. Yet, we lack a general understanding of (1) how these species‐specific differences in feeding and behavior scale up to reef‐wide rates of ecosystem processes and (2) how species identity and diversity impact these processes. To address these knowledge gaps, we used field observations to derive key species‐ and size‐specific foraging parameters for nine herbivorous parrotfish species on coral reefs in the Florida Keys, USA. We then combined these foraging parameters with fish survey data spanning multiple spatial scales to estimate the rates of three ecosystem processes: area of reef grazed, amount of macroalgae removed, and rate of bioerosion. We found that predicted rates of ecological processes varied dramatically among habitats and among reef zones within habitats, driven primarily by variation in abundance among species with different foraging behaviors. In some cases, assemblages with similar levels of total biomass had different rates of ecological processes, and in others, assemblages with different biomass had similar rates of ecological processes. Importantly, our models of herbivory using species‐specific parameters differed from those using genus‐level parameters by up to 300% in rates of ecological processes, highlighting the importance of herbivore identity in this system. Our results indicate that there may be little overlap in the roles species play, suggesting that some systems may be vulnerable to loss of ecological function with the reduction or loss of just a few species. This work provides a framework that can be applied across the region to predict how changes in management may affect the ecological impact of these important herbivores.

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Multispecies survey design for assessing reef-fish stocks, spatially explicit management performance, and ecosystem condition

Cited by 88 publications

References 29 publications

Grouper and snapper movements and habitat use in Dry Tortugas, Florida

Grouper and snapper movements and habitat use in Dry Tortugas, Florida

Cross‐Shelf Habitat Occupancy Probabilities for Juvenile Groupers in the Florida Keys Coral Reef Ecosystem

Identity of coral reef herbivores drives variation in ecological processes over multiple spatial scales

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