Patterns of courtship acoustics and geophysical features at spawning sites of black grouper (Mycteroperca bonaci)

Sanchez, Phillip J.; Appeldoorn, Richard S.; Schärer-Umpierre, Michelle T.; Locascio, James

doi:10.7755/fb.115.2.5

Cited by 10 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…For black grouper, peak calling before sunset at Site B and compared to the less prominent peak at Site A could also indicate that Site B is closer to the preferred spawning location for this species. There was a similar peak in calling at a black grouper spawning aggregation in Puerto Rico (Schärer et al 2014) and at Riley's Hump, located in the Tortugas South Ecological Reserve, Florida (Sanchez et al 2017). Without recordings for both sites during the same time period or knowing when peak spawning actually occurs for these species (i.e.…”

Section: Temporal Calling Trendsmentioning

confidence: 87%

Potential for grouper acoustic competition and partitioning at a multispecies spawning site off Little Cayman, Cayman Islands

Wilson¹,

Semmens²,

Pattengill-Semmens³

et al. 2020

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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known fish sounds is in the range of boat and ship noise (Codarin et al. 2009, Slabbekoorn et al. 2010, Radford et al. 2014. A better understanding of how fish and other marine animals use the soundscape ABSTRACT: Many fishes produce calls during spawning that aid in species and mate recognition. When multiple sound-producing species inhabit an area, the detection range may decrease and limit call function. Acoustic partitioning, the separation of calls in time, space, or spectral frequency, can minimize interference among species and provide information about fish behavior and ecology, including possible response to increasing anthropogenic noise. We investigated acoustic partitioning among 4 sound-producing epinephelids, Nassau grouper Epinephelus striatus, red hind E. guttatus, black grouper Mycteroperca bonaci, and yellowfin grouper M. venenosa, using passive acoustic data collected at Little Cayman, Cayman Islands, during the spawning season of 2015 to 2017. We measured spectral and temporal features of 9 call types known or presumed to be produced by these fishes to assess frequency partitioning and call discrimination. We assessed call temporal and spatial partitioning using recordings from 2 locations. Differences among call features enabled good discrimination of Nassau grouper and red hind but not black and yellowfin grouper. The median peak frequencies of calls differed but bandwidths shared a common 13 Hz range, resulting in limited partitioning of spectral space. Red hind produced calls with higher frequencies than other species. Black grouper calling peaked before sunset whereas other species' calling peaked after sunset. Yellowfin grouper calling was prevalent north of other species, suggesting spatial separation. These results indicated separation in space and time between species calls, which aids in acoustic partitioning. When this separation did not occur, unique call structures were present, which may aid in effective intraspecies communication.

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Section: Temporal Calling Trendsmentioning

confidence: 87%

Potential for grouper acoustic competition and partitioning at a multispecies spawning site off Little Cayman, Cayman Islands

Wilson¹,

Semmens²,

Pattengill-Semmens³

et al. 2020

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…We suspect that WDR could have potential as a spawning aggregation site similar to Riley's Hump, a documented multispecies FSA utilized by both snapper and grouper species at different times of the year, which is located 70 km away from Key West in the Dry Tortugas region and has been protected as a no‐take marine reserve since 2001 (Locascio and Burton ; Sanchez et al. ; Feeley et al. ).…”

Section: Reproductive Information Summary For Grouper Tagged In This mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This location was identified as a potential FSA site for multiple species of snapper (Lindeman et al 2000) and is well known as an FSA site for Permit (Brownscombe et al 2020). We suspect that WDR could have potential as a spawning aggregation site similar to Riley's Hump, a documented multispecies FSA utilized by both snapper and grouper species at different times of the year, which is located 70 km away from Key West in the Dry Tortugas region and has been protected as a no-take marine reserve since 2001 (Locascio and Burton 2015;Sanchez et al 2017;Feeley et al 2018). If the WDR area is an FSA for multiple species year-round, spatial protection could increase larval production and encourage growth of FSAs during both summer and winter months, similar to Riley's Hump.…”

mentioning

confidence: 97%

Grouper Tales: Use of Acoustic Telemetry to Evaluate Grouper Movements at Western Dry Rocks in the Florida Keys

et al. 2020

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The Western Dry Rocks (WDR) area off Key West, Florida, is an open fishing area that contains a multispecies fish spawning aggregation site, but grouper spawning there has yet to be confirmed. The movements of 18 adult and subadult grouper at WDR were tracked using acoustic telemetry to determine how this area is used by grouper species and whether it contains a grouper spawning aggregation site. Tagged fish consisted of 10 Black Grouper Mycteroperca bonaci, 5 Nassau Grouper Epinephelus striatus, 2 Gag M. microlepis, and 1 Yellowfin Grouper M. venenosa. Overall, tagged grouper were more likely to be present in the WDR array during winter spawning months, with species-specific seasonal differences. Our results indicated that grouper presence increased during spawning months, although some adults and subadults were present year-round. Grouper made more movements per day during nonspawning months compared to spawning months, although the north side of WDR was the most heavily used area, regardless of the time of year. Additionally, spatial graphs of grouper movement suggested that different grouper species utilized different areas of WDR. Increased presence of grouper during spawning months suggests that the WDR area may contain a grouper spawning aggregation site, which would mean that fish species aggregate to spawn at this location year-round. The success of the Florida Keys fisheries critically depends on the protection of multispecies spawning aggregations like that potentially contained at WDR.

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“…Monitoring, recording and reporting sponge disease/bleaching outbreaks, subsequent die-offs and/or recovery events of large and morphologically diverse species (and their associates) is crucial to assess the overall health of the ecosystem in an ever-changing environment (Wulff, 2013;Deignan et al, 2018;Pita et al, 2018). For example, at Bajo de Sico seamount, an important Nassau and Black grouper aggregation site in Puerto Rico (Tuohy et al, 2015;Sanchez et al, 2017), occurrence of disease and bleaching was observed affecting several large specimens of X. muta at depths between 35 and 50 m (JEGH and Tuohy pers. Obs.).…”

Section: Sponge Assemblagementioning

confidence: 99%

Fish, Coral, and Sponge Assemblages Associated With Altiphotic and Mesophotic Reefs Along the Guánica Biosphere Reserve Continental Shelf Edge, Southwest Puerto Rico

et al. 2018

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The benthic and fish communities of the central portion of the Guánica, Puerto Rico shelf edge were studied to determine species abundance, distributions and species overlap between two depth stratifications, 20 and 45 m, at eight sites. A total of 67 fish species belonging to 21 families were identified. Similar species richness estimates were observed between depths, though fish assemblage composition differed significantly, with observable changes in feeding guild contributions of herbivore and omnivore (20 m) to a deeper assemblage composed of piscivores and planktivores (45 m). Coral assemblages consisted of 31 species at 20 m and 11 species at 45 m, accounting for 17.0% (±1.76 SE) and 2.6% (±0.89 SE) benthic cover for the altiphotic and mesophotic surveys, respectively. The altiphotic and mesophotic coral reef communities support different scleractinian coral assemblages with minimal species overlap. Altiphotic surveys of sponges yielded a higher species richness than mesophotic, with 60 and 54 species respectively, and an overall total of 71 species identified from both depths, with 45 species overlapping (63.0%). The percent cover of sponges surveyed at altiphotic reefs accounted for 9.0% (±1.04 SE), while the percent cover of sponges surveyed at mesophotic reefs was 14.0% (±1.96 SE). Our data show fish, coral, and sponge assemblages are differentiated between 20 and 45 m along the Guánica shelf edge offshore of the Guánica Biosphere Reserve. This study represents the first observations for species distributions of adjacent altiphotic and mesophotic coral reef habitats along the Guánica shelf edge, as well as provides an annotated species list of the local sponge fauna. Combined, these results highlight the need for continued environmental stewardship and conservation in the area.

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Patterns of courtship acoustics and geophysical features at spawning sites of black grouper (Mycteroperca bonaci)

Cited by 10 publications

References 8 publications

Potential for grouper acoustic competition and partitioning at a multispecies spawning site off Little Cayman, Cayman Islands

Potential for grouper acoustic competition and partitioning at a multispecies spawning site off Little Cayman, Cayman Islands

Grouper Tales: Use of Acoustic Telemetry to Evaluate Grouper Movements at Western Dry Rocks in the Florida Keys

Fish, Coral, and Sponge Assemblages Associated With Altiphotic and Mesophotic Reefs Along the Guánica Biosphere Reserve Continental Shelf Edge, Southwest Puerto Rico

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