Phylogenomics and species delimitation for effective conservation of manta and devil rays

Hosegood, Jane; Humble, Emily; Ogden, Rob; Bruyn, Mark de; Creer, Simon; Stevens, Guy M. W.; Abudaya, Mohammed; Bassos‐Hull, Kim; Bonfil, Ramón; Fernando, Daniel; Foote, Andrew; Hipperson, Helen; Jabado, Rima W.; Kaden, Jennifer; Moazzam, Muhammad; Peel, Lauren R.; Pollett, Stephen; Ponzo, Alessandro; Poortvliet, Marloes; Salah, Jehad; Senn, Helen; Stewart, Joshua; Wintner, Sabine P.; Carvalho, Gary R.

doi:10.1111/mec.15683

Cited by 60 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 98 publications

(186 reference statements)

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“…Species was determined as per Marshall et al (2009), classified as M. birostris, M. cf. birostris -a putative species detailed in Hinojosa-Alvarez et al (2016), Kashiwagi et al (2017) and Hosegood et al (2020), or undetermined species. While M. cf.…”

Section: Data Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sightings trends and behaviour of manta rays in Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, Brazil

Bucair¹,

Venables

Balboni³

et al. 2021

Mar Biodivers Rec

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Despite substantial progress in mobulid research over the past decade, knowledge gaps in manta ray ecology and behaviour remain, particularly in the South Atlantic Ocean. Opportunistic photographic and video records of manta rays collected between 2002 and 2019 at Fernando de Noronha Archipelago (FNA) in northeast Brazil provide evidence to support the year-round use of the region by manta rays (believed to be Mobula cf. birostris). From a total of 130 sighting records, manta rays exhibited feeding behaviour in 36.9% (n = 48) of sightings, indicating that the shallow waters surrounding the archipelago are used as feeding grounds. Approximately half of the records (53.8%) corresponded to identified individuals that were re-sighted repeatedly, using the area in different seasons and for several years. Of the compiled records, 69.2% of sightings were of small individuals (≤3 m disc width). All identified males had undeveloped claspers and females had no visible mating scars, suggesting a juvenile population. Despite being limited to a small local sample, here we present the first report of manta rays at FNA and provide preliminary evidence of feeding behaviour by juvenile manta rays in Brazil. This information contributes to our understanding of the regional distribution and habitat use of manta rays in Brazilian waters.

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Section: Data Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sightings trends and behaviour of manta rays in Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, Brazil

Bucair¹,

Venables

Balboni³

et al. 2021

Mar Biodivers Rec

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“…Reef manta rays (Mobula alfredi) are widely distributed throughout the tropical and sub-tropical waters of the Indo-West Pacific Oceans in relatively small, seemingly fragmented regional populations [1][2][3], which appear to be dependent on coral reef ecosystems [4]. Satellite tagging, acoustic telemetry and photographic identification studies have shown the species often exhibit high levels of residency and site fidelity whereby movement patterns are limited and individuals frequently return to the same location [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental drivers of reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi) visitation patterns to key aggregation habitats in the Maldives

Harris

Stevens

2021

PLoS ONE

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A detailed understanding of the dynamics of small-scale (10s km) habitat use by the reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi) in the Maldives Archipelago is required to develop an effective national conservation management plan for this wide-ranging species. Here, a combination of photo-ID sightings data and acoustic telemetry were used to investigate both long-term M. alfredi visitation trends and small-scale movement patterns to key habitats on the eastern side of Baa Atoll (Hanifaru Bay feeding area, Dhigu Thila multifunctional site, and Nelivaru Thila cleaning station). All tagged and most of the sighted M. alfredi exhibited high affinity to the eastern side of Baa Atoll, where 99% of detections occurred, and 69% of individuals were re-sighted in multiple years. Sightings data suggests that visitation patterns may be associated with differences in habitat use by sex and maturity status. Boosted regression trees indicated that tag detection probability at Hanifaru Bay increased with increased westerly wind speed (>5ms-1) during the day, close to a new and full moon just after high tide, and when the tidal range was low. Interaction effects between predictors suggest that wind-driven oceanographic processes, such as Langmuir Circulation, maybe working to increase zooplankton concentration at this location. Tag detection probability increased at Dhigu Thila under similar conditions. At Nelivaru Thila, it increased at lower wind speeds (<5ms-1), close to a full moon, three hours after high tide. These results suggest that M. alfredi may utilise cleaning stations during the day when environmental conditions are not suitable for feeding. There was a high level of connectivity between these three locations, which suggests they form part of a network of key habitats that provide essential services to M. alfredi locally. Future conservation efforts should focus on identifying all areas of key habitat use for this species within the Maldives; applying strict protective measures to these sites and any connecting migration corridors which link them.

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“…

Reef manta rays (Mobula alfredi) are large zooplanktivorous elasmobranchs of the family Mobulidae (Hosegood et al, 2020;Marshall et al, 2009;White et al, 2017). The global population is widely distributed in highly fragmented subpopulations throughout tropical and sub-tropical waters of the Indo-West Pacific Oceans (Couturier

…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Fine‐scale oceanographic drivers of reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi) visitation patterns at a feeding aggregation site

Harris

Hosegood

Robinson

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

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Phylogenomics and species delimitation for effective conservation of manta and devil rays

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 60 publications

References 98 publications

Sightings trends and behaviour of manta rays in Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, Brazil

Sightings trends and behaviour of manta rays in Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, Brazil

Environmental drivers of reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi) visitation patterns to key aggregation habitats in the Maldives

Fine‐scale oceanographic drivers of reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi) visitation patterns at a feeding aggregation site

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