What Drives Ontogenetic Niche Shifts of Fishes in Coral Reef Ecosystems?

Kimirei, Ismael A.; Nagelkerken, Ivan; Trommelen, Michel; Blankers, P.; Hoytema, Nanne van; Hoeijmakers, Dieuwke; Huijbers, Chantal M.; Mgaya, Yunus D.; Rypel, Andrew L.

doi:10.1007/s10021-013-9645-4

Cited by 97 publications

(104 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…This behavior could serve as a mechanism to maximize successful settlement or recruitment to preferred habitat . It has been shown that seagrass beds have lower predation risk compared with coral reefs (Grol et al 2011, Kimirei et al 2013. Adaptive be havior that leads to successful orientation and recruitment to seagrass beds can thus ultimately lead to increased survival, which is critical for population maintenance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Orientation from open water to settlement habitats by coral reef fish: behavioral flexibility in the use of multiple reliable cues

Igulu¹,

Nagelkerken

Beek³

et al. 2013

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Most coastal marine organisms have a dispersive oceanic larval stage, during which they must be able to distinguish and respond to relevant environmental cues when settling into their first benthic habitat. Chemical stimuli emanating from settlement habitats and being dispersed by water plumes could enable long-distance navigation by larval reef fish, but we know little about the cues responsible and their interactive effects. In the present study, we tested this by conducting several ex situ choice experiments in which the response of the coral reef fish Lutjanus fulviflamma towards different chemical cues from coastal habitats was tested close to their settlement stage. Fish preferred seagrass habitat water over that from coral reef and mangrove habitats. Furthermore, fish were attracted to chemical cues from their own species (conspecifics) and other fish species, as well as vegetation of 4 different seagrass species, when offered in isolation (i.e. soaked in neutral water), but a strong response remained only towards cues from conspecifics and seagrass leaves when these cues were mixed with seagrass habitat water that naturally contains other cues. Hierarchical effects were observed as fish preferred chemical cues from seagrass leaves over those from conspecifics when both were offered at the same time. The importance of visual habitat cues only overruled that of chemical cues when it concerned preferred cues (i.e. seagrass as opposed to mangrove cues). Our findings indicate that pelagic fish and settlers possess the ability to use multiple reliable chemical cues to locate suitable early life stage habitats, although the importance of these cues is context-dependent. Nevertheless, this flexibility in choice behavior is probably an adaptive strategy to enhance fitness by increasing successful orientation towards preferred settlement habitats.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Orientation from open water to settlement habitats by coral reef fish: behavioral flexibility in the use of multiple reliable cues

Igulu¹,

Nagelkerken

Beek³

et al. 2013

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…Error bars based on parametric SE show the error across (a) sites and (b) habitats. paring bottom-up and top-down drivers of ONS found that predation risk for three species of juvenile coral fish was the primary inhibitor of ONS into higher-quality adult habitat (Kimirei et al 2013). Our study showed that an ONS occurred across habitats and host plants and that this shift was consistent with differences in predation risk at the host-plant scale.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many organisms exhibit continuous growth, in which juvenile and adult stages are morphologically similar except for a difference in body size and maturation of reproductive organs. Reaching the adult stage for such continually growing organisms is often associated with a change in resource use and trophic position (Kimirei et al 2013). Because these developmental shifts are generally difficult to detect, organisms that metamorphose, such as holometabolous insects (which have morphologically distinct life stages and different resource requirements), are commonly used as model systems to study ONS.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predation and associational refuge drive ontogenetic niche shifts in an arctiid caterpillar

Grof‐Tisza

Holyoak²,

Antell

et al. 2015

Ecology

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Abstract. Despite the ubiquity of ontogenetic niche shifts, their drivers and consequences are poorly understood. Different nutritional requirements and stage-specific physiological limitations have often been offered as explanations for these life history features, but emerging work has demonstrated that top-down factors may also be important. We studied the roles of predation and associational refuge in ontogenetic niche shifts for a holometabolous insect (ranchman's tiger moth Platyprepia virginalis), which shifts habitats and host plants to pupate. We examined the effect of pupation site selection across habitats and host plants by late-instar caterpillars on the rate of predation during the relatively vulnerable pupal stage. Studying the ontogenetic transition from mobile caterpillar to non-feeding, sessile pupa allows isolation of top-down effects from bottom-up, nutritional effects. An observational study supported previous findings that feeding caterpillars preferred marsh habitats, but pupating caterpillars preferred prairie habitats. Experiments demonstrated that caterpillars preferred to pupate within a physically defended plant species. Pupation within this defended plant species resulted in reduced predation (an associational refuge), and removal of the physical defense structures negated the reduced-predation effect. This experiment shows that ontogenetic niche shifts can be driven by predation and can involve facilitation by a host plant that provides a refuge to predation. The co-option of plant chemical defenses by animals is widely established. However, finding a clear example in which an animal exploits a plant's physical defense is rare, especially in the context of ontogenetic niche shifts. This work shows that facilitation mediated by refuge from predation provided by host plants and life-stage-dependent predation risk can interact to shape species' distributions.

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“…Their high structural complexity provides advantages in terms of higher food abundances and increased survival from predation (Laegdsgaard & Johnson 2001). However, recent studies have suggested that food is not necessarily higher in nurseries than in adult habitats, and fish may trade-off growth for increased survival in nursery habitats (Grol et al 2008, 2011, Kimirei et al 2013.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Growth potential and predation risk drive ontogenetic shifts among nursery habitats in a coral reef fish

Grol¹,

Rypel²,

Nagelkerken³

2014

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Various species of aquatic animals have complex life cycles and utilize different habitats during consecutive phases of their life cycles. For example, many marine fish species occupy different habitat types during juvenile and adult life stages. Juveniles of some species recruit to inshore nursery habitats such as mangroves and seagrass beds, whereas large adults tend to dominate coral reefs. The mechanisms underlying apparent cross-habitat distribution patterns by life stage remain uncertain for many species. Here, we investigated potential mechanisms that produce a 5-phase, and possibly even a 6-phase life cycle pattern in a common Caribbean coral reef fish species Haemulon flavolineatum (French grunt) across multiple coastal habitats. At each discrete life stage, individuals were faced with important and stage-specific ecological trade-offs that could significantly augment fitness. Pelagic larvae settled on rubble habitats near bay entrances where they reached an optimum between predation risk (survival) and food abundance (growth). Individuals subsequently shifted to seagrass beds, likely as a result of increased food resources, followed by a shift to mangroves as predation refugia. Before the unidirectional movement between bays and coral reefs, some fishes shifted from mangroves to boulder/notch habitats. Likely, this habitat serves as an intermediate stop before their final shift to the coral reef, where they reach maturity and reproduce. This study reveals ecological linkages and flows among habitat types that are of direct conservation importance to these ecosystems. Furthermore, the identification of mechanisms that give rise to cross-habitat distribution patterns of marine fishes in general might lead to enhanced conservation management solutions to declines in fisheries at larger scales.

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What Drives Ontogenetic Niche Shifts of Fishes in Coral Reef Ecosystems?

Cited by 97 publications

References 74 publications

Orientation from open water to settlement habitats by coral reef fish: behavioral flexibility in the use of multiple reliable cues

Orientation from open water to settlement habitats by coral reef fish: behavioral flexibility in the use of multiple reliable cues

Predation and associational refuge drive ontogenetic niche shifts in an arctiid caterpillar

Growth potential and predation risk drive ontogenetic shifts among nursery habitats in a coral reef fish

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