University of Windsor Scholarship at UWindsor Electronic Theses and Dissertations Theses, Dissertations, and Major Papers 1-1-2007 Behaviour, recruitment and dispersal of coral reef fish larvae: Insight into the larval life-stage. James Derek Hogan University of Windsor Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd Recommended Citation Hogan, James Derek, "Behaviour, recruitment and dispersal of coral reef fish larvae: Insight into the larval life-stage." (2007). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 7230. https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/7230 This online database contains the full-text of PhD dissertations and Masters’ theses of University of Windsor students from 1954 forward. These documents are made available for personal study and research purposes only, in accordance with the Canadian Copyright Act and the Creative Commons license—CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivative Works). Under this license, works must always be attributed to the copyright holder (original author), cannot be used for any commercial purposes, and may not be altered. Any other use would require the permission of the copyright holder. Students may inquire about withdrawing their dissertation and/or thesis from this database. For additional inquiries, please contact the repository administrator via email ([email protected]) or by telephone at 519-253-3000ext. 3208. Behaviour, recruitment and dispersal of coral reef fish larvae: Insight into the larval life- stage. by James Derek Hogan A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies Through Biological Sciences In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the rsity of Windsor Windsor, Ontario, Canada 2007 © 2007 J. Derek Hogan Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your We Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-57650-2 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-57650-2 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Nntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada Abstract Despite the importance of larvae to the ecology of reef fishes, the ecology of the larval-stage itself is still relatively poorly understood because of the difficulty of tracking and observing very small fishes in the oceans' waters. Advances in the last few years have increased our understanding of the ecology of reef fish larvae, with a focus on the dispersal of larvae and connectivity between benthic adult populations. The goal of this dissertation is to gain insight into the life history of larval reef fishes. I have used a variety of techniques to investigate the biology and ecology of these animals as it pertains to their dispersal and recruitment to reef populations. I used recruitment monitoring surveys to investigate the occurrence of synchrony (or coherence) in recruitment (Chapter 2). I measured the spatial scale of recruitment coherence to infer larval patch size in the pelagic environment. I used an otolith microchemical assay to determine if larvae recruiting in coherent pulses experienced similar environments during their larval lives, inferring that larval patches were coherent throughout larval development and may have originated from similar source populations (Chapter 3). I used a different otolith microchemistry assay to directly measure the dispersal of larvae between reefs (Chapter 4). I measured the swimming performances of larvae of Caribbean reef fish species and used a specially designed swimming flume to examine the contribution of swimming and drifting to the displacement of larvae in a simulated pelagic environment (Chapters 5 and 6). I discuss the results of these studies in the context of the factors that likely cause variation in dispersal and recruitment. Finally, I suggest how to focus future research on the ecology of reef fish larvae. Co-authorship This thesis was written as a series of manuscripts, and as such, several people have been critical to the development of this thesis. Their contributions have been acknowledged in the form of co-authorships on these papers. In many of the chapters I use the first person plural wording as a form of acknowledgement of the contributions of these co-authors. In all these chapters I was the primary developer of the ideas, analyst of the data and writer of the manuscripts, however, various contributions were made by others, I acknowledge their specific contributions below: Peter Sale: Peter has been important in the development of ideas throughout the thesis, in data analysis and for masterminding the ECONAR project from which all of the data for these chapters was generated. Rebecca Fisher: Rebecca has been important in many aspects to the development of this thesis. She closely advised in the statistical analysis of the recruitment data from chapter 1, she was important in the development of the foundational ideas for chapter 2, she helped in the collection and analysis of the larval swimming data from chapter 4. Brian Fryer: Brian has been important in the general analysis of the otolith chemical data and training a field biologist to use sophisticated machinery (i.e. not made out of PVC). Brian's geochemical expertise was also helpful with the analysis of the otolith chemical data in chapter 2. Camilo Mora: Camilo was a very helpful colleague during his tenure in the Sale lab. From my first day of field work on Camilo helped me to generate ideas about the thesis, and the general direction of my research. We collaborated on chapter 5 of this thesis, and Camilo input his effort (and frustration) in the fieldwork as well as in the analysis and writing of the manuscript. Camilo also helped with the generation of ideas for chapter 1. Camilo was also important in the collection of recruitment data from 2002 through 2003. Paul Chittaro: Paul was very helpful and accommodating helping me to learn how to use the ICP-MS, and teaching me how to polish otoliths. He helped with a lot of the field collections for all chapters and helped with the generation of ideas for chapter 3. Cormac Nolan: Cormac is a colleague whom I worked alongside during the field seasons in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Cormac contributed immensely to the collection and identification of larval reef fishes that were used for experiments in chapter 4. He also helped in the collection of recruitment data and fish samples. Paolo Usseglio: Paolo is a field colleague who helped greatly with the fieldwork for all chapters (except chapter 5) in all years of this study. Paolo also contributed to the data analysis in most chapters, and in chapter 2 particularly. v Dedication This thesis is dedicated to my family for all their love and support. Acknowledgements Field Support: The staff of the Institute for Marine Studies at the University of Belize have contributed incredible field support throughout the duration of the field seasons. Special thanks goes to T. Rodriguez, M. Correa and A. Catzim for their efforts and help as our boat captains. Very special thanks goes to J. Catzim and T. Magana for their lovely cooking and keeping us well fed during our summers on the island. Douglas Campbell Smith also was a tremendous help with our fieldwork in Mexico, getting us tanks and boats when we needed them, and for the greatest pork chops I have ever tasted. Technical Support: I thank S. Budinsky, M. Enns and D. Poublon at the University of Windsor Technical Support Centre for construction of light traps for use in collecting larvae for Chapter 5, and for the construction of the swimming chamber used in Chapter 5. Staff: The staff of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Windsor have been invaluable to me throughout my tenure, C. Lekic, P. Miles and U. Jacob. Special thanks goes to N. Barkley the graduate secretary who would go out of her way to help and who put up with my stupidity for 4 years. Faculty and Post-doctoral fellows and Technicians: Several members of the department have provided help and advice throughout my tenure at the University of Windsor. I would like to thank: L. Corkum, M. Crawford, D. Heath, D. Cotter, D. Mennill, S. Doucet, Y. Zhaoping, R. Fisher, J. Kritzer, S. Ludsen. Special thanks to J. Ciborowski for much help with statistical matters, and special thanks to D.