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Small-scale demographic variability of the biocolor damselfish, Stegastes partitus, in the Florida Keys USA

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Abstract

The demographic responses of reef fish to their environment can be complex and in many cases, quite strong. Growth, mortality, longevity, and even reproductive effort have been demonstrated to vary for the same species of reef fish over scales of 100s to 1,000s of kilometers due to physiological and ecological interactions. Though few studies have explicitly documented it, this sort of habitat-mediated demography can also exist at very local scales. Here we present the results of a 2-year study of the bicolor damselfish, Stegastes partitus, in the Florida Keys, USA. We measured density and distribution, calculated key demographic rates (growth, survival, and fecundity), and characterized the environment (resident fish assemblage, substrate type and complexity, and food availability) of populations living in two adjacent but different habitats, the continuous fore reef and patchy back reef. Fish on the fore reef had an elevated growth rate and asymptotic size, increased mortality, and higher fecundity than fish on the back reef. We identified four potential causative mechanisms for these differences: food availability; competition; intraspecific density-dependent effects; and predation risk. Our data did not support an effect of either food availability or intraspecific density-dependence, but rather suggested that demographic responses are affected by both competition and predation risk.

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Acknowledgments

Many thanks to A. Elkan, J. Cohen and G. Piniak for assistance in the field and to D. Booth and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on improving this manuscript. We thank B. Kennington and A. Anderson of SubTropic Dive Center for technical support in Key West. The research was funded by Environmental Defense, Oak Foundation, PADI Foundation, a Fulbright post-doctoral fellowship (G.R.) and graduate fellowships from Duke Marine Lab Fellowship and McCurdy Endowment Fund (S.L. and W.F.). The research was conducted under FKNMS permit numbers FKNMS-99-057 and FKNMS-2001-002.

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Author notes

  1. Will F. Figueira

    Present address: Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Technology, Sydney, P.O. Box 123, Broadway, NSW, 2007, Australia

  2. Sean J. Lyman

    Present address: School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA

  3. Gil Rilov

    Present address: Department of Zoology, Oregon State University, Cordley 3029, Corvallis, OR, 97331-2914, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Marine Conservation, Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University, 135 Duke Marine Lab Rd., Beaufort, NC, 28516, USA

    Will F. Figueira, Sean J. Lyman, Larry B. Crowder & Gil Rilov

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  1. Will F. Figueira
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  2. Sean J. Lyman
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  3. Larry B. Crowder
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  4. Gil Rilov
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Correspondence to Will F. Figueira.

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Figueira, W.F., Lyman, S.J., Crowder, L.B. et al. Small-scale demographic variability of the biocolor damselfish, Stegastes partitus, in the Florida Keys USA. Environ Biol Fish 81, 297–311 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-007-9201-1

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