Benthic habitat properties can delay settlement in an estuarine fish (Sciaenops ocellatus)

Funds were provided from the University of Texas Marine Science Institute Perry R. Bass Chair in Fisheries and Mariculture. Settlement is the last stage of high mortality in the life cycle of demersal marine fishes, making the number of larvae that successfully settle to a benthic habitat a predicto...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Aquatic Biology
Main Authors: Havel, L.N., Fuiman, L.A., Ojanguren, Alfredo Fernandez
Other Authors: University of St Andrews. School of Biology, University of St Andrews. Scottish Oceans Institute
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10023/7666
https://doi.org/10.3354/ab00639
Description
Summary:Funds were provided from the University of Texas Marine Science Institute Perry R. Bass Chair in Fisheries and Mariculture. Settlement is the last stage of high mortality in the life cycle of demersal marine fishes, making the number of larvae that successfully settle to a benthic habitat a predictor of future population size. Habitat selection is an active settlement process for coral reef fishes, however, there has been less research about settlement in other ecosystems. This study used laboratory and field experiments to examine the relationship between size and settlement over various substrates in red drum Sciaenops ocellatus, a temperate and subtropical estuarine species. In the laboratory, vertical position of fish (4.3 to 40.0 mm standard length [SL]) was recorded in the presence of sand, oyster shells, or seagrass to determine median settlement size. Median settlement size was 12.9 mm SL for seagrass, 15.8 mm SL for sand, and 20.5 mm SL for oyster shells. To determine the size at which fish settle in the wild, vertically partitioned field enclosures were used to separate individuals (5.2 to 37.3 mm SL) in the water column (>16 cm from the sediment) from those in the seagrass ( Publisher PDF Peer reviewed