Ordinary and extraordinary movement behaviour of small resident fish within a Mediterranean marine protected area
Aspillaga, Eneko (Universitat de Barcelona. Departament d'Ecologia)
Bartumeus, Frederic (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Linares, Cristina (Universitat de Barcelona. Departament d'Ecologia)
Starr, Richard M. (California State University. Moss Landing Marine Laboratories)
López Sanz, Àngel (Institut de Ciències del Mar)
Díaz, David (Centre Oceanogràfic de les Balears)
Zabala, Mikel (Universitat de Barcelona. Departament d'Ecologia)
Hereu, Bernat (Universitat de Barcelona. Departament d'Ecologia)

Date:	2016
Abstract:	It is important to account for the movement behaviour of fishes when designing effective marine protected areas (MPAs). Fish movements occur across different spatial and temporal scales and understanding the variety of movements is essential to make correct management decisions. This study describes in detail the movement patterns of an economically and commercially important species, Diplodus sargus, within a well-enforced Mediterranean MPA. We monitored horizontal and vertical movements of 41 adult individuals using passive acoustic telemetry for up to one year. We applied novel analysis and visualization techniques to get a comprehensive view of a wide range of movements. D. sargus individuals were highly territorial, moving within small home ranges (< 1 km2), inside which they displayed repetitive diel activity patterns. Extraordinary movements beyond the ordinary home range were observed under two specific conditions. First, during stormy events D. sargus presented a sheltering behaviour, moving to more protected places to avoid the disturbance. Second, during the spawning season they made excursions to deep areas (> 50 m), where they aggregated to spawn. This study advances our understanding about the functioning of an established MPA and provides important insights into the biology and management of a small sedentary species, suggesting the relevance of rare but important fish behaviours.
Grants:	Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CGL2005-05238/BOS Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2014/SGR-654 Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia FPU/AP2012-0141
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Published in:	PloS one, Vol. 11, Issue 7 (July 2016) , e0159813, ISSN 1932-6203

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0159813
PMID: 27437692

19 p, 4.1 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles