Coggins Lewis G, Bacheler Nathan M, Gwinn Daniel C
National Marine Fisheries Service, Southeast Fisheries Science Center, Beaufort, North Carolina, United States of America; United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge, Bethel, Alaska, United States of America.
National Marine Fisheries Service, Southeast Fisheries Science Center, Beaufort, North Carolina, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2014 Sep 25;9(9):e108302. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0108302. eCollection 2014.
Occupancy models using incidence data collected repeatedly at sites across the range of a population are increasingly employed to infer patterns and processes influencing population distribution and dynamics. While such work is common in terrestrial systems, fewer examples exist in marine applications. This disparity likely exists because the replicate samples required by these models to account for imperfect detection are often impractical to obtain when surveying aquatic organisms, particularly fishes. We employ simultaneous sampling using fish traps and novel underwater camera observations to generate the requisite replicate samples for occupancy models of red snapper, a reef fish species. Since the replicate samples are collected simultaneously by multiple sampling devices, many typical problems encountered when obtaining replicate observations are avoided. Our results suggest that augmenting traditional fish trap sampling with camera observations not only doubled the probability of detecting red snapper in reef habitats off the Southeast coast of the United States, but supplied the necessary observations to infer factors influencing population distribution and abundance while accounting for imperfect detection. We found that detection probabilities tended to be higher for camera traps than traditional fish traps. Furthermore, camera trap detections were influenced by the current direction and turbidity of the water, indicating that collecting data on these variables is important for future monitoring. These models indicate that the distribution and abundance of this species is more heavily influenced by latitude and depth than by micro-scale reef characteristics lending credence to previous characterizations of red snapper as a reef habitat generalist. This study demonstrates the utility of simultaneous sampling devices, including camera traps, in aquatic environments to inform occupancy models and account for imperfect detection when describing factors influencing fish population distribution and dynamics.
利用在某一物种分布范围内各地点反复收集的发生率数据的占有率模型，越来越多地被用于推断影响种群分布和动态的模式及过程。虽然这类研究在陆地系统中很常见，但在海洋应用中的例子较少。这种差异可能是因为这些模型为解释不完全检测所需的重复样本，在对水生生物（尤其是鱼类）进行调查时往往难以获得。我们采用鱼笼和新型水下相机观测同时采样的方法，为红石斑鱼（一种珊瑚礁鱼类）的占有率模型生成所需的重复样本。由于重复样本是由多个采样设备同时收集的，所以避免了获取重复观测数据时遇到的许多典型问题。我们的结果表明，用相机观测补充传统的鱼笼采样，不仅使在美国东南沿海珊瑚礁栖息地检测到红石斑鱼的概率提高了一倍，还提供了必要的观测数据，以推断影响种群分布和丰度的因素，同时考虑到不完全检测的情况。我们发现，相机陷阱的检测概率往往高于传统鱼笼。此外，相机陷阱的检测受到水流方向和水体浊度的影响，这表明收集这些变量的数据对未来监测很重要。这些模型表明，该物种的分布和丰度受纬度和深度的影响比受微观尺度珊瑚礁特征的影响更大，这为之前将红石斑鱼描述为珊瑚礁栖息地泛化种的特征提供了支持。这项研究证明了在水生环境中使用包括相机陷阱在内的同步采样设备，有助于占有率模型，并在描述影响鱼类种群分布和动态的因素时考虑不完全检测情况的实用性。
