Tolimieri N
Department of Zoology, University of New Hampshire, 03824, Durham, NH, USA.
Center for Marine Biology, University of New Hampshire, 03824, Durham, NH, USA.
Oecologia. 1995 Apr;102(1):52-63. doi: 10.1007/BF00333310.
Populations of fishes on coral reefs are replenished by the settlement of pelagic larvae to demersal populations. Recruitment varies spatially and temporally and can exert strong effects on the dynamics of reef fish populations. This study examined the effect of microhabitat characteristics on small-scale and large-scale recruitment variation in the three-spot damselfish, Stegastes planifrons (Cuvier). Comparison of 0.25-m quadrats occupied by three-spots with randomly sampled null quadrats showed that three-spots quadrats contained a higher percent cover of the coral Montastrea annularis than would be expected at random. Manipulative experiments on three types of 1.0-m patch reefs (living M. annularis, dead Porites Porites and dead Acropora palmata) patch reefs on showed that this non-random distribution was established by microhabitat choice during settlement and not by differential post-settlement survival. The presence of conspecific juveniles did not affect settlement. Recruitment was monitored at nine sites on three islands over 3 years. Recruitment showed no consistent pattern in the relative levels of recruitment among sites. Similarly, no consistent relationship emerged between recruitment levels and microhabitat characteristics at the nine sites. For example, at this large scale, the percent cover of M. annularis explained variation in recruitment in only 1 out of 3 years. These results suggest that small-scale recruitment patterns are influenced by microhabitat choice during settlement, but that these habitat effects do not scale up to influence large-scale variation in recruitment.
珊瑚礁鱼类种群通过浮游幼体沉降到水底种群得以补充。补充量在空间和时间上存在差异，并会对珊瑚礁鱼类种群动态产生重大影响。本研究调查了微生境特征对三点雀鲷（Stegastes planifrons，居维叶）小规模和大规模补充量变化的影响。将三点雀鲷占据的0.25平方米样方与随机采样的空白样方进行比较，结果显示，三点雀鲷样方中，环纹菊珊瑚（Montastrea annularis）的覆盖百分比高于随机预期值。对三种类型的1.0米块状珊瑚礁（活的环纹菊珊瑚、死的多孔螅和死的棕鹿角珊瑚）进行的操纵实验表明，这种非随机分布是在沉降过程中通过微生境选择形成的，而非沉降后不同的存活率导致。同种幼鱼的存在并不影响沉降。在三年时间里，对三个岛屿上的九个地点的补充量进行了监测。各地点之间的补充量相对水平没有呈现出一致的模式。同样，九个地点的补充量水平与微生境特征之间也没有出现一致的关系。例如，在这个大尺度上，环纹菊珊瑚的覆盖百分比仅在三年中的一年解释了补充量的变化。这些结果表明，小规模补充模式受沉降过程中的微生境选择影响，但这些生境效应不会扩大到影响补充量的大规模变化。
