The predation gauntlet : early post-settlement mortality in reef fishes

Most marine fishes have pelagic larvae that settle to benthic juvenile/adult habitats. Ecologists have argued that mortality rates are particularly high during the settlement transition, but relevant data have been sparse. Recently, researchers have used several novel techniques to estimate the magn...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Coral reefs Vol. 25; no. 1; pp. 19 - 22
Main Authors:	ALMANY, Glenn R, WEBSTER, Michael S
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Heidelberg Springer 01-03-2006 Berlin Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:	Agnatha. Pisces Animal and plant ecology Animal, plant and microbial ecology Biodiversity Biological and medical sciences Coral reefs Fish Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology Larvae Life history Marine Marine biology Marine fish Mortality Pisces Predation Predators Sea water ecosystems Species diversity Synecology Vertebrates: general zoology, morphology, phylogeny, systematics, cytogenetics, geographical distribution Mortality Coral reef Metaanalysis Meta-analysis Recruitment Marine environment Aquatic environment Settlement Coelenterata Vertebrata Pisces Reef animal Cnidaria Population recruitment Population dynamics Predation Invertebrata Reef fish
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Summary:	Most marine fishes have pelagic larvae that settle to benthic juvenile/adult habitats. Ecologists have argued that mortality rates are particularly high during the settlement transition, but relevant data have been sparse. Recently, researchers have used several novel techniques to estimate the magnitude of predation mortality during the settlement transition. We used meta-analysis to determine that for 24 taxonomically diverse species in geographically widespread locations, an estimated 55.7% (CI: 43.0-65.5%) of juveniles were consumed within 1-2 days of settlement. Such high mortality highlights this brief period as a key phase in the life history of fishes and supports the view that these communities are strongly influenced by predation. Additionally, we argue that because predators have such strong effects on juvenile survival, the population and community dynamics of reef fishes may be linked to human exploitation of reef predators.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0722-4028 1432-0975
DOI:	10.1007/s00338-005-0044-y