Abstract
Duration of the pelagic phase of benthic marine fishes has been related to dispersal distance, with longer pelagic larval duration (PLD) expected to result in greater dispersal potential. Here, we examine PLDs of 2 species of coral-reef butterflyfish (Chaetodon auriga and C. flavirostris) across latitudes (14°S–37°S) along the Great Barrier Reef into south-eastern Australia; we predict that PLD will be higher for fish collected below the breeding latitudes of 24°S. For C. auriga, apart from significantly longer PLDs at Lord Howe Island and Jervis Bay (means of 54 and 52 days, respectively), all locations had similar PLDs (mean 41 days). For C. flavirostris, there was no significant location effect on PLD (mean 41.5 days); however, PLD at Lord Howe Island was 58 days with high variance precluding significance. Also, there was no significant variation in PLD among years for either species despite considerable variation in East Australian Current strength.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Almany GR, Berumen ML, Thorrold SR, Planes S, Jones GP (2007) Local replenishment of coral reef fish populations in a marine reserve. Science 316:742–744
Bay LK, Crozier RH, Caley MJ (2006) The relationship between population genetic structure and pelagic larval duration in coral reef fishes on the Great Barrier Reef. Mar Biol 149:1247–1256
Booth DJ, Figueira WF, Gregson MA, Brown L, Beretta G (2007) Occurrence of tropical fishes in temperate southeastern Australia: Role of the East Australian Current. Estuar Coast Shelf Sci 72:102–114
Brothers EB, Williams DM, Sale PF (1983) Length of larval life in twelve families of fishes at ‘One Tree Lagoon’, Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Mar Biol 6:319–324
Crowder LB, Figueira WF (2006) Metapopulation ecology and marine conservation. In: Kritzer JP, Sale PF (eds) Marine metapopulations. Island Press, New York, pp 491–516
Figueira WF, Booth DJ (2010) Increasing ocean temperatures allow tropical fishes to survive overwinter in temperate waters. Global Change Biol 16:506–516
Fisher JL (2006) Seasonal timing and duration of brachyuran larvae in a high-latitude fjord. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 323:213–222
Fowler AJ (1989) Description, interpretation and use of the microstructure of otoliths from juvenile butterflyfishes (family Chaetodontidae). Mar Biol 102:167–181
Green BS, Fisher R (2004) Temperature influences swimming speed, growth and larval duration in coral reef fish larvae. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 299:115–132
Gregson MA, Pratchett M, Berumen M, Goodman B (2008) Relationships between Butterflyfish (Chaetodontidae) feeding rates and coral consumption on the Great Barrier Reef. Coral Reefs 27:583–591
Hernaman V, Munday PL (2000) Validation of otolith growth-increment periodicity in tropical gobies. Mar Biol 137:715–726
Lang JB, Buxton CD (1993) Validation of age estimates in sparid fish using fluorochrome marking. S Afr J Mar Sci 13:195–203
Leis JM (2006) Are larvae of demersal fishes plankton or nekton? Adv Mar Biol 51:59–141
Lester SE, Ruttenberg BI (2005) The relationship between pelagic larval duration and range size in tropical reef fishes: a synthetic analysis. Proc R Soc B 272:585–591
Munday PL, Leis JM, Lough JM, Paris CB, Kingsford MJ, Berumen ML, Lambrechts J (2009) Climate change and coral reef connectivity. Coral Reefs 28:379–395
O’Connor MI, Bruno JF, Gaines SD, Halpern BS, Lester SE (2007) Temperature control of larval dispersal and the implications for marine ecology, evolution, and conservation. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 104(4):1266–1271
Planes S, Jones GP, Thorrold SR (2009) Larval dispersal connects fish populations in a network of marine protected areas. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 106:5693–5697
Randall JE, Allen GR, Steene RC (1997) Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea, USA. Univ of Hawaii Press, Honolulu
Ridgway KR (2007) Long-term trend and decadal variability of the southward penetration of the East Australian current. Geophys Res Lett 34:L13612
Ridgway KR, Hill K. (2009) The East Australian Current. In: Poloczanska ES, Hobday AJ, Richardson AJ (eds) A marine climate change impacts and adaptation report card for Australia 2009. NCCARF Publication 05/09, ISBN 978-1-921609-03-9
Shanks AL (2009) Pelagic larval duration and dispersal distance revisited. Biol Bull 216:373–385
Swearer SE, Shima JS, Hellberg ME, Thorrold SR, Jones GP, Robertson DR, Morgan SG, Selkoe KA, Ruiz GM, Warner RR (2002) Evidence of self-recruitment in demersal marine populations. Bull Mar Sci 70:251–272
Victor BC (1986) Duration of the planktonic larval stage of one hundred species of Pacific and Atlantic wrasses (family Labridae). Mar Biol 90:317–326
Wilson DT, McCormick MI (1999) Microstructure of settlement-marks in the otoliths of tropical reef fishes. Mar Biol 134:29–41
Acknowledgments
We thank fish surveyors Marcus Gregson, James van den Broek, Luke Brown, Gigi Beretta and Will Figueira, and staff at Lizard Is and One Tree Is Research stations. We thank the reviewers and editors for their helpful comments on previous versions of the manuscript. Also we acknowledge UTS Microstructural Analysis Unit and Australian Research Council for support and Will Figueira and David Feary for help with the figures. This is Contribution 51 of the Sydney Institute of Marine Science. Fish were collected under permits from NSW Fisheries F94/696 and GBRMPA G00653 and Ethics approval UTS 2008-016A.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by Biology Editor Dr. Stephen Swearer
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Booth, D.J., Parkinson, K. Pelagic larval duration is similar across 23° of latitude for two species of butterflyfish (Chaetodontidae) in eastern Australia. Coral Reefs 30, 1071–1075 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-011-0815-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-011-0815-6