11th ICRS Abstract book - Nova Southeastern University

22.887
Spatial Variations in Elemental Otolith Elemental Fingerprints For Two Reef Fish
Species in Nearshore Nursery Habitats in St Croix And Puerto Rico
Ivan MATEO* 1 , Edward DURBIN 2 , Richard APPELDOORN 3 , Aaron ADAMS 4
1 Fisheries Animal Veterinarian Sciences, University Rhode Island, Kingston, RI,
2 Graduate School of Oceanography, University Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI, 3 Marine
Sciences, University Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, 4 Mote Marine Lab, Pineland,
FL
Many coastal fish species have juvenile and adult life stages that occupy spatially
separated habitats. The juveniles often recruit to nearshore habitats where they reside for
months to years before migrating to offshore habitats to join the adult population. In
addition, juveniles of many species with this life history pattern recruit to more than one
type of nearshore habitat, for example mangrove and seagrass meadows, and those
different habitats are likely to vary in quality. The highest quality juvenile habitats are
often referred to as ‘nursery’ habitats. Determining which juvenile habitats are
functioning as nursery habitats is important to understanding the ecological roles of the
different juvenile habitats and applying this information to management of harvested fish
populations and coastal resources.
This project aims to investigate the utility of naturally occurring habitat tags to
determine habitat linkages in St Croix and Puerto Rico seagrass and mangrove
habitats by juvenile french grunt and schoolmaster in St Croix and Puerto
Rico. This is an initial crucial step to quantify the relative contribution and
connectivity of mangrove and seagrass habitats for french grunt and school
master adult populations
YOY fish were collected around mangrove and seagrass habitats in St Croix and Puerto
Rico during May and June 2006. Trace elements concentrations were determined at
discrete regions of YOY representing the postsettlement period (30-60 days) using laser
ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.
Significant differences in the concentration of several trace metals were found between
mangrove and seagrass habitats using ANOVA and MANOVA. Linear discriminant
function analysis classified otolith fingerprints between mangroves and seagrass habitats
with 85% to 86% of accuracy
Poster Mini-Symposium 22: Coral Reef Associated Fisheries
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