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The ontogeny of home ranges: evidence from coral reef fishes

The ontogeny of home ranges: evidence from coral reef fishes
The ontogeny of home ranges: evidence from coral reef fishes
The concept of home ranges is fundamental to ecology. Numerous studies have quantified how home ranges scale with body size across taxa. However, these relationships are not always applicable intraspecifically. Here, we describe how the home range of an important group of reef fish, the parrotfishes, scales with body mass. With masses spanning five orders of magnitude, from the early postsettlement stage through to adulthood, we find no evidence of a response to predation risk, dietary shifts or sex change on home range expansion rates. Instead, we document a distinct ontogenetic shift in home range expansion with sexual maturity. Juvenile parrotfishes displayed rapid home range growth until reaching approximately 100–150 mm length. Thereafter, the relationship between home range and mass broke down. This shift reflected changes in colour patterns, social status and reproductive behaviour associated with the transition to adult stages. While there is a clear relationship between body mass and home ranges among adult individuals of different species, it does not appear to be applicable to size changes within species. Ontogenetic changes in parrotfishes do not follow expected mass–area scaling relationships.
0962-8452
Welsh, Justin Q
f6ac9f47-6667-4a27-840c-d48dab9d7500
Goatley, Christopher
b158dc1a-76f3-4ace-9d33-260d8c76ac93
Bellwood, David R.
829e5839-9ac7-4f63-961c-8d0bf8caab8a
Welsh, Justin Q
f6ac9f47-6667-4a27-840c-d48dab9d7500
Goatley, Christopher
b158dc1a-76f3-4ace-9d33-260d8c76ac93
Bellwood, David R.
829e5839-9ac7-4f63-961c-8d0bf8caab8a

Welsh, Justin Q, Goatley, Christopher and Bellwood, David R. (2013) The ontogeny of home ranges: evidence from coral reef fishes. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 280 (1773), [20132066]. (doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.2066).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The concept of home ranges is fundamental to ecology. Numerous studies have quantified how home ranges scale with body size across taxa. However, these relationships are not always applicable intraspecifically. Here, we describe how the home range of an important group of reef fish, the parrotfishes, scales with body mass. With masses spanning five orders of magnitude, from the early postsettlement stage through to adulthood, we find no evidence of a response to predation risk, dietary shifts or sex change on home range expansion rates. Instead, we document a distinct ontogenetic shift in home range expansion with sexual maturity. Juvenile parrotfishes displayed rapid home range growth until reaching approximately 100–150 mm length. Thereafter, the relationship between home range and mass broke down. This shift reflected changes in colour patterns, social status and reproductive behaviour associated with the transition to adult stages. While there is a clear relationship between body mass and home ranges among adult individuals of different species, it does not appear to be applicable to size changes within species. Ontogenetic changes in parrotfishes do not follow expected mass–area scaling relationships.

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Published date: 3 October 2013

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 470177
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/470177
ISSN: 0962-8452
PURE UUID: 1fc8e01f-2173-419f-b733-1c9d3b372701
ORCID for Christopher Goatley: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-2930-5591

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Date deposited: 04 Oct 2022 16:40
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:14

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Contributors

Author: Justin Q Welsh
Author: Christopher Goatley ORCID iD
Author: David R. Bellwood

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