Multispecies spawning sites for fishes on a low‐latitude coral reef: spatial and temporal patterns

Abstract

Spawning sites used by one or more species were located by intensively searching nearshore coral reefs of Kimbe Bay (New Britain, Papua New Guinea). Once identified, the spawning sites were surveyed repeatedly within fixed 5 m radius circular areas, for > 2000 h of observations ranging from before dawn to after dusk spanning 190 days between July 2001 and May 2004. A total of 38 spawning sites were identified on the seven study reefs distributed at an average of one site every 60 m of reef edge. Pelagic spawning was observed in 41 fish species from six families. On three intensively studied reefs, all 17 spawning sites identified were used by at least three species, with a maximum of 30 different species observed spawning at a single site. Spawning was observed during every month of the study, on all days of the lunar month, at all states of the tide and at most hours of the day studied. Nevertheless, the majority of species were observed spawning on proportionately more days from December to April, on more days around the new moon and in association with higher tides. The strongest temporal association, however, was with species-specific diel spawning times spanning < 3 h for most species. While dawn spawning, afternoon spawning and dusk spawning species were differentiated, the time of spawning for the striated surgeonfish Ctenochaetus striatus also differed significantly among sites. The large number of species spawning at the same restricted locations during predictable times suggests that these sites are extremely important on this low-latitude coral reef.

Lunar, diel, and tidal changes in fish assemblages in an East African marine reserve

“…Ctenochaetus striatus) (Claydon et al, 2014) which were among the species contributing most to the observed differences between neap and spring tide samples. Spawning of these species commonly takes place at well-defined sites (Claydon et al, 2014), and migration from/to spawning sites could be a possible reason for the differing abundances of these species during neap tides. Due to their predictability in time and space spawning migrations also have direct consequences for fish catchability (Bos and Gumanao, 2012) and hence for conservation and management strategies of exploited stocks (Robinson et al, 2011).…”

“…Chlorurus sordidus) or Acanthuridae (e.g. Ctenochaetus striatus) (Claydon et al, 2014) which were among the species contributing most to the observed differences between neap and spring tide samples. Spawning of these species commonly takes place at well-defined sites (Claydon et al, 2014), and migration from/to spawning sites could be a possible reason for the differing abundances of these species during neap tides.…”

Fish spawning aggregations: where well‐placed management actions can yield big benefits for fisheries and conservation

“…; Claydon et al . ) that gather in the same location at different times of the year according to specific seasonal, lunar, tidal and diel cycles. As one notable example, Kobara and Heyman () showed that all fourteen known Nassau grouper ( Epinephelus striatus , Epinephelidae) spawning sites in Belize harbour multispecies FSAs.…”

“…Therefore, FSAs are broadly meaningful across taxa and global geography despite being underdocumented. Many FSA sites harbour aggregations of several or even tens of species (Sedberry et al 2006;Heyman and Kjerfve 2008;Sadovy de Mitcheson et al 2008;Kobara et al 2013;Claydon et al 2014) that gather in the same location at different times of the year according to specific seasonal, lunar, tidal and diel cycles. As one notable example, Kobara and Heyman (2010) showed that all fourteen known Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus, Epinephelidae) spawning sites in Belize harbour multispecies FSAs.…”

Moonlight enhances growth in larval fish

“…Lunar periodicity in spawning and larval settlement back to reef habitat is common (Claydon et al. , Foster et al. , Shima et al.…”