The influence of habitat association on swimming performance in marine teleost fish larvae

Downie, Adam T., Leis, Jeffrey M., Cowman, Peter F., McCormick, Mark I., and Rummer, Jodie L. (2021) The influence of habitat association on swimming performance in marine teleost fish larvae. Fish and Fisheries, 22 (6). pp. 1187-1212.

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Abstract

Latitude and body size are generally considered key drivers of swimming performance for larval marine fishes, but evidence suggests that evolutionary relationships and habitat may also be important. We used a comparative phylogenetic framework, data synthesis and case study approach to investigate how swimming performance differs among larvae of fish species across latitude. First, we investigated how swimming performance changed with body length, and we found that temperate reef fishes have the greatest increases in swimming performance with length. Secondly, we compared differences in three swimming performance metrics (critical swimming speed, in situ swimming, and endurance) among post-flexion larvae, whilst considering phylogenetic relationships and morphology, and we found that reef fishes have higher swimming capacity than non-reef (pelagic and non-reef demersal) fishes, which is likely due to larger, more robust body sizes. Thirdly, we compared swimming performance of late-stage larvae of tropical fishes with oceanographic data to better understand the ecological relevance of their high-capacity swimming. We found that reef fishes have high swimming performance and grow larger than non-reef fish larvae, which we suggest is due to the pressures to find a specific, patchily distributed habitat upon which to settle. Given the current bias towards studies on percomorph fishes at low latitudes, we highlight that there is a need for more research on temperate reef fish larvae and other percomorph lineages from high latitudes. Overall, our findings provide valuable context to understand how swimming and morphological traits that are important for dispersal and recruitment processes are selected for among teleost fish larvae.

Item ID: 69571
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1467-2979
Keywords: early life history, fish evolution, fish exercise physiology, ontogeny, phylogenetic comparative methods, recruitment strategies
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Copyright Information: © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Additional Information:

A version of this publication was included as Chapter 3 of the following PhD thesis: Downie, Adam Tyler (2021) How do coral reef fishes develop into athletes? PhD thesis, James Cook University, which is available Open Access in ResearchOnline@JCU. Please see the Related URLs for access.

Date Deposited: 06 Oct 2021 04:46
FoR Codes: 31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3104 Evolutionary biology > 310405 Evolutionary ecology @ 50%
31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3104 Evolutionary biology > 310410 Phylogeny and comparative analysis @ 50%
SEO Codes: 28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280102 Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences @ 100%
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