Abstract
MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 536:203-219 (2015) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps11374 Fine-scale movement, activity patterns and home-ranges of European lobster Homarus gammarus Daniel J. Skerritt1,*, Peter A. Robertson2,3, Aileen C. Mill3, Nicholas V. C. Polunin1, Clare Fitzsimmons1 1School of Marine Science and Technology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK 2Animal and Plant Health Agency, Sand Hutton, York, YO41 ILZ, UK 3School of Biology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK *Corresponding author: daniel.skerritt@ncl.ac.uk ABSTRACT: Understanding an animal’s movement, distribution and activity pattern is vital for effective delivery of evidence-based management; however, such data are sparse for many economically important fishery targets, particularly the European lobster Homarus gammarus. This study aimed to elucidate high-resolution movement and activity patterns of a large cohort (n = 44; carapace length = 65-98 mm) of adult European lobsters, using a passive fine-scale acoustic telemetry VEMCO Positioning System (VPS) off Northumberland (UK). This is the first application of VPS on this species and the first offshore VPS study within the UK, providing novel positional data generated via triangulation based on time difference of arrival of acoustic signals. Individual home-ranges using kernel density and minimum convex polygons showed seasonal variation: 95% utilisation distribution ranged from 244 to 7722 m2 during spring (mean ± SE: 11104 ± 397 m2), and declined to 237-784 m2 during autumn (mean ± SE: 455 ± 66 m2s.e.). The study also provides evidence of behavioural differences between sexes, with males using more space than females. Daily cumulative step-length and daily minimum convex polygons highlighted that while space-use decreased during the autumn, daily distance moved increased for the majority of lobsters observed, coupled with longer durations of diel activity during autumn. These results suggest that using home-range analyses alone to describe lobster movement may inadequately represent its full behaviour. This study demonstrates the potential for passive acoustic telemetry tracking of otherwise cryptic and difficult to study marine benthic animals. KEY WORDS: Homarus gammarus · Behaviour · Diel-cycle · Acoustic telemetry · Tracking Full text in pdf format PreviousNextCite this article as: Skerritt DJ, Robertson PA, Mill AC, Polunin NVC, Fitzsimmons C (2015) Fine-scale movement, activity patterns and home-ranges of European lobster Homarus gammarus. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 536:203-219. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps11374 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 536. Online publication date: September 29, 2015 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2015 Inter-Research.
Highlights
Most fisheries management decisions require some understanding of the behaviour, distribution and population dynamics of the focal species
Seven lobsters were excluded from spring home-range analyses as they either had tag malfunction or the tag was shed (n = 1), were not observed within the study area (n = 3) or had an inadequate number of points (
This study demonstrates the capabilities of a fixed acoustic telemetry (AT) VEMCO Positioning System (VPS) array for quantifying fine-scale movements of marine animals within a heterogeneous study site
Summary
Most fisheries management decisions require some understanding of the behaviour, distribution and population dynamics of the focal species. This has been inferred via spatial differences in landings, fishing effort and fishery-independent surveys of abundance and size structure. These provide a snapshot of distribution and in some cases a useful time-series; numerous studies have con-. Acoustic ground discrimination techniques allow large areas to be accurately mapped and prove useful for estimating crustacean species distributions, provided there is existing knowledge of predictable behaviour (Wiley et al 2003, Holmes et al 2008, Galparsoro et al 2009, Chang et al 2010). An animal’s home-range, the area to which an animal’s normal activity is confined, can be used to link their distribution and movement to the distribution of resources such as shelter or food (Börger et al 2008) and is typically used to describe behaviour, but has limitations
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