Predictable temperature-regulated residency, movement and migration in a large, highly mobile marine predator (Negaprion brevirostris)

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 514:175-190 (2014) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10966 Predictable temperature-regulated residency, movement and migration in a large, highly mobile marine predator (Negaprion brevirostris) S. T. Kessel1,2,*, D. D. Chapman3, B. R. Franks4, T. Gedamke5, S. H. Gruber4, J. M. Newman6, E. R. White7, R. G. Perkins2 1Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Ave, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada 2School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, CF10 3AT, UK 3School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA 4Bimini Biological Field Station Foundation, South Bimini, Bahamas 5National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, Southeast Fisheries Science Center, Miami, FL 33149, USA 6Dykoke Enterprises Incorporated, 205 Golfview Drive, Jupiter, FL 33469, USA 7Department of Biology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8P 5C2, Canada *Corresponding author: skessel@uwindsor.ca ABSTRACT: Understanding how and why animals are distributed through time and space has always been a fundamental component of ecology and is an essential prerequisite for effective conservation and/or management. However, for highly mobile K-selected species, behavioural predictability is rarely considered over appropriate scales relative to life history. To address this point, a multidisciplinary approach combining telemetry, external tagging, physical assessment, environmental monitoring and genetic analysis was adopted to determine a spatial framework for the movements of adult lemon sharks Negaprion brevirostris at multiple spatial and temporal scales from 2007 to 2011. Lemon sharks (n = 83) were tracked with passive acoustic telemetry, revealing a winter residency in the southeast Florida region. Detections from individuals recorded within the core winter habitat for >20 d (n = 56) were incorporated into generalized linear mixed-effects models to investigate the influence of water temperature, photoperiod, moon phase, month and year on presence. The findings of this study suggest a temperature driven ‘migration-residency’ model for mature lemon shark distribution across the USA eastern seaboard. Lemon sharks are distributed across a wide geographical area in the summer months and migrate south concentrating off southeast Florida in the winter, with this pattern repeated each year. From comparative genetic analysis and the absence of any evidence of mating behaviour during the winter residency period, mating and parturition most probably occur in May/June between northern Florida and the Carolinas. This study highlights the importance of determining the specific dynamics and proximate causes of animal movement and distribution over appropriate spatial and temporal scales relative to life history. KEY WORDS: Lemon shark · Acoustic telemetry · Seasonal residency · Seasonal migration · Temperature preference · GLMM Full text in pdf format Supplementary material PreviousNextCite this article as: Kessel ST, Chapman DD, Franks BR, Gedamke T and others (2014) Predictable temperature-regulated residency, movement and migration in a large, highly mobile marine predator (Negaprion brevirostris). Mar Ecol Prog Ser 514:175-190. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10966 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 514. Online publication date: November 06, 2014 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2014 Inter-Research.