Connecting the dots: understanding the movements of marine fish populations for management

Start year: 2015

Summary: Globally, approximately 500 million people rely on coral reefs for their food or livelihood. Managing reef ecosystems for food security or biodiversity conservation requires an understanding of how and from where reef fish stocks are replenished and knowledge of how key processes such as reproduction will be impacted by alterations to habitat associated with global change. This project will make use of acoustic telemetry to track reproductive migrations undertaken by important species of coral-reef fishes and stable isotope analysis to map inter-habitat migrations undertaken during the critical transition from juvenile to adult life-stage. Manipulative field experiments will also examine the impacts of habitat degradation on fish reproduction.

Publications:

Smith, SM, Fox, RJ, Donelson, JM, Head, ML & Booth, DJ 2016, 'Predicting range-shift success potential for tropical marine fishes using external morphology', Biology Letters, vol. 12, no. 9, pp. 20160505-20160505.
View/Download from: Publisher's site

Keywords: Coral reefs, ecosystems, fish, global change

FOR Codes: Conservation and Biodiversity, Marine and Estuarine Ecology (incl. Marine Ichthyology), Animal Behaviour, Marine Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity, Ecosystem Assessment and Management of Marine Environments, Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences, Conservation and biodiversity , Marine biodiversity, Assessment and management of terrestrial ecosystems

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.