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Spawning Aggregations in Reef Fishes; Ecological and Evolutionary Processes

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Reef Fish Spawning Aggregations: Biology, Research and Management

Part of the book series: Fish & Fisheries Series ((FIFI,volume 35))

Abstract

What factors have been important in the evolution of reef fish spawning aggregations? Surprisingly, basic biological features such as size, trophic ecology and anatomy are more predictive than life history features. As long as the different groups (Resident and Transient aggregators) shared basic properties of body size, nutritional ecology and anatomy they manifest similar spawning behaviours regardless of whether they are protogynous or gonochoristic, exhibit short or long generation times or have slow or fast population turnover rates. A critical element in the evolution of spawning aggregations is proposed to be the rapid advection of eggs and larvae away from the reef environment. In addition the timing of spawning episodes may be linked to specific seasonal and climatic features of the ocean environment, a variant of the match/mismatch hypothesis developed to explain spawning patterns in clupeoid fishes. Neither larval retention nor broad dispersal are seen as critical elements in the evolution of spawning aggregations. It is hypothesized that differences in aggregate spawning patterns and their underlying processes will occur in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, a reflection of the different histories, oceanic environments and habitat structures of these two ocean basins.

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Acknowledgements

I thank Y. Sadovy and P. Colin for their valuable comments on several earlier versions of this chapter. The ideas were discussed with P. Munday, G. Russ and R. Robertson. Research support was provided by The National Geographic Society, The Queensland Government/Smithsonian Institution Collaborative Research Program on Reef Fishes. R. Robertson provided major support in associated field work. Thanks are also due to R.Hamilton and A.Hughes for information on spawning aggregations in the Solomon Islands. Alex Vail, Lizard Island Research Station, provided additional information on the spawning of Plectropomus leopardus, E. Trip assisted with the analyses and V. Ward and K.Clements with the figure preparation.

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  1. School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld, 4811, Australia

    John Howard Choat

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  1. John Howard Choat
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Correspondence to John Howard Choat .

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  1. , Division of Ecology and Biodiversity, University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam Road, Hong Kong, Hong Kong/PR China

    Yvonne Sadovy de Mitcheson

  2. Coral Reef Research Foundation, Koror, Palau

    Patrick L. Colin

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© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

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Choat, J.H. (2012). Spawning Aggregations in Reef Fishes; Ecological and Evolutionary Processes. In: Sadovy de Mitcheson, Y., Colin, P. (eds) Reef Fish Spawning Aggregations: Biology, Research and Management. Fish & Fisheries Series, vol 35. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1980-4_4

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