Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T22:56:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo1339_1.pdf: 2461239 bytes, checksum: 9716105f4b323ba8f2d40f342581aefd (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / As famílias Pomacentridae e Labridae são consideradas típicas de ambientes recifais por apresentarem ampla distribuição geográfica global associada a este tipo de ecossistema marinho, onde desempenham inúmeras atividades biológicas e interações ecológicas. No Brasil os pomacentrídeos, também conhecidos por peixes-donzela, compõem uma lista de 12 espécies e quatro gêneros: Abudefduf, Chromis, Microspathodon e Stegastes. Os labrídeos, denominados de budiões, possuem 14 espécies pertencentes a seis gêneros: Bodianus, Clepticus, Doratonotus, Halichoeres, Thalassoma e Xyrichtys. Um total 198 exemplares, divididos entre cinco espécies de pomacentrídeos (A. saxatilis, S. fuscus, S. pictus, S. sanctipauli e S. variabilis) e oito de labrídeos (B. insularis, B. pulchellus, B. rufus, H. brasiliensis, H. bivittatus, H. dimidiatus, H. poey e X. novacula), foram obtidos para a análise de ecomorfologia. Todos os exemplares foram medidos morfometricamente seus valores transformados em atributos ecomorfológicos. Matrizes combinadas entre espécies e atributos com valores individuais e valores médios, para cada família, foram submetidas à Análise de Componentes Principais. Os resultados da análise dos valores individuais apresentaram grande sobreposição para as espécies de labrídeos e de pomacentrídeos. Os padrões ecomorfológicos encontrados para Labridae refletiram suas diferenças nos atributos associados à exploração de recursos alimentares, enquanto para Pomacentridae as diferenças foram mais marcantes pela ocupação das espécies na coluna d água. Para ambas as famílias, os padrões ecomorfológicos ficaram agregados à velocidade e habilidade natatória. As sobreposições encontradas neste estudo podem revelar claramente o aspecto convergente em cada família

The biology of four species of Choerodon (Labridae), the blue tuskfish C. cyanodus, the bluespotted tuskfish C. cauteroma, the baldchin groper C. rubescens and the blackspot tuskfish C. schoenleinii was studied in Shark Bay in Western Australia. These species are fished commercially and/or recreationally in this large subtropical marine embayment, which is a world heritage area. The biology of C. rubescens was also studied in the Abrolhos Islands, which are located ~ 300 km to the south of Shark Bay, where this labrid is an important commercial and recreational fish species. The broad aims of this project were to determine the following for the above four Choerodon species in Shark Bay. (1) Whether they are protogynous hermaphrodites, as is the case with many labrids. (2) The biological variables required for developing management plans for these species, such as the timing of spawning, the lengths and ages at both maturity and sex change, size and age compositions and growth parameters, and (3) the habitat types occupied during their life cycles and also of the purple tuskfish Choerodon cephalotes. Finally, comparisons are made between the age and size compositions, growth and reproductive biology of C. rubescens in Shark Bay and the Abrolhos Islands. Where relevant, the underlying hypotheses for the individual studies conducted during this PhD are included in the following chapters. A macroscopic and histological examination of the gonads of the full size range of C. cyanodus, C. cauteroma, C. rubescens and C. schoenleinii, together with an analysis of the length and age compositions of female, transitional (individuals changing sex) and male individuals, demonstrated that each of these species is a protogynous hermaphrodite, i.e. individuals change sex from female to male during their life cycle. The gonads of all small (< ca 100 mm) and young (< ca 1 year old) individuals of each species comprised solely ovarian tissue and thus the individuals of each species began life as a female. All individuals subsequently become sexually mature as females and then later in life some will change to males. Since this was found to be the only method of sex change in these species, they are termed monandric. Individuals that were changing sex contained “undelimited type 2” gonads sensu Sadovy and Shapiro (1987). These gonads contained both ovarian and testicular tissue that was intermixed and not separated by connective tissue. The males of each species possessed secondary testes, which retained structures of the ovary they had replaced, such as a membrane-lined ovarian lumen, lamellae and ovary wall. Furthermore, histological sections indicated that sperm were transported towards the outer walls of the testes, where the multiple sperm sinuses present in that region were presumably responsible for transporting sperm to the cloaca, rather than to a singular sperm duct as is the case with gonochoristic species. The typically large size and different colour of the males of C. rubescens, C. schoenleinii and C. cauteroma and the bias in the sex ratios of their adults towards females suggests that the males of each of these species are either haremic, i.e. permanently territorial, or form leks, i.e. are temporarily territorial during their spawning seasons. In these three species, the presence of ripe testes that are far smaller than ripe ovaries and the release by females of eggs in batches are consistent with a single male spawning with an individual female, as commonly occurs in haremic/lekking species. In contrast to the above species, C. cyanodus was not sexually dichromatic, the sex ratio was not biased towards either sex and the weight of ripe testes remained relatively constant as body weight increased. The latter implies that the relative investment of energy by males into testicular development during the spawning season declines with increasing fish size. Thus, the males of C. cyanodus may be opportunistic spawners when small, possibly spawning in groups, and may tend towards a haremic or lek mode of life when larger. The respective lengths and ages at which 50% of the females of C. cyanodus C. cauteroma and C. schoenleinii attained sexual maturity (L50m, A50m) in Shark Bay were ca 129, 196 and 253 mm and 2.3, 2.0 and 3.5 years of age. The corresponding L50m and A50m for C. rubescens in Shark Bay and the Abrolhos Islands were ca 274 and 279 mm, respectively, and 2.7 and 4.1 years of age, respectively. The respective lengths and ages at which 50% of the females of C. cyanodus, C. cauteroma and C. schoenleinii changed to males (L50c, A50c) in Shark Bay were 221, 310 and 556 mm and 4.1, 6.4 and 10.4 years of age. The length at which C. rubescens changed sex (L50c) was significantly greater in Shark Bay (545 mm) than in the Abrolhos Islands (479 mm), whereas the reverse pertained with respect to the age at sex change (A50c), i.e. 10.5 vs 11.9 years of age. Since some females were found in the oldest age classes of each species in Shark Bay and in the population of C. rubescens in the Abrolhos Islands, some of the females of each species do not apparently change sex. The trends exhibited by the gonadosomatic indices of females and males and the stages of ovarian development in sequential months demonstrated that the spawning periods of each species varied. Thus, C. rubescens (in both Shark Bay and the Abrolhos Islands) and C. cauteroma spawn predominantly in spring, whereas spawning occurs in late spring/early summer in C. schoenleinii and in summer in C. cyanodus. As C. schoenleinii, C. cyanodus and C. cauteroma occur predominantly within the inner gulfs of Shark Bay, the offset in the timing of their spawning periods would be likely to reduce any potential for competition between the larvae of those three species for resources. The trends exhibited by the mean monthly marginal increments in sectioned otoliths with differing numbers of opaque zones demonstrated that, in each species, those opaque zones were laid down annually. Thus, the numbers of opaque zones in the sectioned otoliths of individuals of each species could be used, in conjunction with the birth date and time of year when those zones are delineated, to determine their approximate ages at capture. The maximum ages recorded for the four Choerodon species in Shark Bay ranged only from 12 to 16 years. However, in that environment, the maximum lengths of C. rubescens (649 mm) and C. schoenleinii (805 mm) were far greater than those of C. cauteroma (424 mm) and C. cyanodus (382 mm). In contrast to the situation with C. rubescens in Shark Bay, this species reached a substantially older maximum age (22 years), but slightly shorter length (629 mm), and grew at a slower rate in the Abrolhos Islands, possibly reflecting the influence of greater productivity in Shark Bay and/or greater densities of this species in the Abrolhos Islands. Although a few C. rubescens and C. schoenleinii reach large sizes in Shark Bay, most of the individuals of these species were less than 400 mm, their minimum legal length (MLL) for capture. This raises the possibility that these two sought after species, i.e. the seventh and ninth most abundant species in the recreational fishery in Shark Bay, are subjected to substantial fishing pressure. Sampling for C. cyanodus was considered representative of the sites that this species occupies in Shark Bay and the sampling methods would have been likely to have captured the full size range of this tuskfish. Thus, the failure to catch any C. cyanodus greater than 400 mm indicates that, in Shark Bay, this species does not grow to the far greater lengths of about 600 mm reported for this species as a maximum by Allen (1999). Furthermore, the 400 mm MLL for this species in Western Australia precludes the retention by fishers of this species in this environment. Choerodon cauteroma was caught at lengths up to 424 mm, which is greater than the maximum of 360 mm reported for this species (Allen, 1999). Although there is no MLL for C. cauteroma, recreational fishers are restricted to a bag limit of four fish per person per day, as is the case with all other tuskfish species. Since fishers target large fish preferentially and the largest size classes of each of the species of tuskfish are dominated by males, heavy fishing pressure has the potential to remove a large proportion of the males of the Choerodon species that are fished in Shark Bay, i.e. C. rubescens, C. schoenleinii and C. cauteroma, and also of C. rubescens in the Abrolhos Islands. Since the ratio of females to males in catches of C. rubescens taken by the commercial fishery in the Abrolhos Islands are ca 1:1 and yet the typical adult sex ratio is heavily biased towards females (ca 14:1), that fishery is removing a substantial proportion of the males from the population. Protogynous hermaphroditic species are apparently able to respond to such pressure on the males by initiating a change in sex by the larger females. However, there is evidence from studies of other protogynous species that heavy size-selective fishing can lead to a reduction in the size and age at which a species changes sex and ultimately to a collapse in the stock. The results of visual surveys, when taken in conjunction with the locations of the catches of each of the five Choerodon species, demonstrated that C. rubescens lives on reefs in “oceanic” waters along the western boundary of Shark Bay, whereas C. schoenleinii, C. cyanodus, C. cauteroma and C. cephalotes are found predominantly in the two inner gulfs of this large embayment. Choerodon cephalotes lives almost exclusively in seagrass beds, while C. schoenleinii and C. cyanodus occupy predominantly inner gulf reefs and rocky shorelines and C. cauteroma occurs in all of those three habitats. Choerodon cauteroma was the only species that underwent an obvious size-related shift during its life cycle, moving from seagrass to hard substrates, such as inner gulf reefs and rocky shorelines, as it reached adulthood. The biological and habitat data produced during this thesis will provide fisheries and environmental managers with the types of information that will enable them to develop management plans for conserving tuskfish species and their habitats in Shark Bay. The biological data for C. rubescens in the Abrolhos Islands will be able likewise to be used to develop plans for conserving the stock of this species in waters in which it is heavily fished.

Orientadores: Fosca Pedini Pereira Leite, Sergio Ricardo Floeter / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Biologia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-16T19:50:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Krajewski_JoaoPaulo.pdf: 9575479 bytes, checksum: 263e857c27328008c50d4b577be61438 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: Os recifes proporcionam abrigo e alimento para diversas espécies de peixes e, portanto, pode haver uma relação entre a distribuição e comportamento de peixes recifais e a composição de substratos do recife. Fatores físicos, especialmente o hidrodinamismo e profundidade, também parecem ter grande influência sobre a distribuição e comportamento de algumas espécies de peixes recifais. No presente estudo a relação entre a distribuição e atividade de espécies de peixes, especialmente as que se alimentam de invertebrados bentônicos (zoobentivoras), e a composição de substratos do recife, hidrodinamismo e profundidade foi estudada em recifes do arquipélago de Fernando de Noronha, Pernambuco. As principais espécies zoobentivoras de Fernando de Noronha forrageiam principalmente sobre substratos compostos por algas filamentosas verdes e vermelhas e algas pardas cobertas de sedimento, e sua atividade alimentar não é distribuída proporcionalmente à abundância relativa dos diferentes substratos. Ainda, para algumas espécies, o uso de substrato pode variar entre recifes. A dieta principal dos zoobentívoros mais abundantes em Fernando de Noronha são poliquetas e crustáceos. Quatro espécies foram estudadas quanto à variação de sua atividade entre diferentes recifes. Haemulon chrysargyreum, Halichoeres radiatus, e Cephalopholis fulva em geral parecem evitar nadar na coluna d'água quando há maior batimento de ondas. Por outro lado, Thalassoma norohhanum não varia seu comportamento em função do hidrodinamismo. A presença de distúrbio no substrato também pode influenciar o comportamento dos peixes recifais de Fernando de Noronha, uma vez que experimentalmente foi demonstrado que espécies carnívoras oportunistas são atraídas por distúrbios causados no substrato não consolidado. Em geral, o hidrodinamismo é o principal fator que influencia a distribuição e comportamento de peixes recifais em Fernando de Noronha, especialmente os planctívoros e alguns herbívoros. A abundância e biomassa de peixes em geral foi maior em recifes com menor hidrodinamismo, mais fundos (>10m) e maior cobertura de corais. Os peixes zoobentívoros de Fernando de Noronha, porém, aparentam ser generalistas na escolha de substrato de forrageamento e habitat e, portanto, parece não haver relação entre sua abundância e a disponibilidade de seus principais substratos de forrageamento. / Abstract: Reefs provide shelter and food for several fish species and, thus, there may be a correlation between the abundance and behaviour of fishes and the reef bottom composition-Physical factors, such as water movement and depth, may also have a profound impact in species distribuiton and activity on reefs. Here, the possible relationship between the distribution and activity of reef fishes, mainly benthic carnivores, and reef bottom composition, water movement and depth was studied in the Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, off Northeast Brazil. The main benthic carnivorous fishes at the archipelago forage mostly on substrata composed by filamentous and brown algae covered by sediments, and the different types of substrata present on reefs were used disproportionaly to their availability. Some studied species also varied their foraging substratum selection between nearby reefs. The main items in the diet of the benthic carnivorous fishes were polychaetes and crustaceans. We also studied the local variation in the activity of four fish species, and Haemulon chrysargyreum, Halichoeres radiatus, e Cephalopholis fulva tended to avoid swimming in the water column when there was higher water movement. On the other hand, Thalassoma noronhanum did not vary its activity with diferent degres of water movement. We also recorded that the presence of substratum disturbance on soft sediments may alter the activity of opportunistic carnivorous fishes, since they were attracted by disturbance on the bottom caused experimentaly and started to forage in the area where the substratum was disturbed. In general, water movement was the main factor influencing the fish communities in Fernando de Noronha, especially of herbivorous and planktivorous fishes. Abundance and biomass of fishes in general were greater in reefs with less water movement, deeper (>10m) and whith more coral cover. The benthic carnivorous fishes of Fernando de Noronha, however, were mostly versatile in their habitat use and foraging substratum selection and its distribution seem not to be influenced by the avalability of their main foraging substratum. / Tese (doutotrado) - Universida / Ecologia / Doutor em Ecologia