Meeting Abstract
Parrotfish are abundant herbivores that inhabit the coral reefs located in the Florida Keys. These herbivores have major impacts on coral reef ecosystems by regulating the abundance of competitive algae and indirectly benefitting corals. These hermaphroditic fish have a social structure in which one terminal phase male controls and protects a territory. Previous studies have shown that territory size may be determined by harem size (female defense polygyny) or, dietary preferences and reef complexity (resource defense polygyny). Our study tests which hypothesis best explains territory size in terminal and initial phase stoplight parrotfish (Sparisoma viride) on reefs located in the middle Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. We followed two terminal parrotfish and two initial parrotfish on four sites for ten minutes, estimating territory size by dropping markers. We also measured substrate cover, rugosity and conspecific density for each territory. Our results show that terminal phase parrotfish have significantly larger territories than intermediate parrotfish and intermediate phase territories only overlap the edges of terminal fish territories. We also found that terminal phase territory size was negatively correlated with conspecific density. These results suggest territory size among terminal phase stoplight parrotfish may be focused towards female defense polygyny, where territories are driven by the presence of a harem.
