title: Ordinary and Extraordinary Movement Behaviour of Small Resident Fish within a Mediterranean Marine Protected Area.
abstract: It is important to account for the movement behaviour of fishes when designing effective marine protected areas (MPAs). Fish movements occur across different spatial and temporal scales and understanding the variety of movements is essential to make correct management decisions. This study describes in detail the movement patterns of an economically and commercially important species, Diplodus sargus, within a well-enforced Mediterranean MPA. We monitored horizontal and vertical movements of 41 adult individuals using passive acoustic telemetry for up to one year. We applied novel analysis and visualization techniques to get a comprehensive view of a wide range of movements. D. sargus individuals were highly territorial, moving within small home ranges (< 1 km2), inside which they displayed repetitive diel activity patterns. Extraordinary movements beyond the ordinary home range were observed under two specific conditions. First, during stormy events D. sargus presented a sheltering behaviour, moving to more protected places to avoid the disturbance. Second, during the spawning season they made excursions to deep areas (> 50 m), where they aggregated to spawn. This study advances our understanding about the functioning of an established MPA and provides important insights into the biology and management of a small sedentary species, suggesting the relevance of rare but important fish behaviours.
authors.affiliation: Departament d'Ecologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Eneko
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Aspillaga
authors.affiliation: Centre d'Estudis Avançats de Blanes (CEAB-CSIC), Girona, Spain.|Centre de Recerca Ecològica i Aplicacions Forestals (CREAF), Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain.|ICREA, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Frederic
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bartumeus
authors.affiliation: Departament d'Ecologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Linares
authors.affiliation: Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, University of California Sea Grant Extension Program, Moss Landing, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Richard M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Starr
authors.affiliation: Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Àngel
authors.initials: À
authors.lastname: López-Sanz
authors.affiliation: Centre Oceanogràfic de les Balears, Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Díaz
authors.affiliation: Departament d'Ecologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Mikel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zabala
authors.affiliation: Departament d'Ecologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Bernat
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hereu
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D025041:Animal Migration / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D006702:Homing Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D008386:Marine Biology; D008522:Mediterranean Sea; D010473:Perciformes / Q000502:physiology*; D012621:Seasons; D013686:Telemetry