Spatial variability in early life traits: the case study of Diplodus vulgaris (Sparidae) in the Mediterranean Sea
Qian, K. (2011). Spatial variability in early life traits: the case study of Diplodus vulgaris (Sparidae) in the Mediterranean Sea. MSc Thesis. University of Salento, Laboratory of Zoology and Marine Biology: Lecce. 14 pp.
Pelagic larval duration (PLD) and spawning dates are two fish’s early life traits crucial for assessing patterns of population connectivity. In the Mediterranean basin, relatively few papers were published on the PLD and spawning dates of coastal fishes, mostly restricted to the north-western sector. In addition, surprisingly, all over the world little attention was paid to the potential spatial variability in these two biological traits, a feature that could deeply influence estimated spatial scales of connectivity. The present study focused on Diplodus vulgaris (common two-banded seabream, Saint-Hilaire, 1817), a sparid fish here used as a model to investigate the variability at multiple spatial scales (e.g. locations and sites, designed in a hierarchical fashion), and detected significant small-scale variability over sites (separated at a scale of kilometers) but not over locations (separated at a scale of hundred kilometers). This finding suggests: 1) considering spatial variability in PLD and spawning dates when delineating patterns of spatio-temporal connectivity of D. vulgaris populations and 2) that further studies taking into consideration environmental features along the Apulian Adriatic coast, as well as life history, ontogeny and population genetics of D. vulgaris are needed to investigate in depth the causal processes determining the observed small-scale variability in early life traits.
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