Date of Award

2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Bauer, Gordon

Keywords

Stoplight Parrotfish, Foraging Behavior, Reef ecology

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

The stoplight parrotfish, Sparisoma viride, is considered a major reef herbivore because the regular consumption of algae by S. viride helps prevent coral-algal phase shifts on reefs. However, recently, S. viride was accused of consuming and destroying live corals, most notably the boulder star coral, Montastraea annularis, and in some cases the finger coral, Porites porites. S. viride live coral consumption behaviors are displayed through acts of "spot" and "focused" biting, both of which are considered territorial and agonistic in nature. Live coral consumption by S. viride sometimes results in reef destruction through partial or full mortality of the corals. Because of this destruction caused by the fish, the conservation of stoplight parrotfish is questioned. The foraging and agonistic behaviors of S. viride were studied while SCUBA diving using the focal animal all-occurrences method. It was hypothesized that initial phase S. viride had less of an impact on the reef than terminal phase S. viride, and that behavioral differences occurred depending on the vertical distribution of the fish. Results did not support the hypotheses. Initial phase members consumed more of both algae and live coral. Vertical distributions in the water column had no main effects on consumption of any food types. No significant agonistic behaviors among the stoplight parrotfish were observed. These results suggest that territorial defense may not be necessary for the population studied due to the abundance of resources. Additionally, studying bite counts may not be a complete measure because yield per bite of different food types among individuals may vary. Conservation of this population should not be neglected. This is because their impact is more positive than negative; however, this impact may differ among different ecosystem populations.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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