Incorporating reef fish avoidance behavior improves accuracy of species distribution models

Kostantinos A Stamoulis; Jade M S Delevaux; Ivor D Williams; Alan M Friedlander; Jake Reichard; Keith Kamikawa; Euan S Harvey

doi:10.7717/peerj.9246

Incorporating reef fish avoidance behavior improves accuracy of species distribution models

PeerJ. 2020 Jun 3:8:e9246. doi: 10.7717/peerj.9246. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Kostantinos A Stamoulis¹, Jade M S Delevaux², Ivor D Williams³, Alan M Friedlander^{2

4}, Jake Reichard², Keith Kamikawa², Euan S Harvey¹

Affiliations

¹ Curtin University, Perth, Australia.
² University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, United States of America.
³ NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Honolulu, HI, United States of America.
⁴ National Geographic Society, Washington D.C., United States of America.

Abstract

Species distribution models (SDMs) are used to interpret and map fish distributions based on habitat variables and other drivers. Reef fish avoidance behavior has been shown to vary in the presence of divers and is primarily driven by spearfishing pressure. Diver avoidance behavior or fish wariness may spatially influence counts and other descriptive measures of fish assemblages. Because fish assemblage metrics are response variables for SDMs, measures of fish wariness may be useful as predictors in SDMs of fishes targeted by spearfishing. We used a diver operated stereo-video system to conduct fish surveys and record minimum approach distance (MAD) of targeted reef fishes inside and outside of two marine reserves on the island of O'ahu in the main Hawaiian Islands. By comparing MAD between sites and management types we tested the assumption that it provides a proxy for fish wariness related to spearfishing pressure. We then compared the accuracy of SDMs which included MAD as a predictor with SDMs that did not. Individual measures of MAD differed between sites though not management types. When included as a predictor, MAD averaged at the transect level greatly improved the accuracy of SDMs of targeted fish biomass.

Keywords: Compliance; Conservation; Fisheries management; Flight initiation distance; Hawaii; Marine protected area; Observer presence; Spearfishing; Species distribution models; Stereo-video.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship through Curtin University. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.