MEPS

Marine Ecology Progress Series

MEPS is a leading hybrid research journal on all aspects of marine, coastal and estuarine ecology. Priority is given to outstanding research that advances our ecological understanding.

Online: ISSN 1616-1599

Print: ISSN 0171-8630

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps

Volume contents
Mar Ecol Prog Ser 331:207-218 (2007)

Resident and dispersal behavior among individuals within a population of American lobster Homarus americanus

ABSTRACT: Various biases and limitations associated with mark-recapture research have resulted in conflicting interpretations of individual movement patterns, rendering unclear the selective pressures that could be responsible for structuring populations and influencing individual behavior patterns in the marine environment. To address these issues, novel modeling techniques developed for mammalian systems were applied to trajectory data from an American lobster Homarus americanus population in order to describe quantitatively seasonal movement patterns. Basing individual- and population-level analyses on a correlated random walk model, individuals were found to belong to 1 of 2 movement types: residents or dispersers. Over the course of a year, resident animals remained in the general area of their release, whereas dispersing animals moved rapidly away from release sites in autumn and slowly returned in spring. Such movement patterns can be explained as responses to seasonal limitations in hard-substrate habitat. The effect of movement on the seasonal population distribution and structure of lobsters can have significant consequences for the sustainable exploitation of the species.

KEYWORDS

Heather D. Bowlby (Corresponding Author)
hbowlby@dal.ca

J. Mark Hanson (Co-author)

  • Department of Fisheries and Oceans, PO Box 5030, Moncton, New Brunswick E1C 9B6, Canada

Jeffrey A. Hutchings (Co-author)