Abstract

Recruitment (i.e., the integration of juveniles into the adult population) is a key process in the life cycle of reef fishes, allowing for the replenishment of adult fish populations. This process varies in space and time and can ultimately drive the distribution and abundance of adults over a range of scales. Depending on the species, juveniles and adults may differ markedly in terms of vulnerability to mortality, movement, and behavior. As a result, the extent to which juveniles can be used to predict adult abundance is likely to depend on the life history characteristics of the fish species concerned. In this study, we expect that juvenile abundance will be a good predictor of adult abundance at both small (transects several meters apart) and larger (sites several kms apart) scales for species that are highly sedentary and/or maintain small territories throughout their life cycle such as damselfishes and wrasses. In contrast, we expect that such spatial relationships would break up for species that are highly mobile as adults and/or can use different nursery habitats throughout their life cycle such as the parrotfishes.