Peter Doherty - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Peter Doherty

La campagne CORAIL 1 a permis l'étude des peuplements ichtyologiques coralliens sur trois sta... more La campagne CORAIL 1 a permis l'étude des peuplements ichtyologiques coralliens sur trois stations aux îles Chesterfield. Chaque station est divisée en trois strates de profondeur : 0-5 m, 5-10 m et 10-15 m. Dans chaque strate deux empoisonnements à la roténone et de 3 à 5 transects ont été réalisés. Au total, 555 espèces de poissons ont été recensées. Ces poissons présentent une affinité légérement supérieure avec les peuplements de Nouvelle Calédonie qu'avec ceux de la Grande Barrière de Corail (GBR). Les résultats des empoisonnements et des comptages ont été combinés pour calculer les densités et les biomasses. Ces deux paramètres diminuent avec la profondeur, mais du fait de la diminution simultanée des substrats durs avec la profondeur, on observe de très grandes concentrations de poissons sur les pâtés coralliens isolés sur les fonds meubles au-delà de 10 m. Les densités et les biomasses observées (O.15 à 5.26 poissons/m2 et de 1.7 à 230 g/m2) sont du même ordre de gra...

The Science of the total environment, Jan 2, 2015

Transdisciplinary research, involving close collaboration between researchers and the users of re... more Transdisciplinary research, involving close collaboration between researchers and the users of research, has been a feature of environmental problem solving for several decades, often spurred by the need to find negotiated outcomes to intractable problems. In 2005, the Australian government allocated funding to its environment portfolio for public good research, which resulted in consecutive four-year programmes (Commonwealth Environmental Research Facilities, National Environmental Research Program). In April 2014, representatives of the funders, researchers and research users associated with these programmes met to reflect on eight years of experience with these collaborative research models. This structured reflection concluded that successful multi-institutional transdisciplinary research is necessarily a joint enterprise between funding agencies, researchers and the end users of research. The design and governance of research programmes need to explicitly recognise shared accou...

Marine Ecology Progress Series, 2000

The spatial and temporal patterns of distribution of new settlers of 23 species of damselfish (Po... more The spatial and temporal patterns of distribution of new settlers of 23 species of damselfish (Pomacentridae) within One Tree Island lagoon, southern Great Barrier Reef (GBR) were measured for 3 summers to assess the persistence of spatial patterns of recruitment. Overall recruitment was 3 times higher in 1993/1994 than 1994/1995, and 1.5 times higher than 1999. In general, recruitment decreased towards the lagoon centre, even though habitat availability was not lower there on average, suggesting that most fish settled at outer sites as they were advected from adjacent waters. There was also great variation in numbers of recruits among outer sites. Patterns of recruitment to continuous reef and patch reef habitats also differed among species, suggesting habitat selection at this broad level. For example, Pomacentrus nagasakiensis was primarily found on patch reefs, while P. moluccensis was largely found on continuous reef. One site (Shark Alley) received the highest number of recruits of most species during the study, and this pattern has been observed in studies since 1975. Despite interannual variability in abundance of potential settlers and differences in the habitat preferences of some species, therefore, some sites on the reef can receive relatively high numbers of settlers over decadal time scales. This consistency of spatial pattern may be due to local topography and oceanography at Shark Alley, which appear to favour the input of potential settlers. The availability of live coral may also be important, but species which showed no preferences for live cover also recruited at high levels at this site. The attributes of Shark Alley were compared with those at other sites. Overall, sites that clustered on the basis of oceanographic and habitat features also had similar recruitment, suggesting that these features may be useful in predicting recruitment hotspots on reefs elsewhere.

Marine Ecology Progress Series, 1992

This study investigated the hypothesis that recruitment variations of coral reef fish directly re... more This study investigated the hypothesis that recruitment variations of coral reef fish directly reflect vanations in larval supply. At Lizard Island, northern Great Barrier Reef, larval supply and recruitment of 3 species of damselflsh (Pomacentrus amboinensis, P. nagasakiensis and Dischistodus perspicillatus) were estimated from light trap and patch reef collections respectively, over 2 consecutive recruitment seasons, in each of 3 habitats. Comparison of these patterns pooled over species and seasons revealed a good overall correlation between larval supply and early recruitment levels, suggesting that pre-settlement distributions may be the major determinant of early recruitment patterns despite mediating influences from factors such as habitat selection and post-settlement mortality. This result also supports the use of broad recruitment surveys to estimate year-class strength and to hindcast patterns in larval supply. When analysed at the individual species/season level, the abundance of recruits on patch reefs and the abundance of larvae in light trap collections were also significantly correlated, with the exception of one species (l? amboinensis) during one season (1989/90). When the level of comparison was further narrowed to analyse correlations between preand post-settlement fish of individual species in each season, wlthin each habitat, only 7 significant relationships were detected out of a possible 18 habitathpecies combinations. The power of these tests was relatively high (mean = 0.846; SE = 0.03). These relationships provide some evidence for habitat selection suggesting that P. amboinensis preferred the leeward habitat, while D. perspicillatus preferred the windward habitat.

Ecology, 2007

Longitudinal sampling of four cohorts of Neopomacentrus filamentosus, a common tropical damselfis... more Longitudinal sampling of four cohorts of Neopomacentrus filamentosus, a common tropical damselfish from Dampier Archipelago, Western Australia, revealed the evolution of size structure after settlement. Light traps collected premetamorphic individuals from the water column (''settlers'') to establish a baseline for each cohort. Subsequently, divers collected benthic juveniles (''recruits'') at 1-3-month intervals to determine the relative impacts of post-settlement mortality during the first three months. Growth trajectories for individual fish were back-calculated from otolith records and compared with nonlinear mixed-effects models. Size-selective mortality was detected in all cohorts with the loss of smaller, slower growing individuals. Three months after settlement, recruits showed significantly faster growth as juveniles, faster growth as larvae, and larger sizes as hatchlings. The timing and intensity of post-settlement selection differed among cohorts and was correlated with density at settlement. The cohort with the greatest initial abundance experienced the strongest selective mortality, with most of this mortality occurring between one and two months after settlement when juveniles began foraging at higher positions in the water column. Significant genetic structure was found between settlers and three-month-old recruits in this cohort as a result of natural selection that changed the frequency of mtDNA haplotypes measured at the control region. The extent of this genetic difference was enlarged or reduced by artificially manipulating the intensity of size-based selection, thus establishing a link between phenotype and haplotype. Sequence variation in the control region of the mitochondrial genome has been linked to mitochondrial efficiency and weight gain in other studies, which provides a plausible explanation for the patterns observed here.

Molecular ecology, 2016

Larval dispersal is the key process by which populations of most marine fishes and invertebrates ... more Larval dispersal is the key process by which populations of most marine fishes and invertebrates are connected and replenished. Advances in larval tagging and genetics have enhanced our capacity to track larval dispersal, assess scales of population connectivity, and quantify larval exchange among no-take marine reserves and fished areas. Recent studies have found that reserves can be a significant source of recruits for populations up to 40 km away, but the scale and direction of larval connectivity across larger seascapes remain unknown. Here, we apply genetic parentage analysis to investigate larval dispersal patterns for two exploited coral reef groupers (Plectropomus maculatus and Plectropomus leopardus) within and among three clusters of reefs separated by 60-220 km within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Australia. A total of 69 juvenile P. maculatus and 17 juvenile P. leopardus (representing 6% and 9% of the total juveniles sampled, respectively) were genetically assigned...

Australian Journal of Maritime & Ocean Affairs, 2016