Site fidelity of juvenile reef fishes after displacement

Full description

This dataset contains the raw data associated with the following publication: 

Streit, R. P., & Bellwood, D. R. (2018). 
Strong homing does not predict high site fidelity in juvenile reef fishes. 
Coral Reefs, 37, 99-103. doi:10.1007/s00338-017-1636-z

This study assessed the site fidelity of juvenile coral reef fishes after their site attachment was disrupted during a displacement experiment. Fishes had been displaced up to 150m and subsequently their locations were recorded across 5 observation periods, totalling 1 week of observations post displacement. This study was conducted in February 2016 in the lagoon of Lizard Island on the Northern Great Barrier Reef. 

Results of the displacement study itself can be found in this associated publication (Streit, R. P., & Bellwood, D. R. (2017). High prevalence of homing behaviour among juvenile coral reef fishes and the role of body size. Coral Reefs, 36, 1083-1095. doi:10.1007/s00338-017-1600-y) and the associated dataset is also deposited on the Tropical Data Hub (Streit, R., Homing behaviour of juvenile coral reef fishes.)

This dataset deposited here focusses on fishes that had successfully returned home after displacement (in the above study) and assessed how long they remained at their home site after returning home, up to a maximum of 1 week under observation. 

For methodological details, please see the published manuscript (reference above) or contact robert.streit [at] my.jcu.edu.au 

Details on included variables:

FAMILY/ SPECIES:   taxonomic identity of each fish (note: parrotfishes are classed as "Scarus sp." since juveniles could not be reliably identified to species level)

DISTANCE:   displacement distance, i.e. approximate linear distance between catch- and release-site of each fish

SL:   Standard length (SL) of each fish, measured using callipers during tagging (fishes had been individually tagged with unique colour-coded visual-implant-elastomer tags)

POST_HOMING_FIDELITY:   number of observation periods during which fish remained at home site after having returned home, i.e. did not disappear again.

P.H.FIDELITY_HOURS:  Post homing fidelity (as above) but expressed in hours, not "observation periods"

MAX_AVAILABLE_TIME_FOR_FIDELITY: maximum available time that a fish could have remained at the home site, i.e. accounting for time until first homing and the last period of observation (i.e. 1 week post release)

FIDELITY_PROPORTION: proportion of actual and maximum possible fidelity, i.e. P.H.FIDELITY_HOURS divided by  MAX_AVAILABLE_TIME_FOR_FIDELITY

REAPPEARED:binomial variable indicating whether a fish reappeared at the home site, after it had homed and subsequently disappeared again. 1 = fish homed, disappeared and reappeared at home site. 0 = fish homed and then disappeared from home site without appearing again.

RETURN_TO_RELEASE SITE: binomial variable indicating whether a fish had homed, and after disappearing again from the home site, returned to the release site. 1 = homed and subsequently returned to the release site, 0 = did not return to release site. 

Fate_6h / Fate_24h / Fate_48h / Fate_96h / Fate_1w:   Fate ('homed', 'stayed at release site' or 'lost') of each fish during each of the five observation periods (6h after release, 24h after release, 48h after release, 96h after release and 1 week after release)

CATCHSITE / RELEASESITE: ID of each fish's catch and release site, including 4 displacement sites (A,B,C,D) and one control site.