caa a22 4500 606227571 CHVBK 20210128101159.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20151001xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10641-015-0430-4 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10641-015-0430-4 Assessing the suitability of mangrove habitats for juvenile Atlantic goliath grouper [Elektronische Daten] [Geoffrey Shideler, Skyler Sagarese, William Harford, Jennifer Schull, Joseph Serafy] While juvenile Atlantic goliath grouper, Epinephelus itajara (Lichtenstein, 1822), are known to depend on mangrove root structure, relationships with water properties (e.g., salinity) and depth remain unclear or understudied. Because availability of suitable mangrove habitat has been suggested as the primary bottleneck to the recovery of this threatened species in the US, we investigated habitat associations of juvenile Atlantic goliath grouper with respect to physical water properties within mangrove habitats. Our study was conducted in six coastal rivers and three canals within the Ten Thousand Islands region of southwest Florida. Results suggested that juvenile Atlantic goliath grouper differed in how they associated with specific mangrove habitats based on season and size. We found that smaller juveniles (<340mm TL) appeared to have stronger associations to physical water characteristics than larger (≥340mm TL) juveniles. Both large and small juveniles showed the strongest associations with DO (i.e., >3mg L−1) within mangrove habitat. For small juveniles, extreme temperatures influenced habitat association; for large juveniles, extreme salinity influenced distribution. We also found evidence that juvenile Atlantic goliath grouper associated more with natural rivers over man-made canals. The present study has utility for delineating suitable mangrove habitats for protection and potentially in the design of sampling surveys that aim to estimate population abundance. Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht, 2015 Goliath grouper nationallicence Mangrove habitat nationallicence Water condition nationallicence Threatened species nationallicence Habitat suitability nationallicence Shideler Geoffrey Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Miami, 33149, Miami, FL, USA aut Sagarese Skyler Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies, University of Miami, 33149, Miami, FL, USA aut Harford William Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies, University of Miami, 33149, Miami, FL, USA aut Schull Jennifer Southeast Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 33149, Miami, FL, USA aut Serafy Joseph Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Miami, 33149, Miami, FL, USA aut Environmental Biology of Fishes Springer Netherlands 98/10(2015-10-01), 2067-2082 0378-1909 98:10<2067 2015 98 10641 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-015-0430-4 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-015-0430-4 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Shideler Geoffrey Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Miami, 33149, Miami, FL, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Sagarese Skyler Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies, University of Miami, 33149, Miami, FL, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Harford William Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies, University of Miami, 33149, Miami, FL, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Schull Jennifer Southeast Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 33149, Miami, FL, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Serafy Joseph Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Miami, 33149, Miami, FL, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Environmental Biology of Fishes Springer Netherlands 98/10(2015-10-01), 2067-2082 0378-1909 98:10<2067 2015 98 10641