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The Spatial Ecology Of Black Groupers (Mycteroperca Bonaci) In The Upper Florida Keys, Veronique Koch

Open Access Theses

Black groupers (Mycteroperca bonaci) are a critical component of coral reef ecosystems as well as South Florida fisheries. It is therefore of great concern that their essential fish habitat has not yet been fully defined. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the ecology of black groupers was characterized in the Upper Florida Keys. The first part of this study utilized acoustic telemetry. Self-contained acoustic receivers were placed in an array around Conch Reef and tracked 16 tagged black groupers for 483 days. Patterns of movement behavior and habitat usage were modeled using presence-absence data. The capture-recapture program MARK was used to estimate …