Measuring activity-rest rhythms under different acclimation periods in a marine fish using automatic deep learning-based video tracking.

Most organisms synchronize to an approximately 24-hour (circadian) rhythm. This study introduces a novel deep learning-powered video tracking method to assess the stability, fragmentation, robustness and synchronization of activity rhythms in . Experimental were distributed into three groups and monitored for synchronization to a 14/10 hours of light/dark to assess acclimation to laboratory conditions.

ePyDGGA: automatic configuration for fitting epidemic curves.

Many epidemiological models and algorithms are used to fit the parameters of a given epidemic curve. On many occasions, fitting algorithms are interleaved with the actual epidemic models, which yields combinations of model-parameters that are hard to compare among themselves. Here, we provide a model-agnostic framework for epidemic parameter fitting that can (fairly) compare different epidemic models without jeopardizing the quality of the fitted parameters.

Chronotypes-personality behavioural syndromes in wild marine fish.

Chronotypes, the individual differences in daily activity timing, have profound associations with numerous physiological processes. Despite this, the covariance between chronotypes and other aspects of an individual's behaviour has been infrequently explored in non-human animals. This study delves into individual's variation across four axes of personality in a controlled environment, utilising the pearly razorfish, a model species for fish chronotype studies.

Chromosome-level assembly and annotation of the Xyrichtys novacula (Linnaeus, 1758) genome.

The pearly razorfish (Xyrichtys novacula), commonly known as raor in the Balearic Islands, is a wrasse within the family Labridae. This fish species has particular biological and socio-cultural characteristics making it an ideal model organism in the fields of behavioural ecology, molecular ecology and conservation biology. In this study, we present the first annotated chromosome-level assembly for this species.

Disparate behavioral types in wild and reared juveniles of gilthead seabream.

Fish differ consistently in behavior within the same species and population, reflecting distinct behavioral types (BTs). Comparing the behavior of wild and reared individuals provides an excellent opportunity to delve into the ecological and evolutionary consequences of BTs. In this work, we evaluated the behavioral variation of wild and reared juvenile gilthead seabreams, Sparus aurata, a highly relevant species for aquaculture and fisheries.

Activity-Rest Circadian Rhythm of the Pearly Razorfish in Its Natural Habitat, before and during Its Mating.

Recent technological advances in marine biotelemetry have demonstrated that marine fish species perform activity-rest rhythms that have relevant ecological and evolutionary consequences. The main objective of the present report is to study the circadian rhythm of activity-rest of the pearly razorfish, in its own habitat, before and during the reproduction season using a novel biotelemetry system. This fish species is a small-bodied marine species that inhabits most shallow soft habitats of temperate areas and has a high interest for commercial and recreational fisheries.

Global responses to the COVID-19 pandemic by recreational anglers: considerations for developing more resilient and sustainable fisheries.

Unlabelled: The global COVID-19 pandemic resulted in many jurisdictions implementing orders restricting the movements of people to inhibit virus transmission, with recreational angling often either not permitted or access to fisheries and/or related infrastructure being prevented. Following the lifting of restrictions, initial angler surveys and licence sales suggested increased participation and effort, and altered angler demographics, but with evidence remaining limited. Here, we overcome this evidence gap by identifying temporal changes in angling interest, licence sales, and angling effort in world regions by comparing data in the 'pre-pandemic' (up to and including 2019); 'acute pandemic' (2020) and 'COVID-acclimated' (2021) periods.

Food determines ephemerous and non-stable gut microbiome communities in juvenile wild and farmed Mediterranean fish.

Novel insights were provided by contrasting the composition of wild and farmed fish gut microbiomes because the latter had essentially different environmental conditions from those in the wild. This was reflected in the gut microbiome of the wild Sparus aurata and Xyrichtys novacula studied here, which showed highly diverse microbial community structures, dominated by Proteobacteria, mostly related to an aerobic or microaerophilic metabolism, but with some common shared major species, such as Ralstonia sp. On the other hand, farmed non-fasted S.

Interpretable decision trees through MaxSAT.

We present an approach to improve the accuracy-interpretability trade-off of Machine Learning (ML) Decision Trees (DTs). In particular, we apply Maximum Satisfiability technology to compute Minimum Pure DTs (MPDTs). We improve the runtime of previous approaches and, show that these MPDTs can outperform the accuracy of DTs generated with the ML framework .

Toward a decade of ocean science for sustainable development through acoustic animal tracking.

The ocean is a key component of the Earth's dynamics, providing a great variety of ecosystem services to humans. Yet, human activities are globally changing its structure and major components, including marine biodiversity. In this context, the United Nations has proclaimed a Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development to tackle the scientific challenges necessary for a sustainable use of the ocean by means of the Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG14).

Measuring inter-individual differences in behavioural types of gilthead seabreams in the laboratory using deep learning.

Deep learning allows us to automatize the acquisition of large amounts of behavioural animal data with applications for fisheries and aquaculture. In this work, we have trained an image-based deep learning algorithm, the Faster R-CNN (Faster region-based convolutional neural network), to automatically detect and track the gilthead seabream, , to search for individual differences in behaviour. We collected videos using a novel Raspberry Pi high throughput recording system attached to individual experimental behavioural arenas.

Big-data approaches lead to an increased understanding of the ecology of animal movement.

Understanding animal movement is essential to elucidate how animals interact, survive, and thrive in a changing world. Recent technological advances in data collection and management have transformed our understanding of animal "movement ecology" (the integrated study of organismal movement), creating a big-data discipline that benefits from rapid, cost-effective generation of large amounts of data on movements of animals in the wild. These high-throughput wildlife tracking systems now allow more thorough investigation of variation among individuals and species across space and time, the nature of biological interactions, and behavioral responses to the environment.

Aggressiveness-related behavioural types in the pearly razorfish.

Behavioural types (i.e., personalities or temperament) are defined as among individual differences in behavioural traits that are consistent over time and ecological contexts.

A state-space model to derive motorboat noise effects on fish movement from acoustic tracking data.

Motorboat noise is recognized as a major source of marine pollution, however little is known about its ecological consequences on coastal systems. We developed a State Space Model (SSM) that incorporates an explicit dependency on motorboat noise to derive its effects on the movement of resident fish that transition between two behavioural states (swimming vs. hidden).

Complete mitochondrial genome of the pearly razorfish phylogenetic analysis of its placement within the Labridae family.

In this paper, we report the complete mitochondrial genome (17,306 bp) of the pearly razorfish Linnaeus, 1758, a labrid that inhabits tropical and temperate Atlantic waters and the Mediterranean Sea. The circular double-stranded sequence contains the typical teleost gene order with 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA, 2 rRNA, 1 control region, and 2 intergenic spacers between the rRNAs. Using the sequences of all protein-coding genes, we inferred the phylogeny for the Labriade family using 24 labrids and 3 outgroup species that placed in a monophyletic group including species from the Pseudocheilines, Pseudolabrines, and Julidines.

Invasion by an ecosystem engineer shifts the abundance and distribution of fish but does not decrease diversity.

Negative impacts of invasive species are widely accepted, but there is increasing evidence that neutral or positive effects are more prevalent than initially recognized, particularly for species which are of different functional / trophic group than the invader. We used a BACI design to examine how fish communities responded to the invasion of Halimeda incrassata, an ecosystem engineer which colonizes sandy habitats in the Western Mediterranean. While invasion did not alter overall species richness or diversity, we detected positive, negative and neutral responses by different fish species, which has important ecological and socio-economic implications.

Reversible morphological changes in a juvenile marine fish after exposure to predatory alarm cues.

Chemical cues from predators induce a range of predator-induced morphological defences (PIMDs) observed across fish taxa. However, the mechanisms, consistency, direction and adaptive value of PIMDs are still poorly studied. Here, we have tested if predatory cues can induce changes in the body shape of the juvenile marine fish reared under controlled conditions without the presence of predators by exposing individuals to the olfactory stimulus of a fish predator.

Response to Abolaffio et al. (2019): Avoiding misleading messages.

That this camera-based method is sparking debate regarding its applicability to specific-species is a symptom of the complexity of wildlife assessment in light of the increasing, unprecedented amount of ecological-data, this task requires strengthening links between theorists and empiricists to profit the new opportunities offered by the method.

A mechanistic theory of personality-dependent movement behaviour based on dynamic energy budgets.

Consistent between-individual differences in movement are widely recognised across taxa. In addition, foraging plasticity at the within-individual level suggests a behavioural dependency on the internal energy demand. Because behaviour co-varies with fast-slow life history (LH) strategies in an adaptive context, as theoretically predicted by the pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis, mass/energy fluxes should link behaviour and its plasticity with physiology at both between- and within-individual levels.

Fitness consequences of fish circadian behavioural variation in exploited marine environments.

The selective properties of fishing that influence behavioural traits have recently gained interest. Recent acoustic tracking experiments have revealed between-individual differences in the circadian behavioural traits of marine free-living fish; these differences are consistent across time and ecological contexts and generate different chronotypes. Here, we hypothesised that the directional selection resulting from fishing influences the wild circadian behavioural variation and affects differently to individuals in the same population differing in certain traits such as awakening time or rest onset time.

How ecology shapes exploitation: a framework to predict the behavioural response of human and animal foragers along exploration-exploitation trade-offs.

Understanding how humans and other animals behave in response to changes in their environments is vital for predicting population dynamics and the trajectory of coupled social-ecological systems. Here, we present a novel framework for identifying emergent social behaviours in foragers (including humans engaged in fishing or hunting) in predator-prey contexts based on the exploration difficulty and exploitation potential of a renewable natural resource. A qualitative framework is introduced that predicts when foragers should behave territorially, search collectively, act independently or switch among these states.

A camera-based method for estimating absolute density in animals displaying home range behaviour.

The measurement of animal density may take advantage of recent technological achievements in wildlife video recording. Fostering the theoretical links between the patterns depicted by cameras and absolute density is required to exploit this potential. We explore the applicability of the Hutchinson-Waser's postulate (i.

Repeatability of circadian behavioural variation revealed in free-ranging marine fish.

Repeatable between-individual differences in the behavioural manifestation of underlying circadian rhythms determine chronotypes in humans and terrestrial animals. Here, we have repeatedly measured three circadian behaviours, awakening time, rest onset and rest duration, in the free-ranging pearly razorfish, , facilitated by acoustic tracking technology and hidden Markov models. In addition, daily travelled distance, a standard measure of daily activity as fish personality trait, was repeatedly assessed using a State-Space Model.

Fast and behavior-selective exploitation of a marine fish targeted by anglers.

Harvesting of wild-living animals is often intensive and may selectively target heritable behavioral traits. We studied the exploitation dynamics and the vulnerability consequences of individual heterogeneity in movement-related behaviors in free-ranging pearly razorfish (Xyrichthys novacula). Using underwater-video recording, we firstly document a fast and high exploitation rate of about 60% of the adult population removed in just few days after the opening of the season.