Diving into the vertical dimension of elasmobranch movement ecology

Andrzejaczek, Samantha and Lucas, Tim C.D. and Goodman, Maurice C. and Hussey, Nigel E. and Armstrong, Amelia J. and Carlisle, Aaron and Coffey, Daniel M. and Gleiss, Adrian C. and Huveneers, Charlie and Jacoby, David M. P. and Meekan, Mark G. and Mourier, Johann and Peel, Lauren R. and Abrantes, Kátya and Afonso, André S. and Ajemian, Matthew J. and Anderson, Brooke N. and Anderson, Scot D. and Araujo, Gonzalo and Armstrong, Asia O. and Bach, Pascal and Barnett, Adam and Bennett, Mike B. and Bezerra, Natalia A. and Bonfil, Ramon and Boustany, Andre M. and Bowlby, Heather D. and Branco, Ilka and Braun, Camrin D. and Brooks, Edward J. and Brown, Judith and Burke, Patrick J. and Butcher, Paul and Castleton, Michael and Chapple, Taylor K. and Chateau, Olivier and Clarke, Maurice and Coelho, Rui and Cortes, Enric and Couturier, Lydie I. E. and Cowley, Paul D. and Croll, Donald A. and Cuevas, Juan M. and Curtis, Tobey H. and Dagorn, Laurent and Dale, Jonathan J. and Daly, Ryan and Dewar, Heidi and Doherty, Philip D. and Domingo, Andrés and Dove, Alistair D. M. and Drew, Michael and Dudgeon, Christine L. and Duffy, Clinton A. J. and Elliott, Riley G. and Ellis, Jim R. and Erdmann, Mark V. and Farrugia, Thomas J. and Ferreira, Luciana C. and Ferretti, Francesco and Filmalter, John D. and Finucci, Brittany and Fischer, Chris and Fitzpatrick, Richard and Forget, Fabien and Forsberg, Kerstin and Francis, Malcolm P. and Franks, Bryan R. and Gallagher, Austin J. and Galvan-Magana, Felipe and García, Mirta L. and Gaston, Troy F. and Gillanders, Bronwyn M. and Gollock, Matthew J. and Green, Jonathan R. and Green, Sofia and Griffiths, Christopher A. and Hammerschlag, Neil and Hasan, Abdi and Hawkes, Lucy A. and Hazin, Fabio and Heard, Matthew and Hearn, Alex and Hedges, Kevin J. and Henderson, Suzanne M. and Holdsworth, John and Holland, Kim N. and Howey, Lucy A. and Hueter, Robert E. and Humphries, Nicholas E. and Hutchinson, Melanie and Jaine, Fabrice R. A. and Jorgensen, Salvador J. and Kanive, Paul E. and Labaja, Jessica and Lana, Fernanda O. and Lassauce, Hugo and Lipscombe, Rebecca S. and Llewellyn, Fiona and Macena, Bruno C. L. and Mambrasar, Ronald and McAllister, Jaime D. and McCully Phillips, Sophy R. and McGregor, Frazer and McMillan, Matthew N. and McNaughton, Lianne M. and Mendonça, Sibele A. and Meyer, Carl G. and Meyers, Megan and Mohan, John A. and Montgomery, John C. and Mucientes, Gonzalo and Musyl, Michael K. and Nasby-Lucas, Nicole and Natanson, Lisa J. and O’Sullivan, John B. and Oliveira, Paulo and Papastamtiou, Yannis P. and Patterson, Toby A. and Pierce, Simon J. and Queiroz, Nuno and Radford, Craig A. and Richardson, Andy J. and Richardson, Anthony J. and Righton, David and Rohner, Christoph A. and Royer, Mark A. and Saunders, Ryan A. and Schaber, Matthias and Schallert, Robert J. and Scholl, Michael C. and Seitz, Andrew C. and Semmens, Jayson M. and Setyawan, Edy and Shea, Brendan D. and Shidqi, Rafid A. and Shillinger, George L. and Shipley, Oliver N. and Shivji, Mahmood S. and Sianipar, Abraham B. and Silva, Joana F. and Sims, David W. and Skomal, Gregory B. and Sousa, Lara L. and Southall, Emily J. and Spaet, Julia L. Y. and Stehfest, Kilian M. and Stevens, Guy and Stewart, Joshua D. and Sulikowski, James A. and Syakurachman, Ismail and Thorrold, Simon R. and Thums, Michele and Tickler, David and Tolloti, Mariana T. and Townsend, Kathy A. and Travassos, Paulo and Tyminski, John P. and Vaudo, Jeremy J. and Veras, Drausio and Wantiez, Laurent and Weber, Sam B. and Wells, R.J. David and Weng, Kevin C. and Wetherbee, Bradley M. and Williamson, Jane E. and Witt, Matthew J. and Wright, Serena and Zilliacus, Kelly and Block, Barbara A. and Curnick, David J. (2022) Diving into the vertical dimension of elasmobranch movement ecology. Science Advances, 8 (33): eabo1754. ISSN 2375-2548

Abstract

Knowledge of the three-dimensional movement patterns of elasmobranchs is vital to understand their ecological roles and exposure to anthropogenic pressures. To date, comparative studies among species at global scales have mostly focused on horizontal movements. Our study addresses the knowledge gap of vertical movements by compiling the first global synthesis of vertical habitat use by elasmobranchs from data obtained by deployment of 989 biotelemetry tags on 38 elasmobranch species. Elasmobranchs displayed high intra- and interspecific variability in vertical movement patterns. Substantial vertical overlap was observed for many epipelagic elasmobranchs, indicating an increased likelihood to display spatial overlap, biologically interact, and share similar risk to anthropogenic threats that vary on a vertical gradient. We highlight the critical next steps toward incorporating vertical movement into global management and monitoring strategies for elasmobranchs, emphasizing the need to address geographic and taxonomic biases in deployments and to concurrently consider both horizontal and vertical movements.