Swimming performance, but not metabolism, is related to a boldness‐activity syndrome in schoolmaster snapper (Lutjanus apodus)

Abstract

Commercial overexploitation and climate change can alter the physiology and behavior of marine organisms, although intraspecific phenotypic responses to such changes can vary greatly depending on the environment, species, and severity of the stressor. Under the pace‐of‐life syndrome (POLS) hypothesis, behavior, physiology, and life‐history traits are linked, and thus, affected by selection targeting any aspect of organismal biology. However, these links are understudied in tropical marine fishes, and further work is needed to better understand the impacts of fisheries and climate change on wild stocks. Moreover, tropical regions have a greater reliance on fisheries; thus investigations should focus on species with substantial socioeconomic value to ensure benefits at the local level. This study aimed to address this need by measuring the behavior (boldness and activity), metabolism, and swimming performance (using a critical swim speed [Ucrit] test) of schoolmaster snapper Lutjanus apodus in Eleuthera, the Bahamas. We report a strong positive correlation between boldness and activity, high repeatability of these behavioral metrics, and two groupings that were consistent with “proactive” and “reactive” behavioral types. These behavioral types differed significantly in their swimming performance, with reactive individuals having a 13.1% higher mean Ucrit. In contrast, no significant differences were found in the measured metabolic parameters between behavioral types. This study is the first to investigate the intraspecific links between behavior and physiology in a snapper species, using the novel and ecologically relevant comparison of Ucrit with behavioral syndrome types. These data suggest that additional research is needed to better predict the success of proactive/reactive tropical fish if overexploited and as influenced by climate change.