Comparison of temperature preference for habitat among three species of oceanic sea skaters, Halobates micans, H. germanus and H. sericeus

Mitsuru Nakajo, Takero Sekimoto, Kentaro Emi, Ryuta Ide, Kai Wada, Takao Inoue, Masatoshi Moku, Vladimír Koštál, Chihiro Katagiri, Tetsuo Harada

Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
Division of Life Science and Engineering, School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Denki University, Tokyo, Japan.
Institute of Entomology, Biology Center of the Academy of Sciences CR, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.
Laboratory of Environmental Physiology, Graduate School of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Kochi University, Kochi, Japan.

DOI: 10.4236/ns.2013.512A002                

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to investigate temperature preference for habitat of three species of oceanic sea skaters, Halobates micans, H. germanus and H. sericeus. For each of the three species, we examined the relationship between population density and surface water and air temperatures in the sampling sites during three science cruises in the tropical to temperate zone of the Pacific Ocean. A higher density of H. micans was observed in sites with higher water and air temperatures at 28℃ - 30℃ than that at site with lower temperatures of 23℃ - 28℃. A higher density of H. germanus was observed in sites with extremely high temperatures of 29.6℃ and 30℃ than that in sites with moderately high temperatures of 28℃ - 29℃ in the Pacific Ocean, while a relatively high density was observed in sites with a wide range of temperatures from 24℃ - 30℃ in the southern hemisphere Pacific Ocean. The relatively low temperature preference of 23℃ - 28℃ exhibited by H. sericeus may be related to its size as the smallest among the three species and its relatively wide latitudinal distribution ranging up to 40?N.

Keywords

Oceanic Sea Skaters; Temperature Preference; Latitudinal Distribution; Pacific Ocean

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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