Analysis of Habitat Loyalty and Habitat Preference in the Settlement Behavior of Planktonic Marine Larvae

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Abstract
Habitat loyalty is the tendency of animals to rank a habitat higher, on a scale of preferences which includes several types of habitats, if the parents of the animal came from that habitat. The loyalty matrix is a table of experimentally determined habitat preferences of offspring whose parents originated in different habitats. The trace of the loyalty matrix is a measure of habitat loyalty which is also applicable in the case of single-generation habitat preferences, e.g., the homing behavior of anadromous fish. Procedures for setting confidence limits on the trace are described. A tetrachoric correlation technique applied to the transformed loyalty matrix allows calculation of within-population genetic variance in habitat preference. The correlation between generations is conventionally expressed as heritability. The equilibrium probability vector of the loyalty matrix represents the expected distribution of offspring over substrates; it provides a basis for estimating the magnitude and direction of the selective forces acting on habitat preference. Illustrative data and calculations are from the marine annelid Spirorbis borealis living attached to various species of fucoid algae along the coast of Nova Scotia [Canada].

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