Evidence for a consistent use of external cues by marine fish larvae for orientation
General methodological approachTo examine if larvae utilize external cues (i.e., oriented movement) to swim in a directional manner (i.e., significant mean vector length), we develop two complementary analyses that compare the empirically observed directional precision (i.e., mean vector length) with the null distribution expected under a strict use of internal cues (i.e., unoriented movement). The empirically observed directional precision is quantified as the mean vector length (R) of larval bearings (θ) (Fig. 2a), herein ({hat{R}}_{theta }). The angular differences between consecutive bearings, herein turning angles (Fig. 2a; Δθt = θt-θt-1), are used to generate two null distributions of Rθ expected under the unoriented movement of Correlated Random Walk (CRW; ({R}_{{theta }_{0}})), based on the two analyses: Correlated Random Walk-von Mises (CRW-vm) and Correlated Random Walk- resampling (CRW-r), described below. The first is theoretical and is based on a von Mises distribution of simulated Δθ (Fig. 2b, c); the second is empirical, and is based on resampling the Δθ within each trial (Fig. 2d, e). These two analyses are complementary because the first can generate an unlimited number of trajectories but is based on a theoretical distribution rather than on observations, whereas the second is based on a finite number of observations. In addition to these two main analyses, we apply a third analysis, the Correlated Random Walk-wrapped Cauchy, herein CRW-wc, which is similar to CRW-vm, with the only difference of using wrapped Cauchy distribution instead of von Mises. The reason for applying CRW-wc is that it was shown to represent well animal movement in some cases33. Notably, we consider the simple cases of undirected movement pattern with a turning angle distribution centered at 0 (CRW), testing if the mean vector length of the trial’s sequence is higher than that expected under CRW. If true, that would be an indication for a directed movement pattern (i.e., BRW or BCRW), or an indication for more complex behaviors (discussed in Supplementary note 4).Statistics and reproducibilityQuantitative analyses are applied to directional trials, i.e., larval bearing sequences ((hat{theta })) that are significantly different from a uniform distribution based on the Rayleigh’s test8 (p 81, 162, 270). Trials with Nobs higher than the maximal Nobs were trimmed to contain the maximal Nobs per species, retaining the later-in-time data. For the scuba-following trials, the number of observations had to be Nobs > 20 due to the sensitivity of the analysis to a low number of observations. In other words, a low number of observations limits the capacity of the quantitative analyses to distinguish between oriented and unoriented movement patterns (see Supplementary note 3, Supplementary Figure S3). Importantly, both methods were shown to be robust in terms of artifacts and biases55,56, and have been tested together demonstrating high consistency in larval orientation results16,48.Each orientation trial includes a sequence of larval swimming directions, termed bearings (θ) (Fig. 2a). For the DISC trials, θ are the cardinal directions of larval positions within the DISC’s chamber55. The angular differences between θ of consecutive time steps (t) are defined as Δθ (Δθt = θt-θt-1), such that for every θ sequence of a given length (N), there is a respective Δθ sequence of length N-1 (Fig. 2a). Directional precision with respect to external and internal cues is computed as the mean vector length of bearings (Rθ) and of turning angles (RΔθ), respectively54. Values of mean vector length (R) range from 0 to 1, with 0 indicating a uniform distribution of angles and 1 indicating that all angles are the same.We used two quantitative approaches to examine if larvae exhibit oriented movement: the Correlated Random Walk- von Mises and Correlated Random Walk- wrapped Cauchy (CRW-vm and CRW-wc) analyses and the CRW resampling (CRW-r) analysis. Both types of analyses are based on the assumption that trajectories of animals that strictly use internal cues for directional movement are characterized by a CRW pattern. Hence, their capacity for directional movement is exclusively dependent on the distribution of their turning angles (Δθ)57. In contrast, for an external-cues orienting animal, for which movement directions are correlated with an external fixed direction, the mean vector length of the observed bearings, ({hat{R}}_{theta }), is expected to exceed that of a CRW, ({R}_{{theta }_{0}})6. Both analyses compare ({hat{R}}_{theta }) against the expected ({R}_{{theta }_{0}}), but the first type computes ({R}_{{theta }_{0}^{{vm}}})and ({R}_{{theta }_{0}^{{wc}}})using theoretical von Mises and wrapped Cauchy distributions of Δθ, and the second type computes ({R}_{{theta }_{0}^{r}}) by producing 100 new θ sequences per individual trial (larva) by multiple resampling-without-replacement of the Δθ.A key principle for both analyses types stems from the fact that the mean vector length of bearings (Rθ) is inherently dependent on the mean vector length of turning angles (RΔθ)28. In other words, an animal with a high capacity for unoriented directional movement, i.e., a narrow distribution of Δθ, is likely to yield a high Rθ, even if it makes absolutely no use of external cues for oriented movement. Hence, in both analyses ({hat{R}}_{theta }) is gauged against a distribution of ({R}_{{theta }_{0}}), given its respective mean vector length of turning angles ({hat{R}}_{triangle theta }). The open-source software R58 with the package circular59 is used for all analyses in this study.Correlated Random Walk-von Mises (CRW-vm)In this analysis, we first generate the directional precision (R), expected for unoriented CRW movement using the theoretical von Mises distribution (({R}_{{theta }_{0}^{{vm}}})). The CRW bearings sequences (({theta }_{0}^{{vm}})) are generated by choosing a random initial bearing, followed by a series of Nobs-1 turning angles (({triangle theta }_{0}^{{vm}})) in bearing direction; drawn at random (with replacement) from a von Mises distribution (Nrep = 1000). The length of ({theta }_{0}^{{vm}}) sequence is according to the number of observations in our four types of experimental trials: Nobs = 21 for the scuba-following, and 90, 180 and 300 for the DISC (Table 1). The directional precision of the von Mises distribution is dependent on the concentration parameter, kappa. Kappa values ranging from 0 to 399 are applied at 1-unit increments to cover the entire range of directional precision from completely random (kappa = 0), to highly directional (kappa = 399). Next, the directional precision of the bearings (Rθ) and the turning angles (RΔθ) are computed for each simulated sequence of θ (Fig. 2a–c).These respective pairs of values (RΔθ, Rθ) provide the basis for generating the expected relationship between ({R}_{{theta }_{0}^{{vm}}}) and ({R}_{{triangle theta }_{0}^{{vm}}}). Then, for any given kappa value, the following quantiles are computed: 5th, 10th, 20th,….,90th, and 95th (grey vertical distributions in Fig. 2c). Next, smooth spline functions are fitted through all respective quantiles, generating the ({R}_{{theta }_{0}^{{vm}}})quantile contours, which represent the null expectation under CRW. This expected (RΔθ, Rθ) correspondence creates a phase diagram (Fig. 2c), based on which the observed θ patterns are gauged. The procedure is repeated four times to match the among-study differences in the number of θ observations per trial (i.e., Nobs = 21, 90, 180, and 300; see Table 1).To examine if the observed larval movement patterns differ from those expected for unoriented movement (CRW-vm), we compute RΔθ and Rθ for each individual trial (({hat{R}}_{triangle theta }) and ({hat{R}}_{theta })). We then place these values in the phase diagram and examine their positions with respect to ({R}_{{theta }_{0}^{{vm}}}) (Fig. 2c). Larvae with ({hat{R}}_{theta }) substantially higher than ({bar{R}}_{{theta }_{0}^{{vm}}}), are considered to have a higher tendency for a straighter movement than expected under CRW, suggesting oriented movement such as BRW and BCRW (Fig. 2b, c)6,28. Larvae with ({hat{R}}_{theta }) values substantially below ({bar{R}}_{{theta }_{0}^{{vm}}})indicate irregular patterns such as a one-sided drift (right or left). A larva is considered directional if the bearing sequence ((hat{theta })) is significantly different from a uniform distribution based on the Rayleigh’s test (p More
