REPORT Genetic tools link long-term demographic and life-history traits of anemonefish to their anemone hosts Oce ´ane C. Salles 1,2 • Pablo Saenz-Agudelo 3 • Glenn R. Almany 1,2 • Michael L. Berumen 4 • Simon R. Thorrold 5 • Geoffrey P. Jones 6 • Serge Planes 1,2 Received: 11 November 2015 / Accepted: 14 July 2016 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016 Abstract The life-history traits and population dynamics of species are increasingly being attributed to the charac- teristics of their preferred habitats. While coral reef fish are often strongly associated with particular habitats, long-term studies establishing the demographic and life-history con- sequences of occupying different reef substrata are rare and no studies have monitored individuals in situ over their lifetime and determined the fate of their offspring. Here, we documented a quasi-turnover and local reproductive success for an entire population of orange clownfish (Am- phiprion percula) from Kimbe Island, Papua New Guinea, by taking bi-annual samples of DNA over a 10-yr period (2003–2013). We compared demographic and life-history traits of individuals living on two host anemone species, Heteractis magnifica and Stichodactyla gigantea, including female size, adult continued presence (a proxy for relative longevity range), early post-settlement growth, the number of eggs per clutch and ‘local’ reproductive success (defined for each adult as the number of offspring returning to the natal population). Our results indicate that while the rela- tive longevity of adults was similar on both host anemone species, females living in H. magnifica were larger than females in S. gigantea. However, despite females growing larger and producing more eggs on H. magnifica, we found that local reproductive success was significantly higher for clownfish living in S. gigantea. Life-history traits also exhibited local spatial variation, with higher local repro- ductive success recorded for adults living on S. gigantea on the eastern side of the island. Our findings support a ‘silver- spoon’ hypothesis that predicts individuals that are fortu- nate enough to recruit into good habitat and location will be rewarded with higher long-term reproductive success and will make a disproportionate contribution to population renewal. Keywords Amphiprion percula Á Long-term monitoring Á Otolith growth Á Parentage analysis Á Local reproductive success Introduction An organism’s life-history characteristics, including life- time patterns of growth, maturation and reproduction, are often linked to the environmental conditions of the habitats they occupy (Begon et al. 1996). The specific sources of variation in life-history traits may include abiotic factors Communicated by Ecology Editor Dr. Alastair Harborne Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00338-016-1485-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. & Oce ´ane C. Salles oceane.salles@gmail.com 1 EPHE, PSL Research University, UPVD-CNRS, USR3278 CRIOBE, 66360 Perpignan, France 2 Laboratoire d’Excellence ‘CORAIL’, Perpignan, France 3 Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Evolutivas, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile 4 Red Sea Research Center, Division of Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal 23955, Saudi Arabia 5 Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA 6 ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, and College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia 123 Coral Reefs DOI 10.1007/s00338-016-1485-1