RESEARCH ARTICLE D. T. Topping Æ C. G. Lowe Æ J. E. Caselle Home range and habitat utilization of adult California sheephead, Semicossyphus pulcher (Labridae), in a temperate no-take marine reserve Received: 5 May 2004 / Accepted: 23 December 2004 / Published online: 3 March 2005 Ó Springer-Verlag 2005 Abstract The California sheephead, Semicossyphus pul- cher Ayres (Labridae), is a carnivorous, temperate, rocky-reef/kelp-bed species that is highly sought in rec- reational and commercial fisheries. Fine-scale acoustic telemetry tracking was used to ascertain the home range and habitat utilization of S. pulcher. Sixteen adult S. pulcher (26–38 cm SL) were surgically fitted with small acoustic transmitters and manually tracked for up to 144 h during multiple, 24-h periods between March 2001 and August 2002 within the Catalina Marine Sci- ence Center Marine Life Reserve (33°26¢N; 118°29¢W). A geographic information system was used to calculate home range sizes (95% kernel utilization distributions) and habitat use. Tracking of the first five fish over 24 h confirmed that S. pulcher were strictly diurnal, so the remaining 11 fish were tracked from 1 h before sunrise to 1 h after sunset. Home ranges varied greatly, from 938 to 82,070 m 2 , with a mean (±SD) of 15,134±26,007 m 2 . Variability in home range sizes among fish was attrib- uted to differences in habitat shape (embayment vs. contiguous coastline) and to natural habitat boundaries (deep, sandy expanses) in adjacent areas within the re- serve. There was a significant relationship between fish length and proportion of time spent in different habitats (sand vs. reef). S. pulcher were found within rocky-reef areas 54% of the time, and, within these areas, a greater percentage of daytime was spent in high-relief areas. Based on the relatively small size and persistence of home ranges of adult S. pulcher, no-take reserves, if they contain appropriate habitat, would provide adequate protection for their stocks. Introduction The number of studies on the effectiveness of marine reserves for protecting fish stocks has recently increased (Roberts 1994; Johnson et al. 1999; McClanahan and Mangi 2000; Meyer et al. 2001; Roberts et al. 2001), but critical information on movement patterns, space use, and habitat preference of fished species is still lacking (Gerber et al. 2003). New marine reserves are being developed in the absence of this critical information, but knowledge of the relationship between habitat use and movements of fished species can be used to quantify the effectiveness of established reserves and serve as a basis for development of future reserves (Kramer and Chap- man 1999; Eristhee and Oxenford 2001; Lowe et al. 2003). Movement patterns vary widely among fish species, but marine reserves would be predictably most effective for species that use a home range, an area consistently occupied for feeding, reproduction, and shelter seeking (Barrows 1996). Most coral- and rocky-reef-associated fishes are thought to have defined home ranges, al- though the size and fidelity may vary ontogenetically and seasonally and with habitat availability (Matthews 1990; Kramer and Chapman 1999; Lowe et al. 2003). How much home ranges vary within reef-associated species and how nearshore microhabitats influence size and fidelity of home ranges remain uncertain for many species. Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1007/s00227-005-1573-1. Communicated by J.P. Grassle, New Brunswick D. T. Topping (&) Æ C. G. Lowe Department of Biological Sciences, California State University Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90840-3702, USA E-mail: dtopping13@hotmail.com Tel.: +1-562-8585332 Fax: +1-562-5981182 J. E. Caselle Marine Science Institute, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA Marine Biology (2005) 147: 301–311 DOI 10.1007/s00227-005-1573-1