Data underlying the publication: "Spatial dependency in abundance of Queen conch, Aliger gigas, in the Caribbean, indicates the importance of surveying deep-water distributions"

Evaluate how the spatial distribution of a heavily exploited marine gastropod (i.e., Queen conch) varies in response to a number of known biotic and abiotic variables within and between sites that vary in environmental conditions. A novel towed video system complemented belt transects to estimate adult queen conch densities throughout its depth range. Bayesian hierarchical spatial models (Integrated Nested Laplace approximations) modeled distribution patterns of adult conch and indicated that the general patchy distribution pattern and the lack of strong generic location over-crossing relationships between abiotic and biotic factors and adult conch abundance and distribution is likely to at least partly due to this spatial dependency and location-specific factors, that affect different parts of the conch life-history.

本研究旨在评估一种被过度开发利用的海洋腹足类动物——女王凤凰螺（Queen conch）的空间分布，如何响应环境条件各异的站点内部及站点间的多种已知生物与非生物变量。本研究采用新型拖曳式视频系统辅助条带样带法，对女王凤凰螺成体在其整个分布深度范围内的种群密度进行了估算。本研究借助贝叶斯分层空间模型（集成嵌套拉普拉斯近似（Integrated Nested Laplace approximations））对女王凤凰螺成体的分布模式开展建模分析，结果表明：该物种成体普遍呈现斑块状分布模式，且生物与非生物因子与成体种群丰度、空间分布之间未表现出显著的跨位点强关联，上述现象至少可部分归因于空间依赖性与位点特异性因子，而这些因子会对女王凤凰螺生活史的不同阶段产生影响。