Examining Geographic and Temporal Trends in Symbiotic Relationships Between Sharks and Remoras

Authors

Zachary Hilt, Belmont UniversityFollow
Matthew Heard, Belmont UniversityFollow

Publication Date

Spring 4-21-2022

College

Sciences and Mathematics, College of

Department

Biology, Department of

BURS Faculty Advisor

Matthew Heard

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Abstract

Sharks and remoras are well known to form symbiotic relationships. However, little is known about how this relationship varies between shark taxa in different geographic regions of the world. In this study, we used citizen science data from iNaturalist to examine how often we found remoras on sharks, how this varied between different shark species and whether these patterns varied in different geographic locations. To do this, we analyzed 3,152 research grade observations (15% of all total shark species photos) and looked at photos to determine which shark species had remoras associated with them and where they were located. Our results showed that remoras prefer different species and that there was significant variation in the patterns for different shark species for different regions.

Recommended Citation

Hilt, Zachary and Heard, Matthew, "Examining Geographic and Temporal Trends in Symbiotic Relationships Between Sharks and Remoras" (2022). Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS). 161.
https://repository.belmont.edu/burs/161