Data from: Habitat selection may influence swimming performance in marine teleost larvae

The data explores differences in swimming performance between teleost larvae from comparative phylogenetic, meta-analysis and case-study approaches. Methodology: The following study used phylogenetic comparative methods, data synthesis and, case study approach to investigate how swimming performance differs between different habitats (reefs, non-reef demersal and pelagic) habitats, across latitude (temperate and tropical latitudes), with combinations of habitat and latitude herein referred to as 'Environmental Habitat' (e.g., tropical reef, temperate demersal etc.). A systematic literature search was used to find all relevant studies for this study. The study was divided in three aims. The first aim compared changes in swimming performance (Ucrit and in situ swimming) across body size using regression analysis to determine differences in how swimming performance changes with body size. The second aim investigated differences in swimming performance between post-flexion stage fish across 'Environmental Habitat'. This aim comprised multiple comparisons, such as swimming method (Ucrit, in situ and endurance), body shape, muscle area and caudal fin area. The differences in swimming methods among environmental habitats were analysed using phylogenetic comparative methods.The third aim acted as a case study and superimposed swimming performance of reef fishes over development and at settlement stage onto water current speed data at different depths and reef habitats around Lizard Island, Australia, which is a representative coral reef ecosystem. Comparing swimming performance with water current speeds allows me to determine at what ontogenetic stage swimming performance alone will suffice against water currents. The data consists of 9 files in comma-separated values (.csv) format and a metadata file (.txt) that includes all of the variables, labels and units. The data files are: Files File Description 1.DOWNIE_Chpt3_metadata.txt Metadata file including all of the variables, labels and units 2.DOWNIE_PhD_Chpt3_UcritGrowth.csv Relationship between body size and critical swimming speed among larvae from different habitats 3.DOWNIE_PhD_Chpt3_InsituGrowth.csv Relationship between body size and in situ swimming speed among larvae from different habitats 4.DOWNIE_PhD_Chpt3_UcritSettle.csv Critical swimming speed of post-flexion larvae from different habitats 5.DOWNIE_PhD_Chpt3_UcritPhylo.csv Critical swimming speed data used for phylogenetic comparative analysis 6.DOWN