Larval Size and Recruitment Mechanisms in Fishes: Toward a Conceptual Framework
Loading...
Date
1988
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Understanding the mechanisms controlling recruitment in fishes is a major problem in fisheries science. Although
the literature on recruitment mechanisms is large and growing rapidly, it is primarily species specific. There is
no conceptual framework to integrate the existing information on larval fish ecology and its relationship to survival
and recruitment. In this paper, we propose an integrating framework based on body size. Although all larval fish
are small relative to adult fish, total length at hatching differs among species by an order of magnitude. As many
of the factors critical to larval survival and growth are size dependent, substantially different expectations arise
about which mechanisms might be most important to recruitment success. We examined the evidence for the
importance of size to feeding and starvation, to activity and searching ability, and to risk of predation. Regressions
based on data from 72 species of marine and freshwater species suggest that body size is an important factor that
unifies many of the published observations. A conceptual framework based on body size has the potential to
provide a useful integration of the available data on larval growth and survival and a focus for future studies of
recruitment dynamics.
Description
Abstract in English and French
Keywords
fishery recruitment mechanisms, body size
Citation
Miller, Thomas J.; Crowder, Larry B.; Rice, James A.; Marschall, Elizabeth A. "Larval Size and Recruitment Mechanisms in Fishes: Toward a Conceptual Framework," Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, v. 45, no. 9, 1988, pp. 1657-1670.