scholarly journals Can behavioural ecology unite hypotheses for fish recruitment?

2013 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 909-917 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Jørgensen ◽  
Anders Frugård Opdal ◽  
Øyvind Fiksen
Keyword(s):  
Predation Risk ◽  
Food Availability ◽  
Larval Fish ◽  
High Growth ◽  
Selective Predation ◽  
Growth And Survival ◽  
Larval Behaviour ◽  
Fish Recruitment ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Risk Of Predation

Abstract Since the classical works by Hjort linked the survival of early life stages of fish to year-class strength and recruitment, fisheries science has struggled to understand the fate of fish eggs and larvae. Here we discuss how food availability will influence growth and survival of larvae when foraging behaviour is flexible and involves predation risk. We use theory to show that small larval fish with a high risk of predation should nevertheless forage intensely and maintain high growth rates. The implication of this is that food availability is more important to recruitment success than is often assumed from studies of growth rate, since the main effect of low food availability appears as increased predation rates. As larvae develop and grow bigger, they are expected to tailor their behaviour to balance food intake and predation risk, which makes it more probable that environmental fluctuations will cause growth differences. A theoretical framework including larval behaviour thus illustrates how several existing hypotheses, i.e. “bigger is better”, “stage duration”, and “growth-selective predation”, emphasize different aspects of larval success but can be understood more generally and coherently when interpreted in the light of behavioural trade-offs. This may lead to more consistent consideration of larval behaviour in biophysical models of fish recruitment.

scholarly journals Match–Mismatch Regulation for Bluegill and Yellow Perch Larvae and Their Prey in Sandhill Lakes

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey C. Jolley ◽  
David W. Willis ◽  
Richard S. Holland
Keyword(s):  
Yellow Perch ◽  
Prey Selection ◽  
Larval Fish ◽  
Lepomis Macrochirus ◽  
Perca Flavescens ◽  
Stomach Contents ◽  
Zooplankton Abundance ◽  
Growth And Survival ◽  
Fish Recruitment ◽  
Newly Hatched Larvae

Abstract Food availability may regulate fish recruitment, both directly and indirectly. The availability of zooplankton, especially to newly hatched larvae, is thought to be crucial to their early growth and survival. We examined stomach contents of larval bluegill Lepomis macrochirus and yellow perch Perca flavescens in Pelican Lake and Cameron Lake, Nebraska, in 2004 and 2005. We also determined zooplankton availability and calculated prey selection using Chesson's α. In addition, we investigated potential match–mismatch regulation of recruitment from 2004 to 2008. Bluegill positively selected copepod nauplii and Bosmina spp., and yellow perch often selected copepods. Abundant zooplankton populations were available for consumption. Matches of both larval bluegill and yellow perch abundance to zooplankton abundance were detected in all years; exact matches were common. Mismatches in predator and prey production were not observed. Predation by age-0 yellow perch on age-0 bluegill was not observed, even though yellow perch hatched 2 mo prior to bluegill. Given that zooplankton were abundant and well-timed to larval fish relative abundance over the time span of this study, the match–mismatch hypothesis alone may not fully account for observed recruitment variability in these populations. Environmental conditions may also affect recruitment and warrant further investigation.

Interlake variation in growth and size structure of bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus): inverse analysis of an individual-based model

1998 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 387-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan P Nibbelink ◽  
Stephen R Carpenter
Keyword(s):  
Predation Risk ◽  
Food Availability ◽  
Inverse Modeling ◽  
Habitat Structure ◽  
Size Structure ◽  
Lepomis Macrochirus ◽  
Habitat Choice ◽  
Selective Predation ◽  
Free Parameters ◽  
Contrasting Habitats

Habitat structure alters food availability and predation risk, thereby directly affecting growth, mortality, and size structure of fish populations. Size structure has often been used to infer patterns of resource abundance and predation. However, food availability and predation risk in contrasting habitats have proven difficult to measure in the field. We use an inverse modeling approach to estimate food availability and habitat choice parameters from changes in length distributions of bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus). The model suggests that dynamics of bluegill length distributions primarily reflect food availability and habitat choice. Bluegill behavior minimized effects of size-selective predation on size structure. Parameters for food availability and habitat choice were correlated. It was therefore not possible to attain unique estimates of food availability and habitat selection when both were free parameters. However, when one parameter was estimated independently, the other could be identified. In five Wisconsin lakes, seining studies were used to estimate the size at which bluegill switched from littoral to pelagic habitats. Using this measure of switch size in the model, we estimated food availability for bluegill in each lake. These estimates were positively correlated with observed growth (r2 = 0.91), demonstrating the model's ability to estimate food availability.

Influence of conspecifics on the ontogenetic habitat shift of juvenile Caribbean spiny lobsters

2001 ◽  
Vol 52 (8) ◽  
pp. 1077 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Childress ◽  
William F. Herrnkind
Keyword(s):  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Predation Risk ◽  
Food Availability ◽  
Habitat Shift ◽  
Ontogenetic Habitat Shift ◽  
Social Species ◽  
Risk Of Predation ◽  
Spiny Lobsters ◽  
Rates Of Growth ◽  
Ontogenetic Habitat Shifts

Werner and Gilliam’s (1984) model predicts that size-specific rates of growth and mortality determine the size at transition for animals with an ontogenetic habitat shift (OHS). Although animals are unlikely to calculate mortality rate, they often respond to changes in predation risk. For many social species, an individual’s risk of predation is reduced by conspecific aggregation. We hypothesize that individuals in groups respond to this reduction of predation risk and should shift habitats at a smaller size than solitary individuals. We tested this hypothesis by altering food availability, predation risk and conspecific presence for newly settled spiny lobsters in mesocosms. Juvenile Caribbean spiny lobsters, Panulirus argus, undergo an ontogenetic habitat shift from algal dwelling to crevice sheltering concomitant with aggregation in crevices. We found that juveniles raised with low food availability and low predation risk underwent transition at a smaller size. We also found that juveniles raised with conspecifics underwent transition at a smaller size than did solitary lobsters under the same conditions. Our results suggest that the ontogenetic habitat shift of algal-phase lobsters is accelerated when food is scarce, predation risk is low, and conspecifics are present. In the absence of conspecifics, algal lobsters wait until they are larger to change from algal dwelling to crevice sheltering. This result suggests that ontogenetic habitat shifts for gregarious animals are influenced by the proximity of conspecifics.

Behavioral decisions made under the risk of predation: a review and prospectus

1990 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 619-640 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven L. Lima ◽  
Lawrence M. Dill
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Predation Risk ◽  
Animal Behavior ◽  
Behavioral Characteristics ◽  
Evolutionary Time ◽  
Animal Reproduction ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Risk Of Predation ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Insight Into

Predation has long been implicated as a major selective force in the evolution of several morphological and behavioral characteristics of animals. The importance of predation during evolutionary time is clear, but growing evidence suggests that animals also have the ability to assess and behaviorally influence their risk of being preyed upon in ecological time (i.e., during their lifetime). We develop an abstraction of the predation process in which several components of predation risk are identified. A review of the literature indicates that an animal's ability to assess and behaviorally control one or more of these components strongly influences decision making in feeding animals, as well as in animals deciding when and how to escape predators, when and how to be social, or even, for fishes, when and how to breathe air. This review also reveals that such decision making reflects apparent trade-offs between the risk of predation and the benefits to be gained from engaging in a given activity. Despite this body of evidence, several areas in the study of animal behavior have received little or no attention from a predation perspective. We identify several such areas, the most important of which is that dealing with animal reproduction. Much work also remains regarding the precise nature of the risk of predation and how it is actually perceived by animals, and the extent to which they can behaviorally control their risk of predation. Mathematical models will likely play a major role in future work, and we suggest that modelers strive to consider the potential complexity in behavioral responses to predation risk. Overall, since virtually every animal is potential prey for others, research that seriously considers the influence of predation risk will provide significant insight into the nature of animal behavior.

scholarly journals Larval Size and Recruitment Mechanisms in Fishes: Toward a Conceptual Framework

1988 ◽  
Vol 45 (9) ◽  
pp. 1657-1670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Miller ◽  
Larry B. Crowder ◽  
James A. Rice ◽  
Elizabeth A. Marschall
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Larval Fish ◽  
Larval Growth ◽  
Larval Survival ◽  
Freshwater Species ◽  
Larval Size ◽  
Growth And Survival ◽  
Fisheries Science ◽  
Risk Of Predation

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.

Diel vertical migration in the Lake Superior pelagic community. II. Modeling trade-offs at an intermediate trophic level

2006 ◽  
Vol 63 (10) ◽  
pp. 2296-2307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olaf P Jensen ◽  
Thomas R Hrabik ◽  
Steven J.D. Martell ◽  
Carl J Walters ◽  
James F Kitchell
Keyword(s):  
Predation Risk ◽  
Trophic Level ◽  
Vertical Migration ◽  
Diel Vertical Migration ◽  
Lake Trout ◽  
Lake Superior ◽  
High Growth ◽  
Growth Trajectory ◽  
Mysis Relicta ◽  
Trade Offs

Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain diel vertical migration (DVM); however, they have generally been applied to DVM behavior of a single trophic level. We evaluate the costs (predation risk) and benefits (foraging rate and growth rate potential) of different hypothetical and observed DVM trajectories for a three-level pelagic food chain in Lake Superior containing opossum shrimp (Mysis relicta), deepwater ciscoes (Coregonus spp.), and lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush). Lake trout appear to be maximizing foraging and growth rates by tracking vertically migrating ciscoes, while the DVM trajectories of ciscoes suggests a trade-off between predation risk and growth. For ciscoes, two alternative DVM trajectories both minimize the ratio of risk to growth: a shallow trajectory that follows low light levels down to 80 m during the day and a deep trajectory (below 150 m) that tracks highest Mysis densities. Observed cisco DVM trajectories appear to follow the shallow high risk – high growth trajectory in 2001, but switch to the deep, low risk – low growth trajectory in 2004 when lake trout density was higher and the density of ciscoes was lower.

Larval Herring (Clupea harengus) Dispersion, Growth, and Survival in the St, Lawrence Estuary: Match/Mismatch or Membership/Vagrancy?

1990 ◽  
Vol 47 (10) ◽  
pp. 1898-1912 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Fortier ◽  
Jacques A. Gagné
Keyword(s):  
Food Availability ◽  
Larval Fish ◽  
Clupea Harengus ◽  
Larval Abundance ◽  
Initial Growth ◽  
Lawrence Estuary ◽  
Growth And Survival ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
St Lawrence Estuary

The relative success of the 1985 spring and fall cohorts of Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) in the St. Lawrence estuary was studied in relation to food availability (match/mismatch hypothesis) and hydrography (member/vagrant hypothesis). The development of the spring cohort (early June) matched remarkably well the development of suitable prey and larval abundance within the estuary decreased slowly (7.8%∙d−1). The fall cohort (mid-September) hatched in a period of low food availability and dwindled rapidly (28.9%∙d−1). The initial growth of both cohorts appeared limited by food. The stratification front limiting seaward drift was strong in the spring (0–80 j∙m−3) and weak in the fall (0–20 J∙m−3), suggesting that advection out of the estuary could also have contributed to the observed differences in the fate of the two cohorts. We conclude from this case study that spawning times and locations may have evolved to favor the initial cohesion of larval fish cohorts by limiting dispersion and that both transport and energetic processes can influence the success of a population at colonizing its dispersion area. The relative contribution of initial vagrancy and subsequent trophic interactions in determining final recruitment remains to be assessed.

Tales of lizard tails: effects of tail autotomy on subsequent survival and growth of free-ranging hatchling Uta stansburiana

1997 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 542-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. H. Niewiarowski ◽  
J. D. Congdon ◽  
A. E. Dunham ◽  
L. J. Vitt ◽  
D. W. Tinkle
Keyword(s):  
Natural Populations ◽  
Reproductive Investment ◽  
Experimental Manipulation ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Growth And Survival ◽  
Large Sample ◽  
Uta Stansburiana ◽  
Tail Autotomy ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Free Ranging

Potential costs and benefits of tail autotomy in lizards have been inferred almost exclusively from experimental study in semi-natural enclosures and from indirect comparative evidence from natural populations. We present complementary evidence of the costs of tail autotomy to the lizard Uta stansburiana from detailed demographic study of a natural population. On initial capture, we broke the tails of a large sample of free-ranging hatchlings (560) and left the tails of another large sample (455) intact, and then followed subsequent hatchling growth and survival over a 3-year period. Surprisingly, in 1 out of the 3 years of study, survival of female hatchlings with broken tails exceeded that of female hatchlings with intact tails. Furthermore, no effects of tail loss on survivorship were detected for male hatchlings. However, in 2 years when recaptures were very frequent (1961, 1962), growth rates of hatchlings with broken tails were significantly slower than those of their counterparts with intact tails. We discuss our results in the broader context of estimating the relative costs and benefits of tail autotomy in natural populations, and suggest that long-term demographic studies will provide the best opportunity to assess realized fitness costs and benefits with minimum bias. We also describe how experimentally induced tail autotomy can be used as a technique to complement experimental manipulation of reproductive investment in the study of life-history trade-offs.

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