Growth and Maturation of Southwest Nova Scotia Atlantic Herring (Clupea harengus harengus)

Juvenile and adult growth rates, and the maturation schedule, for the southwest Nova Scotia herring stock (NAFO SA 4WX) were investigated over the period 1968–78. The variance in juvenile (age 2) summer growth is not well accounted for by initial weight, juvenile population abundance, and temperature unless a discontinuity in growth pattern starting in 1970 is accounted for. Length at maturity and at recruitment to the adult schools appears to be inversely related to the population abundance experienced during juvenile growth. However, at very low juvenile population size, maturation appears to be inhibited. Somatic growth rate and its year-to-year variability decreases close to an order of magnitude with the onset of maturation. Because of this decrease with age and the radical shifts in age, composition with time, population growth rate fluctuates markedly. Because high population abundance parallels downward shifts in age composition, there is a clear, positive relationship between population growth rate and population abundance. There is a dome-shaped relationship between cohort somatic growth rate and cohort size at intermediate ages, suggesting that over a broad range in population size, adult growth rate is not density-dependent. This growth response is interpreted in relation to planktivorous feeding in a patchy environment. Strong year-class strength variability coupled with a marked decline in somatic growth rate with age results in non-steady state population production. When the age composition is biased towards older ages, catch (defined by F0.1 guidelines) exceeds population production resulting in rapid stock declines. The growth characteristics of herring are discussed in relation to the literature and "analytical" yield models.Key words: Atlantic herring, growth, maturation, production

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Devil in the details: growth, productivity, and extinction risk of a data-sparse devil ray

10.1101/043885 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Sebastián A. Pardo ◽

Holly K. Kindsvater ◽

Elizabeth Cuevas-Zimbrón ◽

Oscar Sosa-Nishizaki ◽

Juan Carlos Pérez-Jiménez ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Growth Rate ◽

Population Growth ◽

Growth Rates ◽

Population Growth Rate ◽

Extinction Risk ◽

Somatic Growth ◽

Small Scale ◽

Fishing Mortality ◽

Population Growth Rates ◽

Size At Age

Devil rays (Mobulaspp.) face rapidly intensifying fishing pressure to meet the ongoing international trade and demand for their gill plates. This has been exacerbated by trade regulation of manta ray gill plates following their 2014 CITES listing. Furthermore, the paucity of information on growth, mortality, and fishing effort for devil rays make quantifying population growth rates and extinction risk challenging. Here, we use a published size-at-age dataset for a large-bodied devil ray species, the Spinetail Devil Ray (Mobula japanica), to estimate somatic growth rates, age at maturity, maximum age and natural and fishing mortality. From these estimates, we go on to calculate a plausible distribution of the maximum intrinsic population growth rate (rmax) and place the productivity of this large devil ray in context by comparing it to 95 other chondrichthyan species. We find evidence that larger devil rays have low somatic growth rate, low annual reproductive output, and low maximum population growth rates, suggesting they have low productivity. Devil ray maximum intrinsic population growth ratermaxis very similar to that of manta rays, indicating devil rays can potentially be driven to local extinction at low levels of fishing mortality. We show that fishing rates of a small-scale artisanal Mexican fishery were up to three times greater than the natural mortality rate, and twice as high as our estimate ofrmax, and therefore unsustainable. Our approach can be applied to assess the limits of fishing and extinction risk of any species with indeterminate growth, even with sparse size-at-age data.

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Individual variability in the settlement of juvenile green turtles in the western South Atlantic Ocean: relevance of currents and somatic growth rate

Marine Ecology Progress Series ◽

10.3354/meps12909 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 614 ◽

pp. 173-182 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

P Campos ◽

L Cardona

Keyword(s):

Growth Rate ◽

Atlantic Ocean ◽

Somatic Growth ◽

Individual Variability ◽

South Atlantic ◽

South Atlantic Ocean ◽

Somatic Growth Rate ◽

Green Turtles

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Bayesian Assessment of Northeast Atlantic Spurdog Using a Stock Production Model, with Prior for Intrinsic Population Growth Rate Set by Demographic Methods

Journal of Northwest Atlantic Fishery Science ◽

10.2960/j.v35.m486 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 35 ◽

pp. 299-308 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

T R Hammond ◽

J R Ellis

Keyword(s):

Growth Rate ◽

Population Growth ◽

Population Growth Rate ◽

Production Model ◽

Northeast Atlantic ◽

Demographic Methods

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Faculty Opinions recommendation of Characterizing demographic variation and contributions to population growth rate in a declining population.

Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ◽

10.3410/f.10399957.11223055 ◽

2011 ◽

Author(s):

Nigel Yoccoz

Keyword(s):

Growth Rate ◽

Population Growth ◽

Population Growth Rate ◽

Demographic Variation

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Population, Growth Rate, and Maturity of Vegetable Crops in Relation to Soil Salinity and Texture Under Sprinkler and Furrow Irrigation

Agronomy Journal ◽

10.2134/agronj1967.00021962005900020017x ◽

1967 ◽

Vol 59 (2) ◽

pp. 178-181 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Frank E. Robinson ◽

Orval D. McCoy

Keyword(s):

Growth Rate ◽

Population Growth ◽

Soil Salinity ◽

Population Growth Rate ◽

Furrow Irrigation ◽

Vegetable Crops

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Biological scaling in green algae: the role of cell size and geometry

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-93816-2 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Helena Bestová ◽

Jules Segrestin ◽

Klaus von Schwartzenberg ◽

Pavel Škaloud ◽

Thomas Lenormand ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Growth Rate ◽

Population Growth ◽

Population Growth Rate ◽

Internal Diffusion ◽

Scaling Exponent ◽

Power Scaling ◽

Nutrient Distribution ◽

Metabolic Scaling ◽

Key Factor ◽

Size And Morphology

AbstractThe Metabolic Scaling Theory (MST), hypothesizes limitations of resource-transport networks in organisms and predicts their optimization into fractal-like structures. As a result, the relationship between population growth rate and body size should follow a cross-species universal quarter-power scaling. However, the universality of metabolic scaling has been challenged, particularly across transitions from bacteria to protists to multicellulars. The population growth rate of unicellulars should be constrained by external diffusion, ruling nutrient uptake, and internal diffusion, operating nutrient distribution. Both constraints intensify with increasing size possibly leading to shifting in the scaling exponent. We focused on unicellular algae Micrasterias. Large size and fractal-like morphology make this species a transitional group between unicellular and multicellular organisms in the evolution of allometry. We tested MST predictions using measurements of growth rate, size, and morphology-related traits. We showed that growth scaling of Micrasterias follows MST predictions, reflecting constraints by internal diffusion transport. Cell fractality and density decrease led to a proportional increase in surface area with body mass relaxing external constraints. Complex allometric optimization enables to maintain quarter-power scaling of population growth rate even with a large unicellular plan. Overall, our findings support fractality as a key factor in the evolution of biological scaling.

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