Year-class strength and growth rate in young Atlantic cod Gadus morhua

Abstract

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 135:21-26 (1996) - doi:10.3354/meps135021 Year-class strength and growth rate in young Atlantic cod Gadus morhua Campana SE The paradigm relating early life history growth rate to survival rate and/or year-class strength has remained largely untested among marine fishes. Using Atlantic cod Gadus morhua on Georges Bank (NW Atlantic) as a test species, I reconstructed the larval and juvenile growth sequences of 5 successive year-classes of cod and related them to 2 independent indices of year-class strength. Larval and juvenile growth sequences reconstructed from the otolith microstructure of young-of-the-year juveniles differed significantly among year-classes. Temperature was a significant, but not necessarily a primary, source of the within-year and between-year variations in growth. Neither the larval growth sequence nor the hatch date distribution was correlated with year-class strength. However, otolith size at age and body size at age at the pelagic juvenile stage were both highly correlated with year-class strength. Differences in growth rates and associated exposure times to high larval mortality rates were sufficient to account for much of the 4-fold difference in adult abundance among the year-classes. Otolith . Daily growth increment . Year-class strength . Recruitment . Survival . Growth rate Full text in pdf format PreviousNextExport citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 135. Publication date: May 17, 1996 Print ISSN:0171-8630; Online ISSN:1616-1599 Copyright © 1996 Inter-Research.