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Ontogeny, growth and the recruitment process

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Early Life History and Recruitment in Fish Populations

Part of the book series: Chapman & Hall Fish and Fisheries Series ((FIFI,volume 21))

Abstract

Every individual of a population is challenged daily by circumstances that demand certain levels of performance if the organism is to survive long enough to contribute to recruitment, no matter how recruitment is defined. The challenges faced by fish larvae are especially arduous and numerous because of their relatively small size, which limits their abilities to thwart predators, starvation, and transport to detrimental environs (Miller et al., 1988; Fuiman and Magurran, 1994). Performance — behavioural, physiological or otherwise — is the key to survival and, hence, recruitment. It can be measured for any of a multitude of processes that operate from the subcellular through whole-organism levels. Natural selection acts on the entire phenotype — morphology, physiology and behaviour — to shape the performance capacities of individuals. Detailed knowledge of these performance capacities and the magnitude of their variation is essential for a full understanding of the mechanisms that ultimately determine recruitment.

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Authors
  1. Lee A. Fuiman
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  2. Dennis M. Higgs
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Marine Fisheries Service Northeast Fisheries Science Center, James J. Howard Marine Sciences Laboratory, 74 Magruder Road, Highlands, New Jersey, 07732, USA

    R. Christopher Chambers

  2. St Andrews Biological Station, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, St Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada, E0G 2X0

    Edward A. Trippel

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© 1997 Chapman & Hall

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Fuiman, L.A., Higgs, D.M. (1997). Ontogeny, growth and the recruitment process. In: Chambers, R.C., Trippel, E.A. (eds) Early Life History and Recruitment in Fish Populations. Chapman & Hall Fish and Fisheries Series, vol 21. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1439-1_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1439-1_8

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