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Condition and growth of reef fish at settlement: Is it important?
Author(s) -
MCCORMICK MARK I.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
australian journal of ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1442-9993
pISSN - 0307-692X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1442-9993.1998.tb00729.x
Subject(s) - demersal zone , coral reef fish , fish <actinopterygii> , population , settlement (finance) , fishery , demersal fish , biology , population dynamics of fisheries , ecology , demography , computer science , sociology , world wide web , payment
The incorporation of information on the phenotypic attributes and performance offish into models of population dynamics may greatly enhance our ability to predict population change. To date, reef‐fish research has concentrated on numerical aspects of the recruitment process, with little attention to the quality of recruits. Information reviewed here suggests that the attributes of individual fish, be they related to fish size, performance or condition at the end of the larval phase, may markedly influence the dynamics of the demersal life stages. This review briefly explores the levels of variability in some aspects of fish condition at settlement, the mechanisms by which this variability is enhanced or affected by density‐dependent processes, and the ramifications of this phenotypic variability for the persistence of cohorts.