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Coral reef fish larvae: Patch size estimation and mixing in the plankton 1
Author(s) -
Victor Benjamin C.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 197
eISSN - 1939-5590
pISSN - 0024-3590
DOI - 10.4319/lo.1984.29.5.1116
Subject(s) - reef , otolith , coral reef fish , plankton , coral reef , biological dispersal , fishery , coral , oceanography , biology , larva , ichthyoplankton , environmental science , ecology , geology , fish <actinopterygii> , population , sociology , demography
The daily pattern of settlement of larvae of the bluehead wrasse, Thalassoma bifasciatum, onto a number of coral reefs was reconstructed with the daily otolith increment aging technique. Larvae settled simultaneously onto reefs within an area of about 1,000 km 2 . The planktonic patch size of bluehead wrasse larvae is inferred to be at least 46 km wide. Larvae settling onto a reef at the same time were not the same age, indicating that planktonic dispersal results in mixing of cohorts of larvae.