Dynamics of shallow-water juvenile flatfish nursery grounds: application of the self-thinning rule

Nash, Richard D.M.; Geffen, Audrey J.; Burrows, Michael T.; Gibson, R. N.

doi:10.3354/meps06933

Cited by 39 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…m −2 corrected for catchability). These values are within the range of previous estimates reported from this site (Burrows et al 2001, Nash et al 2007). For means computed from n multiple transects, precision improves as (√ ⎯n) -1 .…”

Section: Taqman Results From Fishsupporting

confidence: 80%

Molecular detection of plaice remains in the stomachs of potential predators on a flatfish nursery ground

Albaina¹,

Taylor²,

Fox³

2012

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Stomach contents of potential predators from a flatfish nursery ground on the Scottish west coast were examined visually and probed using a TaqMan real-time PCR based assay designed to detect plaice Pleuronectes platessa DNA. Stomachs from 1137 brown shrimp Crangon crangon, along with a lesser number of shore crab Carcinus maenas, grey gurnard Eutrigla gurnardus and Gobiidae were analysed. Overall 45% of shrimp tested positive for plaice DNA, a proportion considerably higher than in stomachs containing visually identifiable flatfish remains. When scaled to the population level, predation by shrimp generated an estimated mortality of 9% d . The discrepancy between mortality estimates based on molecular and catch-curve analysis might be due to sampling being conducted at low water between dusk and dawn, which would concentrate predators and prey at times coincident with peaks of shrimp feeding. In addition, the sensitivity of the TaqMan assay could have led to some over-estimation because non-fatal interactions may also have been detected, e.g. shrimp are known to nibble the fins of flatfish, that might result in a positive TaqMan result but not necessarily in mortality for the fish. The percentage of shrimp testing positive for presence of plaice DNA in their stomachs was also related to plaice density in a positive, linear manner. For less abundant predators, stomachs of 6% of shore crabs, 40% of gurnards and 11% of large gobies also tested positive.

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Section: Taqman Results From Fishsupporting

confidence: 80%

Molecular detection of plaice remains in the stomachs of potential predators on a flatfish nursery ground

Albaina¹,

Taylor²,

Fox³

2012

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…Available resources can be affected by exploitative competition between individuals, either of the same or different species. Studies with plaice point to a lack of intraspecific competition for food (Van der Veer et al 2010) and for Irish Sea populations, it is even suggested that the carrying capacity of nursery grounds for plaice is rarely approached (Nash et al 2007). However, interactions within the benthicfeeder assemblage (other fish and invertebrates) can modify the carrying capacity and trajectories for individual species (Gibson 1994, Nash et al 2007).…”

Section: Habitat Quality Of Flatfish Nursery Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies with plaice point to a lack of intraspecific competition for food (Van der Veer et al 2010) and for Irish Sea populations, it is even suggested that the carrying capacity of nursery grounds for plaice is rarely approached (Nash et al 2007). However, interactions within the benthicfeeder assemblage (other fish and invertebrates) can modify the carrying capacity and trajectories for individual species (Gibson 1994, Nash et al 2007). An analysis similar to the one applied in this study has suggested that in sand gobies Pomatoschistus minutus occurring sympatrically with juvenile flatfish during summer, growth is close to the maximum possible across their distribution range (Freitas et al 2011), suggesting a competitive advantage.…”

Section: Habitat Quality Of Flatfish Nursery Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These estimates are known to be influenced by migration, gear efficiency and sizeselective mortality. Although ideally one could avoid some bias associated with migrations by considering only the period once settlement is completed and before the autumn migrations to deeper waters start, this time window is probably nursery-ground-dependent (Nash et al 2007), making the comparison between areas more complicated. Therefore, a more general criterion for data selection had to be used.…”

Section: Habitat Quality Of Flatfish Nursery Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Latitudinal trends in habitat quality of shallow‑water flatfish nurseries

Freitas¹,

Kooijman²,

Veer³

2012

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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The habitat quality of European shallow-water nurseries was studied for 3 common flatfish species based on juvenile growth conditions. Field growth of 0-group plaice Pleuronectes platessa, flounder Platichthys flesus and sole Solea solea, from both published and unpublished studies, was compared with maximum growth predicted by a bioenergetics model based on the dynamic energy budget theory. In plaice and flounder, realized growth ratio decreased consistently during the growing season in most of the nurseries analyzed, indicating a widespread pattern of declining conditions. In sole, growth performance was not maximal, but as opposed to the other species, no clear temporal trend in realized growth ratio was observed. A latitudinal comparison of realized growth ratio over the various nurseries indicated clear positive trends for plaice and flounder, with better growth conditions at northern latitudes. In sole, despite some variability, the same trend was found during part of the summer. In the absence of clear gradients in benthic prey biomass, we hypothesize that increased food limitation in southern locations is most likely caused by interspecific competition reducing maximum individual intake rates. These results suggest that, in the context of global warming, habitat quality of southern European nurseries for juvenile growth may be particularly affected by the combined interaction of food and thermal constraints.

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“…These quantities are closely related to physiological mortality rate (Beyer 1989) [m µ j (m)]/g j (m), the importance of which has been recognized by theorists (Cushing 1975;Werner and Gilliam 1984;Beyer 1989;) and empiricists (Houde 1987;Houde and Zastrow 1993;Bohlin et al 1994;Houde 1997;Nash et al 2007;Nash and Geffen 2012) alike.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stock–recruitment relations controlled by feeding interactions alone

Rossberg

Houle²,

Hyder

2013

Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci.

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IntroductionEmpirical stock recruitment (S-R) relationships exhibit clear evidence of density dependence. Since the early works of Ricker (1954), Schaefer (1954), Beverton and Holt (1957) and others, characterizing and interpreting these relationships, much progress has been made in linking this density-dependence to ecological mechanisms. Reviewing our current understanding, Houde ( , 2009) stresses the distinction between a variety of oceanographic, climatic, and ecological mechanisms controlling recruitment and manifestly density-dependent mechanisms contributing to population regulation. While all controlling mechanisms combine to generate the observed large variability in recruitment even at constant spawning-stock biomass (SSB), only regulating mechanisms can explain the observed non-linear dependence of recruitment R on SSB. Among possible regulating mechanisms that have been considered are competition for refuge or territory, diseases or parasitism at various life stages, larval competition for oxygen, and densitydependent trophic (feeding) interactions, i.e., food intake and predation mortality, with cannibalism as a special case (Houde 2009).The goal of the present study is to test the plausibility of the hypothesis that S-R relationships are primarily shaped by the density dependencies of trophic interactions. In addition to its relevance for the interpretation of S-R data, this hypothesis also has a bearing on questions such as to what extent trophic interactions are relevant for management models or what the mechanisms are that determine the carrying capacity of individual stocks and entire communities (Batchelder and Kim 2008). Management aiming at maximum sustainable yield (MSY), in turn, hinges on a good understanding of density dependencies and carrying capacity. This is clear already from the textbook analysis of MSY for the logistic model (Conroy and Carroll 2009), where the optimal population biomass comes out as exactly half the carrying capacity.Our approach to this set of interrelated problems is to construct a species-rich fish-community model in which trophic interactions are the only source of density dependence, and to study in detail the resulting S-R relationships, relating them to observations. The model we study is a variant of the Fish Community Size Resolved Model (FCSRM) (Hartvig et al. 2011;Andersen and Pedersen 2010;Houle et al. 2012), developed based on theory by . In this model, individual fish interact exclusively through predator-prey relationships. Just as in the original model formulation by Hartvig et al. (2011), individual reproductive output is a linear function of food intake (with negative intercept), that is, S-R relationships are not a priori built into the model. Density dependencies in the model arise only from the dependence of growth and fecundity on food availability and the dependence of mortality on the abundance of predators. Individuals are characterized by their momentary body mass and their species identity, with the latter determining prey, predators a...

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Dynamics of shallow-water juvenile flatfish nursery grounds: application of the self-thinning rule

Cited by 39 publications

References 43 publications

Molecular detection of plaice remains in the stomachs of potential predators on a flatfish nursery ground

Molecular detection of plaice remains in the stomachs of potential predators on a flatfish nursery ground

Latitudinal trends in habitat quality of shallow‑water flatfish nurseries

Stock–recruitment relations controlled by feeding interactions alone

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