Abstract:The special issue brings together selected contributions from the 39th Annual Larval Fish Conference hosted by the University of Vienna, Austria, and presents the latest research and understanding of dispersal patterns and processes of early life stages of fishes of various aquatic environments around the world (open ocean, coastal areas, estuaries, and rivers). An important component of this compendium is to indicate new approaches and to outline the importance of integration of information about movements and dispersal for recruitment, population dynamics, species conservation, and management issues.Résumé : Le présent numéro spécial réunit des communications choisies présentées au 39 e congrès annuel sur les larves de poisson, qui s'est tenu à l'Université de Vienne (Autriche), et présente les plus récents travaux, et la compréhension qui en découle, sur les motifs et processus de dispersion des premiers stades de vie de poissons de différents milieux (haute mer, zones littorales, estuaires et rivières) aux quatre coins du monde. Un aspect important de ce recueil est qu'il décrit de nouvelles approches et souligne l'importance de l'intégration de l'information sur les déplacements et la dispersion pour l'étude du recrutement, de la dynamique des populations, de la conservation des espèces et des enjeux touchant à la gestion. [Traduit par la Rédaction]The special issue brings together selected contributions from the 39th Annual Larval Fish Conference hosted by the University of Vienna, Austria, and presents the latest research and understanding of dispersal patterns and processes of early life stages of fishes. The main aim was to identify and describe the abiotic (e.g., temperature, habitat, hydraulics, hydrodynamics) and biotic (e.g., growth, feeding, genetics, energetics, species specificity, species interactions, development, morphology, life history) factors that influence the capacity or outcome of larval fish dispersal patterns and processes. An important component of this compendium is to outline the consequences of these findings for recruitment, population dynamics, conservation, and management in different aquatic environments around the world.Overall, 15 contributions from 13 countries present information about changing morphometric relationships during early ontogeny and the consequences for dispersal, field observations of spatiotemporal dispersal patterns in rivers, estuaries, and oceans, extent of and connectivity with spawning grounds, patterns of settlement (recruitment) to reefs, behavior patterns of fish larvae in flow, and dispersal modelling ( Table 1). The largest number of the studies was conducted in freshwater environments, seven in rivers and one in a fluvial lake, followed by investigations in marine environments (five), and two that analyzed the spatiotemporal distribution of larvae in estuaries. Ten of the studies were conducted in the field; three studies report findings of in vitro experiments and cultured individuals, and two studies summarize published knowledge about...