Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

SS42 American Fisheries Society/ASLO Joint Session: Scaling Fisheries From Egg to Adult and Back Again (Spatial and Temporal Connections)

Date: Wednesday, February 14, 2001, Time: 10:00:00 AM

Location: Sandia/Santa Ana

Miller, T, J, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory - University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Solomons, USA, miller@cbl.umces.edu

LINKING SMALL-SCALE TURBULENCE AND RECRUITMENT IN FISHES; EXTENDING SCALES OF INFERENCE

Early feeding and growth is believed to be critical to promoting recruitment in fishes. Since, Rothschild and Osborn first identified a role for small-scale turbulence in increasing encounter, our knowledge of the impacts of small-scale turbulence has increased substantially. The relationship between small-scale turbulence and feeding has been explored theoretically and experimentally. However, few attempts have been made to address subsequent stages in the sequence from encounter to growth and survival. Here I report on experiments and models that quantify the impact of small-scale turbulence on growth of Atlantic silverside and fathead minnow larvae. Larvae were raised under a range of turbulent regimes. Their growth and condition was quantified using RNA/DNA ratios. The relationship between small-scale turbulence and growth was nonlinear. A bioenergetics model suggested that the nonlinearities in the relationship could be explained by increase costs of foraging in a turbulent environment.

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Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

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