Survival against the odds: ontogenetic changes in selective pressure mediate growth-mortality trade-offs in a marine fish.

ABSTRACT: For organisms with complex life cycles, variation among individuals in traits associated with survival in one life-history stage can strongly affect the performance in subsequent stages with important repercussions on population dynamics. To identify which individual attributes are the most influential in determining patterns of survival in a cohort of reef fish, we compared the characteristics of Pomacentrus amboinensis surviving early juvenile stages on the reef with those of the cohort from which they originated. Individuals were collected at hatching, the end of the planktonic phase, and two, three, four, six and eight weeks post-settlement. Information stored in the otoliths of individual fish revealed strong carry-over effects of larval condition at hatching on juvenile survival, wee

SUBMITTER: Gagliano M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2169277 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature