Contrasting patterns of larval mortality in two sympatric riverine fish species: a test of the critical period hypothesis.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the causal mechanisms that determine recruitment success is critical to the effective conservation of wild fish populations. Although recruitment strength is likely determined during early life when mortality is greatest, few studies have documented age-specific mortality rates for fish during this period. We investigated age-specific mortality of individual cohorts of two species of riverine fish from yolksac larvae to juveniles, assaying for the presence of a "critical period": A time when mortality is unusually high. Early life stages of carp gudgeons (Hypseleotris spp.) and unspecked hardyhead (Craterocephalus stercusmuscarum fulvus)-two fishes that differ in fecundity, egg size and overlap between endogenous and exogenous feeding-were collected every second day for four

SUBMITTER: McCasker N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4192135 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature