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Variability in the reproductive strategies of atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.)

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Abstract

Variability in the growth rates, food intake, different forms of metabolism and reproductive parameters of Atlantic cod populations has been analyzed on the basis of our data and the published data. A high variability in the age of maturation, the body mass of mature females and the fecundity of populations that differ in growth rates and food intake is shown. The following reproductive strategies of cod have been distinguished: (1) the strategy of coastal fiord populations when fish have the minimum body size and mass, low fecundity and a short life cycle at early maturity; (2) the strategy of cod populations in the ecological optimum zone, which is characterized by relatively early maturation (but 1–2 years later than the maturation of fiord populations) against a background of increasing protein content at a high water temperature and high food supply; (3) the strategy of the most numerous Arcto-Norwegian population of cod, which is characterized by the latest maturation, the maximum lifespan, high efficiency of growth and generative metabolism and high values of individual and population fecundity. The similarity in the range of spatial (in different parts of the range) and temporal (in different periods of the population existence) variability in the maturation rate of cod is determined by the norm of responses of the species under study.

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  1. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninskii pr. 33, Moscow, 119071, Russia

    M. I. Shatunovsky & G. I. Ruban

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  1. M. I. Shatunovsky
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  2. G. I. Ruban
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Original Russian Text © M.I. Shatunovsky, G.I. Ruban, 2013, published in Uspekhi Sovremennoi Biologii, 2013, Vol. 133, No. 4, pp. 367–377.

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Shatunovsky, M.I., Ruban, G.I. Variability in the reproductive strategies of atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.). Biol Bull Rev 4, 133–142 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079086414020066

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