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Size-based foraging success and vulnerability to predation: selection of survivors in individual-based models of larval fish populations

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Early Life History and Recruitment in Fish Populations

Part of the book series: Chapman & Hall Fish and Fisheries Series ((FIFI,volume 21))

Abstract

Because small changes in larval fish cohort-specific growth and mortality rates can generate order-of-magnitude or greater differences in annual recruitments (Shepherd and Cushing, 1980; Houde, 1987, 1989; Davis et al., 1991), it has been surmised that increased larval size improves an individual’s probability of survival. It is reasoned that increased larval size should improve foraging ability, further resulting in increased growth rate, shorter stage duration, and/or reduced vulnerability to predation. This supposition implies that large individuals are more likely to survive to metamorphosis (Peterson and Wroblewski, 1984; McGurk, 1986; Anderson, 1988; Miller et al., 1988; Beyer, 1989; Pepin, 1989a,b, 1991; Cowan and Houde, 1992; Rice et al., 1993a,b). However, the cumulative effects of individual, size-based interactions between foraging success and predation vulnerability have seldom been evaluated at the population (cohort) level.

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Cowan, J.H., Rose, K.A., Houde, E.D. (1997). Size-based foraging success and vulnerability to predation: selection of survivors in individual-based models of larval fish populations. In: Chambers, R.C., Trippel, E.A. (eds) Early Life History and Recruitment in Fish Populations. Chapman & Hall Fish and Fisheries Series, vol 21. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1439-1_13

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