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High natural mortality of Baltic herring (Clupea harengus) eggs caused by algal exudates?

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Abstract

Results from field studies in 1978 and 1982 together with results from a laboratory study carried out in 1984 indicate that the unusually high natural mortality of Baltic herring (Clupea harengus L.) eggs observed in situ is presumably caused by toxic exudates released by filamentous brown algae during a limited period which happens to coincide with the peak of spawning. Oxygen deficiency is no longer believed to be the major cause of the observed unnaturally high mortality. It cannot, however, be entirely ruled out.

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Communicated by T. Fenchel, Aarhus

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Aneer, G. High natural mortality of Baltic herring (Clupea harengus) eggs caused by algal exudates?. Mar. Biol. 94, 163–169 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00392928

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