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A phenotypic trade-off between previous growth and present fecundity in round sardinella Sardinella aurita

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Population Ecology

Abstract

The decision of how to allocate surplus energy to reproduction and growth can have important effects on fish population dynamics as well as on other life history traits. The natural examples on the interrelationship between maternal growth and number of offspring produced in fishes are scarce. We tested the hypothesis that these traits are competing for resources by estimating maternal previous growth decisions, using back-calculation, and present reproduction, expressed as absolute fecundity, of female round sardinella (Sardinella aurita) in the northeastern Mediterranean Sea. Despite the overall increasing trend of fecundity with age, individual fecundity was negatively related to individual specific growth rate between the most recent annulus formation and spawning within ages. A decreasing trend between previous growth rate and present fecundity emerged, showing that round sardinella allocate increasingly less energy to growth with age and more into reproduction and that the previous growth decisions determine present fecundity.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Daniel Pauly for his critical comments and suggestions on an earlier version of the manuscript and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful and constructive suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, UP Box 134, 541 24, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Athanassios C. Tsikliras, Efthimia Antonopoulou & Konstantinos I. Stergiou

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  1. Athanassios C. Tsikliras
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  2. Efthimia Antonopoulou
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  3. Konstantinos I. Stergiou
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Correspondence to Athanassios C. Tsikliras.

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Tsikliras, A.C., Antonopoulou, E. & Stergiou, K.I. A phenotypic trade-off between previous growth and present fecundity in round sardinella Sardinella aurita . Popul Ecol 49, 221–227 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10144-007-0038-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10144-007-0038-4

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