Age-based demography of the glacier lanternfish (Benthosema glaciale) in the Flemish Cap

2015 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 78 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. García-Seoane ◽  
M. Fabeiro ◽  
A. Silva ◽  
I. Meneses

It is important to understand the population dynamics of myctophids for a better understanding of the functioning of the ecosystem. In this work, age-based demography parameters of glacier lanternfish (Benthosema glaciale (Reinhardt, 1837)) were calculated. This study was based on 1213 individuals collected in the Flemish Cap during June–July 2008 and 2010. Ages were estimated from counts of annuli in the whole otolith. A strong relationship was found between both diameters of the otolith and fish length, and between otolith weight and increment number. Males predominated in 2008 (37.6% were females) whereas no differences from the expected sex ratio of 1:1 were observed in 2010. The somatic growth of B. glaciale is quite fast for the first three years and decreasing thereafter. The von Bertalanffy growth curves revealed interannual differences and no sexual dimorphism in growth. The instantaneous natural mortality coefficient, M, was 0.65 year–1 for the overall population. The maximum age recorded was 7. Our results were compared with age-based demographic parameters from previous studies in the Flemish Cap and in other regions. Because myctophids are considered opportunistic strategists, changes in their demographic features may reflect shifts in the ecosystem.

Author(s):  
Leo W. González ◽  
Nora Eslava ◽  
Carlos Silva

Age, growth and mortality of the red snapper, Lutjanus purpureus Poey, 1867, were estimated based on lecture of 152 urohials of 1561 individuals caught in the region of Guianas, located between 06° - 10° LN and 54° - 61° LW, in 1988, by means of a research survey of the B/l "Dr. Fridtjof Nansen". Seven age groups could be distinguished within the annual zones of the urohial. The theoretical growth curves was adjusted according to the values of the von Bertalanffy growth model parameters: L„ = 91.99 cm ; K = 0.245 per year; to = - 0.499 yr. The values of natural mortality M = 0.255, were obtained using the equation of Taylor; and total mortality Z = 0.703 per year, by aplication of the linearized catch curve method.


Author(s):  
Silvina Botta ◽  
Eduardo R. Secchi ◽  
Mônica M.C. Muelbert ◽  
Daniel Danilewicz ◽  
Maria Fernanda Negri ◽  
...  

Age and length data of 291 franciscana dolphins (Pontoporia blainvillei) incidentally captured on the coast of Rio Grande do Sul State (RS), southern Brazil, were used to fit growth curves using Gompertz and Von Bertalanffy growth models. A small sample of franciscanas (N = 35) from Buenos Aires Province (BA), Argentina, were used to see if there are apparent growth differences between the populations. Male and female franciscana samples from both areas were primarily (78–85%) <4 years of age. The Von Bertalanffy growth model with a data set that excluded animals <1 year of age provided the best fit to data. Based on this model, dolphins from the RS population reached asymptotic length at 136.0 cm and 158.4 cm, for males and females, respectively. No remarkable differences were observed in the growth trajectories of males and females between the RS and BA populations.


1995 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 657-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. J. Fletcher

Adult pilchard (Sardinops sagax neopilchardus) from southwestern Australia held in fish cages for 1 year showed minimal increase in mean length but a steady increase in mean otolith weight (1.61–1.83 mg); this increase (0.22 mg) closely parallels the previously calculated mean difference between adjacent age classes (0.24 mg). Modes in otolith weight frequency distributions of fishery-caught pilchards, previously suggested as corresponding with separate year classes, generally persisted and progressed through subsequent samples. By contrast, fish length frequency distributions of these samples showed no consistent modal progression. The average weight of otoliths for year classes 2–8 were used to calculate growth rates: following sexual maturity, at age 2, males grew to a significantly smaller maximum size than females (L∞ = 162 and 172 mm respectively). The otolith weight – age relationship, validated by following a cohort of unusually low abundance as it moved through the fishery, indicated that recruitment to the fishery generally began at age 2 but was not complete until age 4. These data have been successfully used in forecasting the catch rate of the fishery up to 2 years in advance and providing an estimate of the rate for natural mortality of 0.43.


2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (8) ◽  
pp. 1275-1294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia A. O’Leary ◽  
Timothy J. Miller ◽  
James T. Thorson ◽  
Janet A. Nye

Climate can impact fish population dynamics through changes in productivity and shifts in distribution, and both responses have been observed for many fish species. However, few studies have incorporated climate into population dynamics or stock assessment models. This study aimed to uncover how past variations in population vital rates and fishing pressure account for observed abundance variation in summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus). The influences of the Gulf Stream Index, an index of climate variability in the Northwest Atlantic, on abundance were explored through natural mortality and stock–recruitment relationships in age-structured hierarchical Bayesian models. Posterior predictive loss and deviance information criterion indicated that out of tested models, the best estimates of summer flounder abundances resulted from the climate-dependent natural mortality model that included log-quadratic responses to the Gulf Stream Index. This climate-linked population model demonstrates the role of climate responses in observed abundance patterns and emphasizes the complexities of environmental effects on populations beyond simple correlations. This approach highlights the importance of modeling the combined effect of fishing and climate simultaneously to understand population dynamics.


2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (12) ◽  
pp. 2199-2214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Li ◽  
Laura M. Lee ◽  
Jason Rock

Modeling population dynamics and establishing a comprehensive population assessment for fishery species that are difficult to age have been challenging. Determination of age for such species is still an unresolved issue or is at best uncertain. Catch-survey analysis does not require full age information but can still provide a comprehensive population assessment. It was extended to incorporate multiple surveys and multiple sources of uncertainties within the statistical catch-at-age framework in the applications to crustaceans. Here, we further generalize and extend the multiple survey catch-survey analysis into a hierarchical Bayesian two-stage model by applying the hierarchical Bayesian approach. The hierarchical Bayesian approach can sufficiently incorporate uncertainty and expert opinions in parameter estimation. We developed a series of models with different assumptions for natural mortality and catchability, including nonstationary (i.e., time-varying) assumptions. We evaluated model robustness to these assumptions and compared population dynamics estimates and population status determination. We demonstrated the application of the hierarchical Bayesian two-stage model using the North Carolina blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) example. In this example, estimation of population size and fishing mortality and determination of population status were robust to the natural mortality and catchability assumptions. The North Carolina blue crab population is less likely to have nonstationary catchability or nonstationary natural mortality. Its natural mortality is more likely to vary by stage than by sex or over time.


2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (11) ◽  
pp. 1940-1953 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christie M. Morrison ◽  
Mélodie Kunegel-Lion ◽  
Colin P. Gallagher ◽  
Rick J. Wastle ◽  
Ellen V. Lea ◽  
...  

We assessed the fish length – otolith length relationship (FL–OL) in Dolly Varden (Salvelinus malma malma) to verify proportional growth. A decoupling was detected during first ocean migration where fish growth was occurring at a greater rate than otolith growth. Because of this decoupling, the application of traditional back-calculation models overestimated the size-at-age in premigratory char. We developed modified back-calculation equations from existing traditional models to account for this decoupling based on discontinuous piecewise regressions. The new biological intercept breakpoint method (BI–BP) provided the most accurate representation of fish size-at-age throughout all life history stages when compared with known size-at-capture values in fish. The decoupling indicates that factors other than somatic growth are important for otolith accretion. Physiological changes during smoltification likely alter calcium uptake and thereby affect calcium deposition rates on otoliths during this short but biologically critical time period of life history. It is probable that species exhibiting similar complex ontogenetic shifts in life history will likely exhibit decoupling to some extent in the FL–OL relationship.


2019 ◽  
Vol 98 (9) ◽  
pp. 3587-3592 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manfred Kühleitner ◽  
Norbert Brunner ◽  
Werner-Georg Nowak ◽  
Katharina Renner-Martin ◽  
Klaus Scheicher

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