Early life stages of plaice Pleuronectes platessa in cold-water nurseries
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1
Centre for Functional Ecology - CFE, Department of Life Sciences, Portugal
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2
NIOZ - Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Netherlands
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3
CIIMAR – Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, Portugal
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4
FCUP – Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Portugal
Plaice Pleuronectes platessa (Linnaeus, 1758) is one of the most important commercial flatfish in the European continent, whose captures have reduced considerably in recent decades due to the high pressure of fisheries. Despite the wide distribution of this species, most studies have focused on the North Sea, its central area of occurrence, and very little information is available concerning the populations living at the northern limit of its distribution. Age determination is essential to study population dynamics of commercially important species such as plaice, and can be inferred through otolith microstructure analysis. The aim of this work was to investigate the timing of early life events (spawning, larval, metamorphosis and settlement stage duration) and growth of juvenile plaice in two cold-water nursery areas in northern Norway (Valosen estuary and Storfjord). A latitudinal cline was observed in the main life-history events, such as spawning, and the onset of larval and metamorphosis stages. Settlement to benthic habitats (which coincides with metamorphosis) was estimated to have occurred between mid-May and early-September (peak from the end May and mid July) in the Valosen, and between the end of May and early July (peak in June) in the Storfjord. In the Storfjord area, larval and metamorphosis stage duration seemed to be shorter, probably due to a reduced window of opportunity for growth and survival at the northernmost extremes. Size at settlement was negatively related with hatch day, implying that the older larvae were larger at settlement, a consequence of higher fecundity of females earlier in the spawning season. A significant relationship between size at settlement and total length reinforced this evidence. The results demonstrate the influence of latitude in the early life stages of plaice, mainly by the regulatory effect of temperature in the growth and survival of larvae and juveniles.
Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, through the following grants, with funds from the European Social Fund and the Portuguese Operational Human Potential Program (POPH):
F Martinho - Investigador FCT programme IF/01410/2012
V Freitas - Post doc grant SFRH/BPD/75858/2011
J Campos - Post doc grant SFRH/BPD/71205/2010
Keywords:
latitudinal gradient,
Plaice,
otolith microstructure,
Nursery grounds,
Norway
Conference:
XV European Congress of Ichthyology, Porto, Portugal, 7 Sep - 11 Sep, 2015.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation
Topic:
Otoliths as a tool to study fish life cycles
Citation:
Martinho
F,
Freitas
V,
Santos
PT,
Bremm
C,
Campos
J and
Van Der Veer
HW
(2015). Early life stages of plaice Pleuronectes platessa in cold-water nurseries.
Front. Mar. Sci.
Conference Abstract:
XV European Congress of Ichthyology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fmars.2015.03.00090
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Received:
18 Nov 2015;
Published Online:
19 Nov 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Filipe Martinho, Centre for Functional Ecology - CFE, Department of Life Sciences, Coimbra, 3000-456, Portugal, fmartinho@gmail.com