Occurrence of two-year cyclicity, "saw-blade fluctuation", in vendace populations in Finland

The tendency towards two-year cyclicity is considered typical of many Fennoscandian vendace populations, especially in fluctuation of recruitment, based on time series of individual lakes. We used two robust indicators to identify and quantify two-year cycles in vendace population proxy time series at different life-stages - spawning stock biomass (SB), density of newly hatched larvae (LD) and recruitment (REC) - from 22 Finnish lakes. Then we applied Fisher's meta-analytical test to assess the adequacy of the evidence to support the hypothesis that vendace population dynamics include two-year cyclicity. The results supported this hypothesis for REC but not for SB or LD. Yet. the indicators and test are conservative and time-series of SB and LD are shorter than those for REC. The appearance of cycles in REC is associated with high post-recruitment mortality, consequently practically only one spawning per cohort. Cycles may be typical for the recovery period from low abundance period also. Still, some populations with moderate post-REC mortality and non-cyclic SB abundance exhibited cycles in REC. Such dynamics presuppose the existence of more complex regulation based on the interaction of different life stages

Ecological commonalities among pelagic fishes: comparison of freshwater ciscoes and marine herring and sprat

Systematic comparisons of the ecology between functionally similar fish species from freshwater and marine aquatic systems are surprisingly rare. Here, we discuss commonalities and differences in evolutionary history, population genetics, reproduction and life history, ecological interactions, behavioural ecology and physiological ecology of temperate and Arctic freshwater coregonids (vendace and ciscoes, Coregonus spp.) and marine clupeids (herring, Clupea harengus, and sprat, Sprattus sprattus). We further elucidate potential effects of climate warming on these groups of fish based on the ecological features of coregonids and clupeids documented in the previous parts of the review. These freshwater and marine fishes share a surprisingly high number of similarities. Both groups are relatively short-lived, pelagic planktivorous fishes. The genetic differentiation of local populations is weak and seems to be in part correlated to an astonishing variability of spawning times. The discrete thermal window of each species influences habitat use, diel vertical migrations and supposedly also life history variations. Complex life cycles and preference for cool or cold water make all species vulnerable to the effects of global warming. It is suggested that future research on the functional interdependence between spawning time, life history characteristics, thermal windows and genetic differentiation may profit from a systematic comparison of the patterns found in either coregonids or clupeids

Side-aspect target strength of Atlantic salmon (

The side-aspect acoustic target strengths (TS) of 19 Atlantic salmons (Salmo salar), 16 brown trouts (Salmo trutta), 10 whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) and 9 pikes (Esox lucius) were measured using a 200 kHz split-beam echosounder, in order to study the relationship between TS and fish size indices (length, weight and side area). The effect of side aspect angle on TS was also studied. Linear models between TS and the logarithm of the fish size indices were fitted with length being best for predicting TS. Typically, the standard error of estimate was 1.2–2.9 dB. The side-aspect TS measurements with specimens of known size showed that the linear relationship between full side-aspect TS and the logarithm of fish length for salmonid (Salmo salar + Salmo trutta) was on average 4.7 dB (SE = 0.7), lower than for whitefish and pike combined. The effect of side aspect angle on TS was modelled with cos3 (2α function. The differences in the TS between full side aspect and head/tail aspect were 17.4, 19.0 and 19.6 dB for salmonid, whitefish, and pike, respectively