State-dependent Energy Allocation in Cod (Gadus Morhua)

Growth and maturation are processes that are tuned to the external environment an individual is likely to experience, where food availability, the mortality regime, and events necessary to complete the life cycle are of special importance. Understanding what influences life history strategies and how changes in life history in turn influence population dynamics and ecological interactions are crucial to our understanding of marine ecology and contemporary anthropogenic induced change. We present a state-dependent model that optimises life-long energy allocation in iteroparous fish. Energy can be allocated to growth or reproduction, and depends in the individuals age, body length, stored energy, and the state of the environment. Allocation and the physiological processes of growth, storing energy, and reproduction are modelled mechanistically. The model is parameterised for Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua); more specifically for the Northeast Arctic cod stock. Growth and maturation predicted by the model fit well with field observations, and based on a further investigation of cod reproduction in the model we conclude that the model has the ability to recapture complex life history phenomena, e.g. indeterminate growth and skipped spawning, and therefore provides an important tool that can improve our understanding of life history strategies in fish

The effect of different short pulse feeding regimes on growth and survival of Atlantic bonito larvae Sarda sarda

One of the most easily manipulated variables in fish larval culture is the photoperiod. Long light photoperiod regimes are commonly used to enhance growth in commercial species. However, for species with a piscivorous larval period, as the Atlantic bonito (Sarda sarda), long time exposure to light could lead to a lower survival through aggressive behavior and cannibalism. One alternative could be modifications of the light and dark cycles during the photophase. These modifications can result in short pulse feeding regimes since bonito larvae fill up their stomach completely during light hours but do not feed in darkness. Little is known about how such intermittent feeding regimes affect growth and survival in fish. In this study, we tried different alternating and continuous light regimes during the culture of bonito larvae to identify the best regime that maximizes growth and survival.Fertilized eggs of Atlantic bonito were obtained from different spontaneous spawning events by a captive broodstock at the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) in Mazarrón. Bonito larvae 8 days post hatch (dph) were reared in 150 l tanks equipped with a lid that was used to cover and uncover the tanks to manipulate the hours of light and therefore pulse feeding regimes. Bonito larvae were always fed with yolk sac seabream larvae ad libitum. A total of three experiments were conducted. In all, a continuous dark period of 7.5hours was maintained from 24:00 to 7:30. All light regimes had a total of 9 light hours except for one that had 15hours of light (15L:9D). In the first experiment, light regimes provided alternating light and dark conditions of either 1.5, 3 or 4.5hours from 7:30 to 24:00). In the second experiment, the 3hours alternating light regime was compared to two continuous regimes of 15hours of light (15L:9D) and 9hours of light (9L:15D). These two experiments were conducted at the same temperature, 24.7±0.4°C. The third experiment was identical to the second experiment but at colder temperatures, 21.4±0.45°C. All regimes had 3 replicates. 10 larvae were sub-sampled 3 days after the experiments began and were ended after 6 days when all larvae were sampled. Due to slower growth, the third experiment ended after 9 days. The larvae were measured in standard length and individual dry weights were calculated. Larvae were counted in the tanks every 3 days to estimate survivorship. Final larval sizes in the alternating light regimes were larger in the 3hours than those obtained in the 1.5 and 4.5hours (first experiment, Fig. 1a, Tukey test p0.01). The 3hours alternating light regime yielded the largest larval sizes at the end of the experiment compared to the other alternating regimes. Final sizes at the 3hours regime were larger than those obtained under the 9L:15D continuous light regime at both temperatures. The time to satiation and the elapsed time to evacuate food totally from the gut in a similar species is about 3-4hours (Young and Davis, 1990). Our results suggest that a better strategy for bonito larvae growth is to fill their stomach more than once per day followed by a resting period when food is being digested. However, no effect was observed in terms of survival, possibly due to high abundance of larval prey. Changes in the light regime that result in pulse feeding can be a good strategy to increase growth in larval cultures when fitting well the evacuation and satiation rates

Trade-offs between risk of predation and starvation in larvae make the shelf break an optimal spawning location for Atlantic Bluefin tuna

Atlantic bluefin tuna (ABT) (Thunnus thynnus) travel long distances to spawn in oligotrophic regions of the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) which suggests these regions offer some unique benefit to offspring survival. To better understand how larval survival varies within the GoM a spatially explicit, Lagrangian, individual-based model was developed that simulates dispersal and mortality of ABT early life stages within realistic predator and prey fields during the spawning periods from 1993 to 2012. The model estimates that starvation is the largest cumulative source of mortality associated with an early critical period. However, elevated predation on older larvae is identified as the main factor limiting survival to late postflexion. As a result, first-feeding larvae have higher survival on the shelf where food is abundant, whereas older larvae have higher survival in the open ocean with fewer predators, making the shelf break an optimal spawning area. The modeling framework developed in this study explicitly simulates both physical and biological factors that impact larval survival and hence could be used to support ecosystem based management efforts for ABT under current and future climate conditions.Postprin

Larval Transport Modeling of Deep-Sea Invertebrates Can Aid the Search for Undiscovered Populations

Background: Many deep-sea benthic animals occur in patchy distributions separated by thousands of kilometres, yet because deep-sea habitats are remote, little is known about their larval dispersal. Our novel method simulates dispersal by combining data from the Argo array of autonomous oceanographic probes, deep-sea ecological surveys, and comparative invertebrate physiology. The predicted particle tracks allow quantitative, testable predictions about the dispersal of benthic invertebrate larvae in the south-west Pacific. Principal Findings: In a test case presented here, using non-feeding, non-swimming (lecithotrophic trochophore) larvae of polyplacophoran molluscs (chitons), we show that the likely dispersal pathways in a single generation are significantly shorter than the distances between the three known population centres in our study region. The large-scale density of chiton populations throughout our study region is potentially much greater than present survey data suggest, with intermediate 'stepping stone' populations yet to be discovered. Conclusions/Significance: We present a new method that is broadly applicable to studies of the dispersal of deep-sea organisms. This test case demonstrates the power and potential applications of our new method, in generating quantitative, testable hypotheses at multiple levels to solve the mismatch between observed and expected distributions: probabilistic predictions of locations of intermediate populations, potential alternative dispersal mechanisms, and expected population genetic structure. The global Argo data have never previously been used to address benthic biology, and our method can be applied to any non-swimming larvae of the deep-sea, giving information upon dispersal corridors and population densities in habitats that remain intrinsically difficult to assess.Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and TechnologyScience Foundation Irelan

Evaluation of harvest control rules: Simple one-parameter vs. complex multi-parameter strategies

Harvest control rules (HCR) are sets of well-defined rules that can be used for determining annual fish catch quotas. If a management policy can be expressed as a HCR, then the HCR provides means to determine the total allowable catch unambiguously. In order to improve certain aspects of the performance for these rules, rules of increasing complexity have been suggested for fish stocks both in Europe and in North America. But is this complexity necessarily better? Are simple strategies outdated? Traditional harvesting strategies (i.e. constant harvest rate, fixed quota and constant escapement strategies) are simple HCRs with only one control parameter (i.e. target harvest rate, catch and escapement, respectively). Complex harvest control strategies are here defined as a multi-parameter HCR. In this study, three criteria (average catch and its coefficient of variability and risk of population abundance below a minimum acceptable level) are used to judge the performance of traditional and complex HCRs, utilizing a set of stochastic age-structured population models that mimic dynamics of fish populations. The traditional and complex HCRs are then evaluated against each other, paying particular attention to the trade-offs among the performance criteria

Do accurate stock estimates increase harvest and reduce variability in fisheries yields?

Fisheries managers normally make decisions based on stock abundance estimates subject to process, observation, and model uncertainties. Considerable effort is invested in gathering information about stock size to decrease these uncertainties. However, few studies have evaluated benefits from collecting such information in terms of yield and stability of annual harvest. Here, we develop a strategic age-structured population model for a long-lived fish with stochastic recruitment, resembling the Norwegian spring-spawning herring (NSSH, Clupea harengus L.). We evaluate how uncertainties in population estimates influence annual yield, spawning stock biomass (SSB), and variation in annual harvest, using both the proportional threshold harvesting (PTH) and the current harvest control rule for NSSH as harvest strategies. Results show that the consequences of a biased estimate are sensitive to the harvest strategy employed. If the harvest strategy is suitably chosen, the benefits of accurate information are low, and less information about the stock is necessary to maintain high average yield. Reduced harvest intensity effectively removes the need for accurate stock estimates. PTH (a variant of the constant escapement strategy) with low harvest ratio and the current NSSH harvest control rule both provide remarkable stability in yield and SSB. However, decreased uncertainty will often decrease year-to-year variation in harvest and the frequency of fishing moratoria

The logic of skipped spawning in fish

That sexually mature fish skip reproduction, especially in response to poor condition, has been documented in many species. We present results from an energy-allocation life history model that shed light on the underlying logic of skipped spawning, based on the Northeast Arctic stock of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua). The model predicts that skipped spawning is a regular phenomenon, with up to 30% of the sexually mature biomass skipping spawning. Spawning should be skipped if the expected future gain in reproductive output, discounted by survival, more than balances the expected reproductive success the current year. Skipped spawning was most common (i) among potential second-time spawners and (ii) early in life, (iii) when fishing mortality at the spawning grounds was high, (iv) when fishing mortality at the feeding grounds was low, (v) when natural mortality was low, and (vi) when the energetic and mortality costs associated with migration and spawning were high. Cod skipped spawning more often when food availability was both increased (opportunities for better growth) and decreased (too little energy for gonad development), and this pattern interacted with mortality rate. We conclude that skipped spawning may be more widespread than appreciated and highlight potential consequences for the understanding of stock-recruitment relationships

Data from: The emotion system promotes diversity and evolvability

Studies on the relationship between the optimal phenotype and its environment have had limited focus on genotype-to-phenotype pathways and their evolutionary consequences. Here, we study how multi-layered trait architecture and its associated constraints prescribe diversity. Using an idealized model of the emotion system in fish, we find that trait architecture yields genetic and phenotypic diversity even in absence of frequency-dependent selection or environmental variation. That is, for a given environment, phenotype frequency distributions are predictable while gene pools are not. The conservation of phenotypic traits among these genetically different populations is due to the multi-layered trait architecture, in which one adaptation at a higher architectural level can be achieved by several different adaptations at a lower level. Our results emphasize the role of convergent evolution and the organismal level of selection. While trait architecture makes individuals more constrained than what has been assumed in optimization theory, the resulting populations are genetically more diverse and adaptable. The emotion system in animals may thus have evolved by natural selection because it simultaneously enhances three important functions, the behavioural robustness of individuals, the evolvability of gene pools and the rate of evolutionary innovation at several architectural levels