Comparative variation in spawning output and juvenile recruitment of some Caribbean reef fishes

Abstract

It is generally accepted that the intensity of recruitment of pelagic young of temperate marine fishes is determined primarily by events that affect young as larvae, and that pelagic processes substantially increase variation in recruitment over the level expected from variation in spawning output alone. Spawning and recruitment of 6 species of Caribbean damselfishes were monitored monthly at a site in Panama for 1 to 3 yr (1983 to 1987) and 7 to 10 yr (1980 to 1989), respectively. Intermensual variation in recruitment strength exceeded corresponding variation in spawning output by average factors of at least 1.5 to 3.0 (and perhaps as much as 4 to 20) among those species. Serial changes in seasonally-adjusted monthly spawning output and 'resultant' recruitment strength were not correlated in any species. Thus, regardless of whether or not local populations are self-recruiting, pelagic processes evidently do largely control, and substantially enhance, short-term variabihty in recruitment strength in these fishes. Interannual variation in recruitment was low in all but one species. in which it also exceeded variation in spawning. Thus control of variation in recruitment strength by short-term pelagic processes had little or no net effect on interannual variation in recruitment in most cases. Interspecific differences in recruitment seasonal~ty and in levels of variation in mensual and annual recruitment strength (but not mensual and annual spawning output) ~ndicate that pelagic processes affect recruitment of some of these closely related species to different degrees and in different temporal patterns.