Early life stages of plaice Pleuronectes platessa in cold-water nurseries

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Early life stages of plaice Pleuronectes platessa in cold-water nurseries Filipe Martinho1*, Vânia Freitas2, 3, Paulo T. Santos4, Camila Bremm4, Joana Campos2, 3 and Henk W. Van Der Veer2 1 Centre for Functional Ecology - CFE, Department of Life Sciences, Portugal 2 NIOZ - Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Netherlands 3 CIIMAR – Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, Portugal 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 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. 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 Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Filipe Martinho Vânia Freitas Paulo T Santos Camila Bremm Joana Campos Henk W Van Der Veer Google Filipe Martinho Vânia Freitas Paulo T Santos Camila Bremm Joana Campos Henk W Van Der Veer Google Scholar Filipe Martinho Vânia Freitas Paulo T Santos Camila Bremm Joana Campos Henk W Van Der Veer PubMed Filipe Martinho Vânia Freitas Paulo T Santos Camila Bremm Joana Campos Henk W Van Der Veer Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.