Episodic Fluctuations in Larval Supply
Paul A. Dixon,
1*
Maria
J. Milicich,
2
George Sugihara
1
The lack of a clear relationship between spawning output and
recruitment success continues to confound attempts to understand and
manage temporally variable fish populations. This relationship for a
common reef fish is shown to be obscured by nonlinear processes in
operation during the larval phase. Nonlinear responses of larval fish
to their noisy physical environment may offer a general explanation for
the erratic, often episodic, replenishment of open marine populations.
1 Scripps Institution of Oceanography,
University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
2 Griffith University, Nathan Brisbane, Australia.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
paul{at}complex.ucsd.edu
Present address: M2 Environmental Ltd., 3D
#24, Tung, Shan Terrace, Happy Valley, Hong Kong.