Distribution, growth, and transport of larval fishes and implications for population dynamics

The early life stages of marine fishes play a critical role in population dynamics, largely due to their high abundance, high mortality, and ease of transport in ocean currents. This dissertation demonstrates the value of combining larval data, collected in the field and the laboratory, with model simulations. In Chapter 2, analyses of field observations of ontogenetic vertical distributions of coral reef fish revealed a diversity of behaviors both between and within families. In Caribbean-wide particle-tracking simulations of representative behaviors, surface-dwelling larvae were generally transported longer distances with greater population connectivity amongst habitat patches, while the evenly-distributed vertical behavior and downward ontogenetic vertical migration were similar to one another and led to greater retention near natal sites. However, hydrodynamics and habitat availability created some local patterns that contradicted the overall expectation.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Joint Program in Biological Oceanography.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Hernández, Christina M.,Ph. D.(Christina Maria)Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Joel Llopiz.

• Joint Program in Biological Oceanography.
• Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.
• Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/130901

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/130901