Ambarish.P.Gop.

FRM 221
CIFE
 The numbers in an animal population are regulated by
the availability of food.

 The production cycle is the source of all food in the sea

 The life cycles of fishes adapted to the production cycle.

(breeding also)

 Food for the larval fish is very important

 Fish appear to spawn to gain most from the food

available in the production cycle.
 Different forms of production cycles-temperate, high
latitude, upwelling areas & tropical open ocean

 Production in the sea depends on photosynthesis of the

planktonic algae

 Nutrients enter the ocean when they are washed off the
land by rain runoff

 Upwelling is the most effective means of bringing up

nutrients to the surface
 Deeper water has more nutrients than surface
water(availability of sun light)

 Unlike at the surface, nutrients are not being “used up,”

so they slowly build up in deeper water over time.

 Nutrients are not “food” or “eaten” by phytoplankton.

 nutrient molecules drift into their bodies through the

holes in their shells or cell walls

 The bacteria decompose, decaying material into nutrients

like phosphates and nitrates, making them available to
phytoplankton
 Phytoplanktons are tiny algae, plant-like
organisms that use sunlight as an energy
source to make their own food in a process
called photosynthesis

 Most phytoplankton live, in the sunlight

waters near the surface of the ocean

 They also need small amounts of nutrients,

needed to carry out photosynthesis, but are
not used up in the process
 phytoplankton removes carbon dioxide from
ocean water to carry out photosynthesis and
make their shells (e.g., calcium carbonate

 phytoplankton are very abundant near the

coasts...

 In the case of phytoplankton, blooms

typically occur when the amount of sunlight
and/or nutrients increases
 A key relationship in a dynamic evolution of fish
population is that between stock of adult fish and
recruitment of new adults to that stock

 substantial part of the food of the larvae takes the form

of zooplankton.

 Briefly the stock-recruitment relationship depends on

the amount of food available for larvae

 This relationship is typically found to be bell shaped

 C(Adult stock)

A larval drift B(nursery

ground)
(spawning ground)
 The nursery ground is often inshore (nutrient
availability and hence the zooplankton availability.

 The larval drift is most important period in the life

history of the fish stock.
 Critical period

 The migration of eggs and larvae from spawning ground

to nursery ground is the larval drift

 During the period of larval drift the competition

between species may be most intense

 During this period, when the opportunity for

competition is greatest, the density of fish is greatest,
so density dependent mortality should then be maximal.
 Zooplankton are initially the sole prey item for
almost all fish larvae as they use up their yolk sacs
and switch to external feeding for nutrition(critical
period)

 the starvation at a critical period, perhaps the onset

of exogenous feeding, is a strong determinant of
later year class strength

 Fish species rely on the density and distribution of

zooplankton to coincide with first-feeding larvae for
good survival of larvae, which can otherwise starve
 Natural factors (e.g. variations in oceanic
currents) and man-made factors (e.g. dams
on rivers) can strongly affect zooplankton
density and distribution and hence the fish
larval population
 Larval life generally begins as the fish hatches from
the egg and switches from internal, yolk reserves to
external, planktonic food sources.

 small food particles is ideal for fish larvae and the

larvae of most bony fishes feed on planktonic
crustaceans

 Starvation is one of the causes of the heavy

mortality of larval fishes so there are numerous
studies of larval feeding

 Because of the relationship between larval survival

and later population size, the cause and patterns of
larval mortality are of obvious practical interest.
 The main food of larvae is zooplankton or its
instars Cladocera are a prime food in fresh water
and copepods in the marine environment

 larval food consumption related to the actual

zooplankton population available as food in the
environment

 impact of larval feeding on zooplankton

populations reveal that the larvae can cause
their prey populations to collapse these tiny
predators are abundant.
 Recruitment is the number of new young fish that enter a
population in a given year.

 Is the central problem of fish population dynamics“ and

“the major problem in fisheries science“

 Fish produce huge volumes of larvae, but the volumes are

very variable and mortality is high.

 In most fishes, more than 99% of these larvae die in their

first year from the combined effects of starvation and
predation.

 This makes good predictions difficult.

 Thedisparity (about recruitment)
may be due to the lack of knowledge
about some aspects of food
behaviour, prey sampling and
environmental factors influencing
feeding and prey behaviour.
 marine planktonic food chain can be
classified in to three basic types

 The oceanic system type has five trophic

levels, with a low annual primary
production.

 The coastal type has three trophic levels .

 The upwelling type occurs in areas such as

Peru Current and the Antarctic, has only
two trophic levels.
 Nutrient cycle and predation on zooplankton
 It is generally conceded that larval mortality is high
and that a good portion of this mortality due either
directly or indirectly to starvation
 Under some circumstances, the larvae cannot find
enough food to sustain themselves.
 Nutrition at these early stages of development is
complicated by the shift from endogenous food to
exogenous food (plankton).
 Critical period and recruitment .