Larval production drives temporal patterns of larval supply and recruitment of a coral reef damselfish

Abstract

Examined the relative influence of planktonic processes and larval production on the larval supply and recruitment of Pomacentrus amboinensis at Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef. Temporal patterns of spawning, larval supply and recruitment were correlated when the spawning pattern was lagged by a period equivalent to the incubation time of eggs and the average planktonic life. This coupling occurred despite a change in the pattern of spawning between summers from occasional, large episodes to frequent, smaller pulses spread throughout the summer. Once regular cycles were removed from the data sets by integrated auto-regressive moving-average modelling, correlations between patterns declined or became non-significant. This suggests that reproduction has an important influence on the timing of recruitment, but that the magnitude of these events is largely determined within the plankton. -from Authors