Timing of Spawning of Atlantic Herring (Clupea harengus harengus) Populations and the Match–Mismatch Theory

Abstract

Each population of Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus harengus) has its own seasonally fixed spawning period of a few weeks duration, but the mean spawning times of different populations differ substantially. The extant theory explains the population-specific timing of spawning relative to the plankton production blooms in the inferred larval distributional area. Support of this theory is evaluated, and found lacking, in the light of a recent "stock" hypothesis involving larval retention. The new hypothesis involves two constraints. First, the larvae of a discrete herring population develop within, and are thus adapted to, the specific oceanographic conditions of their larval retention area. Second, metamorphosis from the larval to juvenile form occurs primarily within a restricted period of the year (April to October). Given these two constraints, it is hypothesized that the timing of spawning of a herring population is a function of the time necessary to complete the larval phase and yet metamorphose within the acceptable seasonal envelope. Populations that have "good" larval retention areas can spawn in the spring and still metamorphose within the seasonal envelope. Populations with larval retention areas that are less "good" for larval growth have to spawn earlier to satisfy the two constraints. The implications of the hypothesis on the "match–mismatch" theory are briefly discussed.