Abstract
Growth back-calculations from otoliths assume that the relationship between fish and otolith length is linear through time. The final (or observed) individual fish-otolith ratios are then combined to prepare a fish-otolith regression for the population, upon which the subsequent back-calculations are based. However, recent studies have demonstrated that the fish:otolith size ratio varies systematically with somatic growth rate, resulting in relatively large otoliths in slow-growing fish. Such a growth effect will result in a fitted fish-otolith regression which differs significantly from that of the mean of the individual fish-otolith slopes. Fraser–Lee growth back-calculations made from such a regression consistently underestimate previous lengths at age. The bias may explain the apparent ubiquity of Lee's phenomenon. Back-calculation bias was eliminated through use of an algorithm defining individual fish-otolith trajectories and a biologically determined, rather than a statistically estimated, intercept. Adaptations of the biological intercept back-calculations procedure accurately predicted previous lengths in the presence of both stochastic error and time-varying growth rates. When used to reevaluate some published back-calculations, the biological intercept procedure resulted in more accurate values than those previously estimated, and reduced or eliminated the presence of Lee's phenomenon.
Publisher
Canadian Science Publishing
Subject
Aquatic Science,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Cited by
544 articles.
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