A probabilistic foundation for the study of larval fish feeding, growth, and mortality rates

Abstract

Survival through the larval phase is predicated on the probabilities of successful feeding, which dictates growth rates, and the probabilities of encountering predators. Here I perform a synthesis of feeding, growth, and mortality rates estimated during several studies from coastal Newfoundland, Canada, to provide a description of the probability distribution that can serve as a foundation of the expected distribution of vital rates. The standardized observations clearly follow that of skewed distributions, appropriately fit to a probability gamma distribution, with feeding demonstrating a stronger degree of skewness than either mortality or growth, possibly because each vital rate integrates prey–predator interactions over different time scales. Commonality in the underlying form of the distribution of vital rates in larval fish, along with clear functional relationships between gamma parameters, represents a probabilistic basis of expectations against which observations from prior or new studies can be contrasted. An example of the use of such expectations demonstrates that they can provide useful contextual information about the contrast among observations and our ability to identify their relationship with environmental drivers.