Atlantic cod ( Gadus morhua) growth and otolith accretion characteristics modelled in a bioenergetics context
The purpose of this work is to present a conceptual model for fish otolith growth in which somatic growth is related to otolith growth and opacity. The model is based on known mechanisms of CaCO 3 and protein incorporation into the otolith. Model parameters were derived from laboratory experiments a...
| Published in: | Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Canadian Science Publishing
2004
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/f04-038 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/f04-038 |
| Summary: | The purpose of this work is to present a conceptual model for fish otolith growth in which somatic growth is related to otolith growth and opacity. The model is based on known mechanisms of CaCO 3 and protein incorporation into the otolith. Model parameters were derived from laboratory experiments and from the literature. A sensitivity analysis showed that the model was robust to measurement errors in most input parameters. The most sensitive parameters were the exponents of the otolith lengthweight and otolith protein whole-body protein synthesis relationships and the proportionality constant between metabolism and otolith growth rate. Application to experimental data resulted in good agreement between back-calculated and observed fish sizes. In the growth experiment, the average back-calculated weights were slightly lower than the average observed weights, but the correlation was highly significant. In the starvation experiment, the back-calculated weights were also highly correlated with observed weights, with slightly declining residuals with fish size. Unlike previous back-calculation methods, this model has the ability to detect periods of starvation and estimate growth histories in both growing and starving fish. |
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