Population Regulation in a Temperate Reef Fish System

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A fundamental theme in biological oceanography and marine ecology is to understand how marine biological systems respond to various environmental and biological processes and perturbations. Much of the current research interest in these fields is on the processes that affect the dynamics and regulation of component populations within marine ecosystems. This continuation project focuses on the essential issue of how populations of temperate reef fish are regulated. In particular, Drs. Schmitt and Holbrook will address the extent to which populations of these fishes are governed by equilibrium or non-equilibrium dynamics, together with the processes and mechanisms that result in their regulation. They will address whether and how density- dependence may (or may not) operate at different life stages of the fishes. The fishes investigated, striped surfperch (Embiotoca lateralis) and black surfperch (E. jacksoni), represent a class of marine organisms where local recruitment may be coupled to some extent with production of new propagules. As such, information gained by this research will contribute to a broader understanding of how environmental and ecological processes can affect dynamics and regulation in biologically coupled systems.