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Using length–mass relationships to estimate life history: an application to deep-sea fishes

B. Finucci,M. Dunn,R. Arnold

Published 2019 in Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences

ABSTRACT

Length–mass relationships, while often overlooked, form the basis of many fisheries science applications. Fisheries-independent research surveys compile large databases of biological data that could hold a wealth of information regarding species’ life history, which, for many, are data deficient and infrequently sampled. A flexible model using permutations of a broken stick and variance shift was applied to length–mass relationships to evaluate changes in the mean or variability of mass-at-length using data from deep-sea fishes and focusing on particularly poorly known deep-sea chondrichthyans. Changes in body shape and (or) in the scale of variability around mean mass-at-length were estimated for most species (94% of data sets examined). Such changes seemed likely to be correlated with biological factors, such as the onset of reproduction; 70% of length estimates for a variance shift correlated with the expected length-at-maturity. The model presented here could be applied to any fish where length and mass data are available, providing a way to estimate, validate, and investigate biological factors in species where macroscopic evaluations are unavailable or difficult to estimate.

PUBLICATION RECORD

  • Publication year

    2019

  • Venue

    Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences

  • Publication date

    2019-05-01

  • Fields of study

    Biology, Geography, Environmental Science

  • Identifiers
    DOI 10.1139/CJFAS-2018-0017
  • External record

    Open on Semantic Scholar

  • Source metadata

    Semantic Scholar

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