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Recruitment and Demographic Variability in a Lagoonal Population of the Blenniid Fish Lipophrys Pavo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

François Ruchon ,
Thierry Laugier  and
Jean-Pierre Quignard
François Ruchon
Affiliation:
Laboratoire d'Ichthyologie, Université de Montpellier II, Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc, Place Eugène Bataillon, F-34095 Montpellier Cedex 5, France
Thierry Laugier
Affiliation:
Laboratoire d'Ichthyologie, Université de Montpellier II, Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc, Place Eugène Bataillon, F-34095 Montpellier Cedex 5, France
Jean-Pierre Quignard
Affiliation:
Laboratoire d'Ichthyologie, Université de Montpellier II, Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc, Place Eugène Bataillon, F-34095 Montpellier Cedex 5, France
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Extract

The demography of a lagoonal population of Lipophrys pavo over a four year period is described. This population exhibited high variability in recruitment and mortality and as a result, in age structure and density. During the study the average size at a given age decreased. This decrease was not linked to growth variation. Changes in demography and length structure are interrelated and could be linked to stressful environmental conditions and to reproductive patterns of this species.

Lipophrys pavo (Risso, 1810) is a common species in shallow waters of the rocky littoral of the Mediterranean sea (Zander, 1972; Patzner, 1984). This species differs from other Blenniidae by its ability to colonize biotopes where hard substrates are scarce (Moosleimer, 1980; Almada et al., 1994; Ruchon, 1995), and by its great euryhaline and eurythermal tolerance limits (Marion, 1890; Paris & Quignard, 1971; Zander, 1972; Müller et al., 1973; Moosleitner, 1988; Patzner & Seiwald, 1988). This euryvalence has allowed L. pavo to colonize brackish and soft-bottom lagoons of the Gulf of Lion where it is the single Blenniidae present (personal observation). Lipophrys pavo is a gonochoric species exhibiting strong sexual dimorphism (Zander, 1975; Papaconstantinou, 1979). Males are territorial nest breeders during the spawning season (Patzner et al., 1986), and females are batch spawners (Fishelson, 1963a; Patzner, 1985a).

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 78 , Issue 2 , May 1998 , pp. 609 - 621
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1998

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