Diversity in life history strategy of marine teleosts from the north western Atlantic
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Date
2012
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University of New Brunswick
Abstract
Data on life history traits, phylogeny and habitat were collected from peer-reviewed published literature to explore life history variation of marine teleosts from the north western Atlantic and to test the trilateral continuum model of life history strategy on a continuous marine study area. Unconstrained multivariate ordination identified two contrasting gradients of life history variation. The dominant gradient contrasted large-bodied, long-lived and late-maturing species with short-lived early-maturing small-species. The secondary gradient indicated a divergence between species producing large eggs and large larvae that transformed into the juvenile stage at a larger body size with species that produce small eggs and larvae that transform into juveniles at a small body size. Constrained ordination techniques indicated support for the trilateral continuum model was improved significantly when the end point groups were adjusted for a strictly marine environment. This study supports the trilateral continuum model of life history strategy for marine teleosts from the north western Atlantic.