University of Connecticut OpenCommons@UConn EEB Articles Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology November 2007 Annual Fecundity of Tautog in Long Island Sound: Size Effects and Long-Term Changes in a Harvested Population Lori H. LaPlante St. Anselm College,
[email protected] Eric T. Schultz University of Connecticut - Storrs,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://opencommons.uconn.edu/eeb_articles Recommended Citation LaPlante, Lori H. and Schultz, Eric T., "Annual Fecundity of Tautog in Long Island Sound: Size Effects and Long-Term Changes in a Harvested Population" (2007). EEB Articles. 10. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/eeb_articles/10 Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 136:1520–1533, 2007 [Article] Ó Copyright by the American Fisheries Society 2007 DOI: 10.1577/T06-257.1 Annual Fecundity of Tautog in Long Island Sound: Size Effects and Long-Term Changes in a Harvested Population 1 LORI HOSAKA LAPLANTE AND ERIC T. SCHULTZ* Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, 75 North Eagleville Road, Storrs, Connecticut, 06269-3043, USA Abstract.—Few studies estimate the impact of individual size on annual reproductive output, which is an important consideration where size-selective harvest may truncate size distributions and sharply reduce populationwide reproductive potential. We conducted a 2-year study of reproduction in field-collected and captive tautog Tautoga onitis from Long Island Sound to investigate the influence of individual size on components that constitute annual fecundity: batch fecundity, spawning frequency, and season duration. Estimates of spawning frequency in field-caught females relied on time-varying features of postovulatory follicles that we validated in experiments conducted on captive spawners.