Morse and Able: Distribution and life history of Scophthalmus aquosus 



679 



northward to 16°C in subarea 7. Minimum tempera- 

 tures ranged from 5 to 9°C, but no clear latitudinal 

 trend was evident. Over 80% of all larvae 2-4 mm 

 long throughout the study area were collected over 



Figure 3 



Distribution and abundance of windowpane, 

 Scophthalmus aquosus, larvae for three size 

 classes, based on NMFS/MARMAP sample col- 

 lections. See Table 1 for additional details. 



bottom temperatures 16-19°C, which indicate pre- 

 ferred spawning temperatures. Only in subareas 5 

 and 7 were larvae captured in significant numbers 

 at temperatures below 15°C. Over 859c of larvae in 

 subarea 7 occurred at temperatures 13-16°C, and 

 16°C was also the maximum bottom temperature 

 recorded in subarea 7. 



Although the preferred spawning temperature 

 range (16-19°C) spans just 4°C, the total range of 

 temperatures (5-23°C) indicates that spawning may 

 not be tied exclusively to water temperatures. In 

 subareas 1-3, bottom waters in the preferred range 

 of temperature ( 16-19°C) are available most months 

 (Fig. 6). However, even though spawning in these 

 subareas is bimodal (see Fig. 4), the peak in spawn- 

 ing clearly occurs at 17°C (see Fig. 5). In subarea 7, 

 spawning occurs at the highest bottom temperatures 

 recorded (13-16°C) in this subarea (Fig. 6). These 

 temperatures are available from July through No- 

 vember (Fig. 6), a range that nearly corresponds to the 

 months of maximum spawning ( Table 2; Fig. 4). Thus, 

 in subarea 7 the occurrence of the highest tempera- 



