NOTE Johnson: Recruitment variability of Limanda feiruginea 



859 



Georges Banli 1977 — strong year class 



Georges Bank 1977 — strong year class 



10.4 



5.2 



Calanus sp 



Larvae 



18.5 



9.5 



10.4 



5.2 



Pseudocalanus so, 



Larvae 



9.5 



4.8 



80 too 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 



B 

 o 



40 60 80 too 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 N 



o 

 o 



"H. 



3 



Georges Bank 1982 — weak year class 



14.5 



7.25 



13.5 



6.75 



Pseudocalanuyfp 



o 

 3 



o 

 o 

 o 



15 



7.5 



60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 



80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 



Day of year 



Figure 5 



The match or mismatch relationship between yellowtail larvae, Calanus sp., and Pseudocalanus sp. in Georges Bank 

 during the year classes 1977 and 1982. 



nus sp. in SNE. Neither predator-prey pair was synchro- 

 nous. In GB the yellowtail flounder larvae and Calanus sp. 

 did not match in time or space. The zooplankton popula- 

 tion appeared strong but the spawning of yellowtail floun- 

 der occurred during different times, creating low overlap 

 between the two species. Years with the lowest anomalies 

 in timing were 1984 and 1986 for GB and years 1977, 

 1980, 1986, and 1987 for SNE. 



This study relied on extensive data for yellowtail floun- 

 der and zooplankton abundances in SNE and GB to test 

 general predictions of the match-mismatch hypothesis. In 

 general no strong support was found for this hypothesis. 

 High overlap between zooplankton and yellowtail floun- 



der abundances did not necessarily result in strong yel- 

 lowtail flounder year classes, and some of the strongest 

 year classes occurred when overlap was low. 



Annual timing of spawning and production cycles from 

 larvae and zooplankton prey (Table 2) also revealed vari- 

 ations between subareas. The spawning production for 

 yellowtail flounder peaked earlier in the more southern 

 subarea SNE than in GB, for all years excluding 1984. 

 Similar results occurred in the production of Pseudocala- 

 nus sp., with the majority of first peaks cited in SNE for 

 all years except 1978 and 1982. However, opposite pat- 

 terns were observed for Calanus sp. production. Produc- 

 tion cycles peaked first in seven of the eleven years in the 



