858 



Fishery Bulletin 98(4) 



Southern New England 1982 — weak year class 



Larvae 



Calanus sp 



11 



5.5 



130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 



S 

 o 



-J Southern New England 1987 — strong year class 



15 



7.5 



80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 



Southern New England 1982 — weak year class 



13 



6.5 



120 130 140 150 160 170 



180 



Southern New England 1987 — strong year class 



28 



14 



Pseudocalanu. 



Larvae 



3 



O 



3 



o 

 o 

 o 



18 



60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 



Day of year 



Figure 4 



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

 New England during the year classes 1982 and 1987. 



yellowtail larvae and Pseudocalanus sp. were examined 

 for each subarea. In both subareas the strong year classes 

 (1980, 1987 SNE; 1980, 1977 GB) were consistently posi- 

 tioned in ranges of t^ less than zero. The extreme dif- 

 ferences in predator and prey peaks frequently reflected 

 the location of poorer year classes ( 1982, 1986 for both 

 SNE and GB). Unexpectedly, these year classes normally 

 occurred when predator and prey timing was equal to or 

 greater than zero. 



Although not statistically significant, the Spearman's 

 rank-order correlation between predator-prey overlap 

 and larval abundance suggested a possible relationship 

 between recruitment variability and, the predator-prey 



pairs, especially for the combination of larvae and Cala- 

 nus sp. in SNE (Table 1). 



Year-to-year variability in peaks of predator and 

 prey abundance 



As expected, the greatest anomaly in timing for three of 

 the four predator-prey pairs occurred during the 1982 year 

 class. The large difference in timing between predator 

 and prey was reflected in the contour plot of larvae and 

 zooplankton during 1982 (Fig. 7). There was a mismatch 

 in timing between yellowtail flounder and Calanus sp. 

 in GB and between yellowtail flounder and Pseudocala- 



