960 



Fishery Bulletin 97(4), 1999 



population size. Habitat generalists, such as croaker, 

 can occupy a range of habitats in any particular lo- 

 cation, and thus variability in a specific resource may 

 not determine population size. Consequently, pro- 

 cesses affecting larval supply will be more important 

 predictors of population size than resource-related 

 characteristics. 



Generalizations about the relative importance of 

 processes affecting recruitment in fishes have been 

 elusive (Caley et al., 1996). Although it is widely rec- 

 ognized that understanding the roles of both pre- and 

 postsettlement is critical, there is still little consen- 

 sus on the relative importance of different processes 

 in determining population size. We suggest that ne- 

 glecting the behavioral and ecological characteris- 

 tics of individual species may be a major obstacle in 

 reaching widely accepted generalizations about pro- 

 cesses affecting recruitment. By performing similar 

 experiments on different species we may uncover 

 generalizations about processes affecting fish popu- 

 lations that have thus far been difficult to attain. 



Acknowledgments 



We greatly appreciate the assistance in the field pro- 

 vided by T. P. Good and comments on the manuscript 

 by B. Finley and J. Rooker. Support for this project 

 was provided by Texas SeaGrant NA56RG0388 

 project R/F-67 with supplemental support from a 

 MARFIN grant from NOAA and NSF grant DEB- 

 9610353. 



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