124 



Fishery Bulletin 103(1) 



B 



Summer 



o 



+**< 



two 



 o> 



v«> 



- 



D 



Winter 



"z», 



'«*.* 



.<-. 



SJO; 



Fish abundance 

 (larvae/100 m 3 ) 





 • 0.001-1 



£ 1001-10 

 ft 10.001-100 



100.001-1000 



Figure 12 



Distribution of Menticirrhus americanus in (A) spring, (B) summer, (C) fall, 

 and (D) winter. Transects for each cruise within a season are offset from one 

 another. The size of the circle for each station varies with larval fish concentra- 

 tion (larvae/100 m 3 ). The fill color for each circle varies with water mass. 



in B. tyrannus spawning inshore during the fall. This 

 example demonstrates that there are multiple mecha- 

 nisms or pathways that affect the transport of larval 

 fish, and that each species may be subject to different 

 transport regimes. Therefore, to understand larval 

 transport, many factors, including physical forcing 

 mechanisms, the horizontal and vertical distributions 

 of larvae, seasonal patterns, and the physiology of a 

 species, need to be considered. 



Temporal larval assemblages were defined in addi- 

 tion to the spatial assemblages. Larvae clearly sepa- 

 rated into two seasonal spawning groups: winter and 



warm seasons (Fig. 10). The winter assemblage was 

 associated with cool, denser water, whereas the warm 

 water assemblage was associated with warmer, less 

 dense water (Fig. 11). The cross-shelf structure in lar- 

 val assemblages was still evident in the two seasonal 

 assemblages, but there was overlap in the winter and 

 warm-weather outer-shelf assemblages (Fig. 10). This 

 overlap occurred in waters with the least seasonal vari- 

 ability in temperature and salinity and likely results 

 from year-round spawning by species in the outer-shelf 

 assemblage or year-round supply of larvae to the outer- 

 shelf region by the Gulf Stream. 



