-18- 



times, those in the intermediate 7.1, and those in the muddy 2=5 times. 

 Growths in inches averaged 6.9, 5.1, and 2,4 respectively. The trend of 

 the first year was consistent through the second year, with turbidity re- 

 maining a dominant influence. 



The first year's results for bluegills and redears were consistent with 

 those for bass, but intraspecif ic competition and mortality had a marked in- 

 fluence on growth data for sunfishes obtained at the end of the second season. 

 Figure 2 shows that first-year growth for both species decreased directly 

 as turbidity increased but that at the end of the second year the adults re- 

 covered from the turbid ponds were as large or larger than those recovered 

 from the clear ponds. The apparent inconsistency is explained by (1) mor- 

 tality and/or removal by anglers during the second growing season of the 

 faster-growing individuals in the clear ponds and (2) by intraspecif ic com- 

 pietition, since the rate of reproduction and size of population was also 

 directly proportional to clarity of the waters. That the faster growing adults 

 had died or been removed from the clearer ponds became apparent when the 

 average size of adults recovered at the end of the second growing season were 

 little different, and in one instance smaller, than the average size com- 

 puted from samples obtained at the end of the first growing season. This was 

 apparent only in the clearer ponds, however, and particularly so in the blue- 

 gill populations (last column, table 4). The influence of intraspecif ic 

 competition was apparent in both redear and bluegill populations, but part- 

 icularly so in the latter. The sunfishes in the clear ponds made signi- 

 ficantly greater growths during the first year when populations were compar- 

 atively small, but tended to lose this advantage during the second season 

 due to the greater abundance of young in the clearer ponds. 



