Rabe and Brown: Behavior, growth, and survival of Glyptocephalus cynoglossus lan/ae in relation to prey availably 
473 
larvae being more susceptible to starvation in the absence 
of prey (Hunter, 1981). 
The ecological significance of the lack of an effect of 
prey density on foraging, growth, and survival found in 
our study may be a reflection of the life history of witch 
flounder. This species has an extended larval period and is 
committed to being in the water column much longer than 
other species (Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953). During this 
extended larval period, witch flounder larvae will likely 
encounter periods of high or low plankton availability, or 
both. The abundance of zooplankton prey for fish larvae 
can vary over four orders of magnitude during the year, 
typically reaching a peak in the warmer months and de- 
creasing dramatically in the winter (Myers et al., 1994). 
Therefore, witch flounder larvae must be able to cope with 
this variation in prey availability to survive. This condi- 
tion requires a different strategy from that of other ma- 
rine fish species that have shorter larval periods and that 
likely rely on a “match” of spawning with plankton pro- 
duction to promote larval survival (Cushing, 1972). In the 
scope of the life history evolution of witch flounder, the 
long larval period and large size at metamorphosis may 
be a strategy to cope with intense postsettlement, size-de- 
pendent competition. 
Acknowledgments 
We would like to thank Deborah Bidwell for supplying the 
larvae used in our study. Technical assistance was kindly 
provided by Danny Boyce, Dena Wiseman, Olav Lyngs- 
tad, Donna Sommerton, Trevor Keough, Ralph Pynn, and 
Tracy Granter. We are grateful to Velmurugu Puvanen- 
dran and Pierre Pepin for insightful discussions. Funding 
for this research was provided by the Canadian Centre for 
Fisheries Innovation and a Memorial University of New- 
foundland Graduate Fellowship. 
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