Convenors: Núria Baylina and Raquel Quirós-Pozo

Knowledge of larval biology of marine teleost is still on early stages for many species, particular for those targeted by the marine ornamental trade and for commercial aquaculture diversification. Also, there is a limited number of species that have successfully bred, both for biological research and/or commercial aquaculture purposes. On this regard larval ontogeny and zootechnics are still poorly studied for the majority of marine teleost species. This lack of basic knowledge is a big challenge not only for larval commercial production (food and aquarium trade), but also for fisheries stock management. More recently, overfishing, climate change and the increase in threats to natural hatcheries such as mangroves, estuaries or coral reefs habitats destruction, marine fishes breeding has gained increased interest and importance not only for aquaculture species diversification but as a powerful tool for marine species conservation purposes. The aim of this session is to include studies that focus on larval development description and identification, including studies addressing ontogeny, prey selectivity, feeding behaviour, nutrition, but also zootechnical description and optimisation of the larval rearing systems, amongst others.

Convenors: Susana Garrido, Pedro Ré and Marta Moyano

The importance of food for larval survival has motivated a large number of studies on the feeding ecology of fish larvae. These studies involve a large number of techniques such as studying the diet composition of field caught larvae through prey visual identification, or less frequently using fatty acid biomarkers and more recently using molecular techniques. Also, trophic position and trophic niche breath were studied by analysing the stable isotopic composition. Feeding experiments in laboratory-controlled conditions allowed to obtain several parameters such as ingestion rates, prey requirements, feeding behaviour and relation of feeding rates with other environmental variables such as temperature. In this session we welcome studies focusing on the feeding ecology of fish larvae from marine and freshwater environments, including those focusing on ontogenetic shifts of diet composition, taxonomic differences, diet broadness, and spatial and temporal variability of feeding.

Convenors: Ana Machado and Stefan Koeninsgtein

Early life history processes are influenced by the physical and ecological environment, and are important drivers of fish population and community dynamics. Physiological and ecological process rates quantified by empirical approaches are set within the spatio-temporal dynamics of the environment, which needs to be considered when assessing the overall impacts on a species’ life cycle and productivity. New ecological modeling approaches are contributing to understanding fish early life history stages and the processes that lead to their variation in space and time. This session invites studies from ocean and fresh water systems which use numerical and conceptual models, to link empirical results to impacts on species and ecosystems. Approaches include individual-based models, biophysical larval dispersal models, energy budget models, recruitment, population and ecosystem models. We strive to better connect empiricists with modelers, and advance understanding of the sensitivity and response of fish populations to environmental variation and climate change.

Convenors: Alexandra Teodósio and Vânia Baptista

The causes of recruitment variability are a key question in the ecology of marine communities, with consequences for global human population directly depending on marine resources. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain recruitment of fish species, focusing on survival and growth of fish larvae, as well as the physical and complex food web processes that sustain fish larvae in nursery areas. It is also known that fish larvae use sensorial and swimming abilities to detect and ingress into nursery habitats. In this session we welcome studies from all seas and inland waters focusing on the specific relevance of factors potentially determining recruitment success of fish larvae from marine and freshwater ecosystems, including survival and growth rates, swimming and personality, as well as their ontogenetic changes, spatial and temporal variability, habitat uses, and larval ecophysiological condition. Contributions to a deep understanding of recruitment variability from tropical, temperate or extreme aquatic enviroments are needed and will lead to an adequate management of marine ecosystems and key fisheries with direct consequences to an healthy ocean and quality of life increase .

Convenors: Laura Ribeiro and Paulo Gavaia

The application of analytical technologies has contributed to deepen the knowledge on how fish larvae cope with external challenges and successfully develop and reach juvenile stages. During the period where development, differentiation and maturation of tissues and important biological functions are taking place, integrated analytical approaches like histological, biochemical, enzymological, and molecular techniques, have contributed to understand the synchronism between structure and function at different developmental stages. Still analytical limitations exist related with small larval size, sampling conditions, among others. The recent application of “omics” (metabarcoding, proteomics, lipidomics, metabolomics, genomics and transcriptomics) to larval research have contributed in overcoming some of the technical limitations. In this session we welcome studies focusing on the application of omics technologies and other analytical tools, applied on studies with fish larvae from marine and freshwater environments, to gain deeper understanding of fish larvae biology, such as predatory capacity and prey selection, characterization of functional responses when exposed to different conditions, epigenetic effects, identification of molecules involved in tissue differentiation and regulatory pathways during development.

If you consider your abstract does not fit the theme of the proposed scientific sessions, please submit your work under this Session. Every contribution on the study of fish early life stages is welcome!