Presentation Guidelines

Many species of marine and freshwater species possess reproductive life histories and behaviors during early life that lead to widespread variability in the distribution of offspring produced within and during annual spawning events. In turn, individuals produced in the same cohort (whether it be weekly, monthly, or annual) are likely to experience unique habitat conditions that can differentially influence foraging, development, growth, and survival. For this theme, we seek studies exploring the mechanisms underlying observed distributions of fish during early life stages. Studies focused on the roles of environmental variation (e.g., physicochemical and biological attributes), individual behavior, or their interaction are welcome, as are those that highlight technologies or tools that can track fish distributions through time.
Theme Moderator: Stu Ludsin

Relationships between somatic growth and trophodynamics during early-life stages can help improve our understanding of the mechanisms controlling survival and eventual recruitment success. However, recent research has shown that these relationships can vary with the environmental setting, maternal influences, and the spatial and temporal scale of investigation. For this theme, we welcome marine, estuarine, and freshwater studies that have explored the foraging and growth performance of fish larvae. Such studies could consider intra-specific and inter-specific variation in trophodynamics (e.g., predator-prey interactions, niche width and overlap, prey-resource partitioning), ontogenetic diet shifts, maternal transmission, and the impacts of such variation on food web structure and function (e.g., food chain length, transfer efficiency).
Theme Moderator: Pascal Sirois

Several older yet seminal studies have highlighted differences in early-life dynamics and drivers of recruitment between large marine ecosystems and small freshwater ones. Specifically, in large marine ecosystems, recruitment dynamics are generally thought to be structured by abiotic factors acting on eggs and larvae. By contrast, biological interactions and density-dependent controls operating during later life stages (e.g., age-0 and age-1 juveniles) are thought to be more important in smaller freshwater systems. For this theme, we invite presentations that compare or contrast marine and freshwater early life dynamics. We also welcome case studies of recruitment dynamics and their controlling processes in ecosystems of any type and size (e.g., large lakes, embayments, enclosed seas, estuaries, and rivers).
Theme Moderator: Pascal Sirois

All aquatic ecosystems worldwide, both freshwater and marine, have been altered by human-driven environmental stressors, which in turn have influenced their capacity to sustain fish populations and the fisheries that they support. Delineating both the short-term and long-term impacts of such anthropogenic change, however, has proven difficult in many systems, owing to multiple stressors operating simultaneously. For this theme, we welcome studies that have sought to improve our ability to understand how anthropogenic stressors (e.g., climate change, nutrient and contaminant pollution, invasive species, habitat destruction) have operated independently and interactively to drive variation in fish distribution and habitat use during early life stages, as well as the impact of this variation on early life growth and survival performance.
Theme Moderator: Tomas Höök

Our ability to understand individual behavior, early life history, and population structure and demographics of fish populations, both marine and freshwater, has improved considerably during recent decades. Rapid developments in instrumentation, computational capabilities, bioinformatics, and statistical and simulation modeling have played a big role in these advances. The use of these techniques has also added to the value of museum collections and other archived samples. For this theme, we invite studies that highlight tools that use early life stages to determine phylogenetic and taxonomic relationships. We also welcome studies that have sought to use new technologies (e.g., molecular approaches) to describe, quantify, and understand early life habitat use, feeding, and life history, as well as those that have used early life stages to help delineate population connectivity and structure.
Theme Moderator: Audrey Geffen

Growth in both freshwater aquaculture and mariculture activity has occurred during recent decades to support a growing demand for food production, to sustain and bolster recreational angling opportunities, and to rehabilitate imperiled fish and shellfish populations. Due to this growth, approaches to improve and streamline animal rearing and husbandry and welfare are needed. Increasing concern about animal welfare and environmental impacts have also influenced development and implementation of new technologies. For this theme, we are soliciting studies focused on improving the welfare, production, and successful rearing of eggs, larvae, and pre-recruited juveniles in hatchery, aquaculture, and mariculture settings of well-known and new species. Studies focused on understanding how early life foraging, development, physiology, morphology, and growth in the rearing facility influence post-stocking growth and survival success are also encouraged.
Theme Moderator: Stuart Ludsin

Ichthyoplankton surveys and monitoring programs provide valuable time-series data that can inform fisheries management, improve our understanding of how environmental variability and anthropogenic stressors impact marine ecosystems, and facilitate population and ecosystem modeling. For this theme, we are soliciting presentations that take advantage of the unique attributes afforded by fish egg, larval, and juvenile time-series data to address topical research questions in fish ecology and management. Topics may include (but are not limited to) seasonal-, annual-, or decadal-scale variability in phenology, recruitment, trophic dynamics, habitat use, spatial distributions, growth, condition, and other early life history-related processes. Contributions that share experiences in the design, development, and sometimes repurposing of time-series programs also are welcome.
Theme Moderator: Stuart Ludsin