Prof. Peter Munk Senior Researcher Danish Institute of Fisheries Research (DIFRES) National Institute of Aquatic Resources (DTU Aqua) Technical University of Denmark. Email: pm@aqua.dtu.dk Research interests: Biological oceanography, with focus on marine habitats and physical-biological linkages. Ecosystem function and fish population dynamics, investigated by comparative approach on arctic, temperate and tropic ecosystems. Physical and biological characteristics of fish larval nursery areas, and trophic interactions in the plankton community. The importance of hydrographic fronts and the drift and aggregation processes of plankton /fish larvae. Feeding, growth and predatory mortality of fish larvae and juveniles. Stock-recruitment relationships and recruitment forecast in fisheries assessment. Coastal fish dynamics. Hydrographic fronts as essential habitats for larval fish. Abstract The processes related to hydrographic fronts leads to enhanced primary production, lessened dispersion and a recurrent along-frontal flow, all characteristics of great advantage for the early life of fish. This linkage between fronts and larval life is to be seen worldwide, across a range of different frontal systems. I will, based on own studies in different oceans of the world, exemplify the close bio-physical connections, and investigate similarities and differences between fronts and fish larval species. The studies show the importance of resolving frontal structures and larval distributions in at least 2D, and they point to a strong species specificity of the respective frontal habitats of the fish larvae. The observations indicate that not only individual behavior, but also larval buoyancy characteristics might determine the larval position in relation to the hydrographic front and ultimately whether larvae will survive and recruit to the adult population
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