Document Type

Article

Department/Program

Virginia Institute of Marine Science

Publication Date

1988

Journal

Journal of Shellfish Research

Volume

7

Issue

1

First Page

7

Last Page

10

Abstract

A list of factors influencing the recruitment of bivalve larvae might include, but not be limited to, the following: egg quality, physical environment, food availability, loss to predation and disease during larval development, interplay of passive dispersal (horizontally) by water currents and depth regulation by active swimming, proximity of suitable and available substratum as metamorphic competency is achieved, and availability of sufficient metabolic reserves to complete metamorphosis to the benthic form. While tractable methods exist to quantify aspects of certain members of the above list, the focus of such work has usually been biased towards laboratory experiments or hatchery production. The purpose of this commentary is to suggest that a refocussing of efforts in bivalve larval biology on natural systems is both timely and needed.

Keywords

Bivalve larvae, recruitment

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