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Biological reasons for the unsuitability of growth parameters and indices for comparing fish growth

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Abstract

Parameters k and L∞ in the Von Bertalanffy equation and their derivatives ω=kL∞, φ = logk + 2logL∞; as well as slopes bL/t of the regression L=atb (t, years), relative increments (CI=[L2–L1]/L1), specific growth rates (Cv=InL2–InL1), growth characteristics (Clh = CvxL1) and growth constants (Clt=Cvx[t2 + t1]/2) were analyzed. A total of 121 bream Abramis brama stocks in the first 10 years of life were studied. At the same real growth rate (the average absolute linear annual increments, mm year–1) the values of k, L∞, ω, φ, bL/t, CI, Cv and Clt in different stocks vary within almost the whole range. The main reason is the natural process of growth self-regulation: the relation between the average body lengths in the first year (L1) and the relative growth rates (slopes bL/t) is negative (bL/t = exp[0.1183–0.0053L1], r=0.76). The above relation defines 4 principal types of the Ford-Walford lines. Thirty four percent of the stocks have rather steep slopes of the lines and even parallel the absolute slope of 45°, so the L∞ values of these stocks have no biological significance. The authors recommend a simple and more precise, from a biological point of view, approach for comparing fish population growth rates.

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Authors
  1. Mladen T. Živkov
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  2. Teodora A. Trichkova
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  3. Galerida N. Raikova-Petrova
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Živkov, M.T., Trichkova, T.A. & Raikova-Petrova, G.N. Biological reasons for the unsuitability of growth parameters and indices for comparing fish growth. Environmental Biology of Fishes 54, 67–76 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007425005491

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