“It Is Well Known That…..”: Recruitment Stories for Atlantic Menhaden

Atlantic menhaden is a dominant forage fish in northwest Atlantic coastal shelf ecosystems, mediating important transfers of energy in the food web.  Recruitment of Atlantic menhaden has been studied for more than a century.  Our research has integrated multiple approaches including physical-biological models, field collections, and otolith microstructural analysis to examine long held assumptions. Our research has succeeded in overturning several “well-known facts” about patterns and processes important to menhaden recruitment.  Whereas it was traditionally thought that menhaden recruitment occurred at local scales, our recent research has indicated the importance of larval transport over longer spatial scales on recruitment.  We have also shown that multiple spawning locations and nursery areas promote population resilience, and that the source location of recruits varies intra- and inter-annually.  It has also long been believed that some nursery areas were more important to population productivity than others.  Our research has confirmed this pattern and provided a way to accurately quantify the contribution of individual nursery areas. Integrating results from both physical-biological models and empirical analyses in a whole life cycle model provides new insights into processes and life history events that may regulate menhaden populations.