Optimal Environmental Window and Pelagic Fish Recruitment Success in Upwelling Areas

Food availability and physical constraints such as turbulence are now considered as important factors that affect larval survival and pelagic fish recruitment. In Ekman-type upwelling, vertical advection, new inputs of nutrients and turbulence are linked to wind speed. According to the literature, food availability for larvae is related to biological dynamics (primary production) up to a point where the biological processes are disturbed by physical processes (turbulence generated by wind mixing). This limitation does not exist for non Ekman-type upwelling where upwelling intensity is not correlated with wind speed. We hypothesize that relations between annual recruitments and upwelling intensity are dome shaped in Ekman-type upwellings and linear for non Ekman-type upwellings. A statistical method is used to analyse the form of the relationships between recruitments and upwelling indices or wind mixing. The recruitment of the Peruvian anchoveta (Engraulis ringens), of the Pacific sardine (Sardinops sagax caerulea) and of the West African sardines and sardinellas are thereby examined. Results show that for Ekman-type upwelling the annual recruitment increases with upwelling intensity until wind speed reaches a value of roughly 5–6 m∙s−1 and decreases for higher values. For a non Ekman-type upwelling the relationship between recruitment and upwelling intensity is linear. These results confirm the existence of an optimal environmental window for recruitment.