Dispersion of vendace eggs and larvae around potential nursery areas reveals their reproductive strategy

Depending on their reproductive strategy, different fish species aim to aggregate or disperse eggs and larvae in their reproductive habitat. Many pelagic species disperse their eggs widely around the potential nursery areas. Larval dispersion or aggregation affects population sub‐structuring, which has important implications in fisheries management and conservation of the natural spatial diversity in populations. The dispersion of larval vendace (Coregonus albula) was quantified in two oligotrophic Finnish lakes, and effects of density and environmental variables on the inter‐annual variation in the larval distribution were examined by analysing spatial abundance data from the lakes from 19…