Publication Abstract

Adult plaice in the Irish Sea have distinct traits that reflect the spawning locations which could suggest a number of different populations. However, do connectivity pathways support this concept? Different tools are directed to exchange or connectivity between different life history stages, and the challenge is to integrate the signals to obtain full life cycle estimates. Collectively, the different methods reveal stable connectivity between known spawning and nursery grounds, with sufficient exchange to maintain a single population with weak genetic structure.

Audrey Geffen, Richard Nash* and Clive Fox