9315541 Hoss This award supports a two-year cooperative research project between Dr. Donald Hoss, Chief of the Coastal and Estuarine Ecology Division, National Marine Fisheries Service, and Professor Masaru Tanaka, Department of Fisheries, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan. The project combines field observations and laboratory experiments on paralicthid founders in Japan. In addition to Dr. Hoss, Dr. John Selden Burke, a fisheries biologist at NMFS, will participate in the research in Japan. The project involves field sampling to determine vertical distribution of flounder larvae immigrating to nursery areas in Wakasa Bay, Japan (Japan Sea) and Onslow Bay, North Carolina in relation to tidal stage. Benthic sampling will be conducted to determine age and relative growth rates (otolith analysis) of settled flounders among shelf, beach, and estuarine nursery habitats in the two study areas. Laboratory experiments will be conducted to compare (1) activity patterns of larvae relative to tidal stage, (2) developmental patterns of levels and production activity of hormones associated with migration and adaptation to low salinity (thyroxine and prolactin), and (3) development rates and size at metamorphosis. Although the study areas are similar in climate, they differ in tidal range, coastal salinity, and availability of estuarine habitat, allowing comparison of paralichthids from different physical environments. Similarities and differences between the species in relation to physical factors should provide insight to processes of recruitment to nurseries. ***
