Episodic fluctuations in larval supply

The lack of a clear relationship between spawning output and recruitment success continues to confound attempts to understand and manage temporally variable fish populations. This relationship for a common reef fish is shown to be obscured by nonlinear processes in operation during the larval phase. Non-linear responses of larval fish to their noisy physical environment may offer a general explanation for the erratic, often episodic, replenishment of open marine populations.