International Institute of Tropical Forestry

Title: Estuarine Larval Development and Upstream Post-Larval Migration of Freshwater Shrimps in Two Tropical Rivers of Puerto Rico

Author:  Benstead,Jonathan P.; March,James G.; Pringle, Catherine M.

Date: 2000

Source: BIOTROPICA 32(3): 545–548

Description: Migratory freshwater shrimps represent important links between the headwaters and estuaries of many tropical rivers. These species exhibit amphidromous life cycles in which larvae are released by females in upper reaches of rivers; first stage (i.e., newly hatched) larvae drift passively to coastal environments where they develop and metamorphose into postlarvae that subsequently migrate back upstream to adult (freshwater) habitat. Recent studies in rivers draining northeastern Puerto Rico and Costa Rica’s Caribbean slope have been the first to document migratory drift of first stage larval freshwater shrimps (March et al. 1998, Pringle & Ramírez 1998, Benstead et al. 1999). While we now have information about the migratory drift of first stage shrimp larvae and the effects of damming and water abstraction on larval migration, no information exists on the location of larval development (i.e., whether estuarine, fully marine, or both). We also lack data on subsequent recruitment of metamorphosed postlarvae to upstream populations of adults and the factors that control upstream migration.

Keywords: amphidromy; estuaries; freshwater shrimps; migration; Puerto Rico; tropical rivers.

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Citation

Benstead,Jonathan P.; March,James G.; Pringle, Catherine M.  2000.  Estuarine Larval Development and Upstream Post-Larval Migration of Freshwater Shrimps in Two Tropical Rivers of Puerto Rico.   BIOTROPICA 32(3): 545–548 .