Lewis S. Incze, Richard A. Wahle and Alvaro Palma

Neustonic postlarvae of the American lobster, Homarus americanus, undertake exploratory forays to search for and select bottom habitat for settlement. Incze et al. (1997) showed that there is about a 10-fold increase in concentration from the dispersed pelagic phase to the aggregated early benthic phase in lobsters. In that study, recruitment was assessed once at the end of the settlement season at multiple sites. In this paper we examine recruitment at a single site over short time intervals (5-14 d) to evaluate the role of advection, estimate the proportion of potential settlers that recruited to the bottom, and evaluate whether time- or density-dependent effects influenced recruitment. We found that 1) tidal advection easily accounts for the average increased concentration from pelagic to benthic stages; 2) recruitment ranged from 0.1 to 1.8% of the potential settlers advected over the site; 3) the proportion of postlarvae that recruited was similar in high and low recruitment years and had a tendency to increase late in the settlement season; and 4) recruitment was positively correlated with postlarval supply. Density-dependent effects may have existed at the highest levels of recruitment.