Bivariate and multivariate analyses of allometric growth in larvae of farmed meagre (Argyrosomus regius): an integrated approach to define growth stages and ontogenetic transitions
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Fish larval rearing represents a critical stage due to the extreme fragility of larvae, small size, and specific nutritional needs during rapid growth. Successful larviculture requires understanding ontogenetic changes to adapt rearing practices and optimize larval development. Thus, the objective of this study was to describe the ontogeny and allometric growth of hatchery-reared meagre ( Argyrosomus regius ) larvae from hatching to the juvenile stage by combining bivariate and multivariate morphometric analyses. Results showed that the early development of meagre was divided into three distinct growth stages marked by functional transitions. The first stage (≤3.21 mm standard length, SL) coincided with yolk absorption, onset of exogenous feeding, swim bladder inflation, and accelerated cranial development, particularly in the operculum and eye–operculum region, supporting respiration and feeding. The second stage (3.21–5.35 mm SL) was characterized by near-isometric cranial growth and positive allometry in trunk and caudal traits, reflecting gastrointestinal maturation and enhanced swimming capacity. The third stage (>5.35 mm SL) included substantial cranial and caudal differentiation, such as jaw ossification, fin formation, and sensory refinement, particularly visual enhancement, enabling efficient prey detection and capture. Principal component analysis identified two inflection points (3.21 and 5.35 mm SL), marking developmental transitions from cranial growth to locomotor enhancement and the onset of juvenile traits. These morpho-functional transitions highlight critical windows for aquaculture, such as ensuring optimal light conditions and swim bladder inflation during the first stage, providing highly digestible diets and adequate buoyancy during the second, and optimizing live prey presentation and water clarity during the third. This study showed that while traditional allometric approaches examine isolated characters relative to organism size, multivariate allometry offers comprehensive understanding of how multiple larval body regions scale together during size changes. In conclusion, this integrated approach highlights coordinated allometric transitions during meagre larval development, providing a framework to identify critical growth phases and refine rearing protocols for improved larval performance and survival.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".