This travel bursary application is to attend the 36th annual larval fish conference to be held in Bergen, Norway (2-6 July 2012). The purpose of the conference is to communicate the current state of knowledge around larval fish biology and ecology. Theme sessions focus on mortality in the early life stages of fishes and the contribution of mechanistic behavioural and physiological studies on fish larvae.

The presentation I intend to deliver is 'The effect of ocean warming on the early life history of Latris lineata inferred through a lagrangian bio-physical dispersal model', which fits well into the conference themes. The study species, striped trumpeter is an iconic fish and a popular target of both commercial and recreational fishers. Over 25 years the population has displayed marked recruitment variability. It is thought that this erratic recruitment is due to variability in the success of the early life stages. By combining biological information with oceanographic models we have been able to model the dispersal and survival of this critical life history. We also ran climate change scenarios that predicted the effect of temperature on the survival of this early life stage.

This modelling is likely to develop further into the future, with interest from researchers working on scallops, blue grenadier, southern rock lobster, snapper and long spined sea urchin. By attending the conference I will be able to develop the model further to implement world standard procedures that are realised by discussion and observation of presentations from world leaders in this field.