Modelagem matemática do crescimento somático e mortalidade do ouriço-do-mar Cassidulus mitis Krau, 1954 (Echinoidea: Cassidulidae)

Abstract

The somatic growth of Cassidulus mitis Krau, 1954, a tropical brooding species, from a population located at the Vermelha Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was analyzed by observing the monthly size distributions from December 1998 to April 2000, as well as by a mark-recapture experiment. These data were used to estimate the parameters necessary to construct growth curves defined by four different models by means of non-linear regressions (Brody-Bertalanffy, Richards, Gompertz and logistic models), and to estimate the natural mortality of this C. mitis population. The evaluation of the models was accomplished by (1) the analysis of the sum of the square residuals from the former non-linear regressions, (2) the analysis of the distribution of these residuals and (3) the comparison of linear regressions between the size predicted by the models and the size observed, from the recaptured specimens. The curve assigned by the Gompertz equation was considered the best one to describe the growth of C. mitis. The growth and mortality constants predicted by the model of Gompertz were 0.68 year^-1 and 0.63 year^-1, respectively. The analysis of the growth curve shows that C. mitis become potentially mature at the age of 2.2 years, shows the maximum growth rate values at 2.4 years, and has a life-span of 9.1 years.