Fish Manag Ecol. 2017;1–10. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fme | 1 © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd DOI: 10.1111/fme.12240 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Factors influencing recruitment and growth of age-0 yellow perch in eastern South Dakota glacial lakes D. J. Dembkowski 1 | M. J. Weber 2 | M. R. Wuellner 1 1 Department of Natural Resource Management, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, USA 2 Department of Natural Resource Management and Ecology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA Correspondence Daniel J. Dembkowski, Department of Natural Resource Management, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, USA. Email: dan.dembkowski@uwsp.edu Present address D. J. Dembkowski, Fisheries Analysis Center, Wisconsin Cooperative Fishery Research Unit, University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point, Stevens Point, WI, USA Funding information Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration; South Dakota State University Abstract Variation in recruitment and growth of age-0 yellow perch, Perca flavescens (Mitchill), was modelled across a range of nine eastern South Dakota glacial lakes to: (i) estimate factors influencing recruitment and growth dynamics during early ontogeny; and (ii) determine the relative importance of biotic versus abiotic processes in regulating re- cruitment and growth dynamics. Results provide a framework for future investigations and suggest that abiotic factors were more important in regulating recruitment of age-0 yellow perch, whereas biotic factors were more important in regulating growth. Recruitment was positively related to springtime water levels and temperature and negatively related to spawning stock biomass and springtime wind conditions. By con- trast, growth was negatively related to abundance of conspecifics and potential com- petitors (i.e. bluegill, Lepomis macrochirus Rafinesque) and positively related to abundance of potential predators [i.e. walleye, Sander vitreus (Mitchill) and northern pike, Esox lucius Linnaeus]. KEYWORDS abiotic factors, biotic factors, glacial lakes, growth, recruitment, yellow perch 1 | INTRODUCTION Fishery sustainability depends upon successful recruitment of young fish into catchable, harvestable or adult sizes (Maceina & Pereira, 2007). Among the more important dynamics and demographics of fish populations identified by Ricker (1975), recruitment is fre- quently identified as the most deterministic parameter influencing populations on the basis that minor fluctuations in recruitment may be associated with marked changes in other parameters (Carline, Johnson & Hall, 1984). Recruitment dynamics are often driven by biotic and abiotic factors, and, within this biotic–abiotic framework, recruitment may be regulated by direct or indirect processes (Ludsin, DeVanna & Smith, 2014). Research evaluating factors that influence fish recruitment typically focus on early life stages (i.e. egg, larval and juvenile; Hjort, 1914) because the absolute number of individu- als recruiting to an adult population depends on the number of pre- recruits (Houde, 1987, 1989; Ludsin & DeVries, 1997). Furthermore, density-dependent (i.e. biotic) and density-independent (i.e. abi- otic) factors often inflict high mortality on a cohort during early life stages (Hjort, 1914; Houde, 1989). As such, much existing research suggests that year-class strength is fixed early in life, after a point at which natural mortality stabilises and prior to a cohort entering a recreational fishery (Isermann & Willis, 2008; Ludsin & DeVries, 1997). In addition to the number of pre-recruits, recruitment may also be mediated by the size of pre-recruits. For many fishes, faster growth, and thus a larger size at age, infers greater survival and recruitment to sub- sequent ontogenetic stages (Anderson, 1988). Two hypotheses have been proposed to explain the survival advantage inferred upon faster growing individuals and populations. In a biotic context, the “growth rate” hypothesis (Anderson, 1988; Ware, 1975) postulates that faster growing, and therefore larger individuals, are less susceptible to preda- tion and are more likely to survive and recruit to subsequent ontoge- netic stages than smaller individuals. The “stage-duration” hypothesis (Houde, 1987; Leggett & DeBlois, 1994) postulates that faster growth rates reduce the time that a cohort spends in an ontogenetic stage vulnerable to high mortality caused by unfavourable environmental conditions or periods of high predation. Both hypotheses assert that