PRIMARY RESEARCH PAPER Environmental factors that define the spawning and nursery areas for Percophis brasiliensis (Teleostei: Percophididae) in a multispecific reproductive coastal zone, El Rinco ´n (39°–41°S), Argentina Karina A. Rodrigues • Andre ´s J. Jaureguizar • Rau ´l A. Guerrero Received: 1 August 2011 / Revised: 13 January 2012 / Accepted: 15 January 2012 / Published online: 12 March 2013 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013 Abstract The spatial distribution of Percophis bra- siliensis at different maturity stages and its relationship to environmental factors was evaluated in the El Rincon area (39°–41°S) between 1994 and 2008 during eight cruises carried out in spring. For this, a canonical correspondence analysis was used. Results indicate that bottom temperature and bottom salinity horizontal gradient (BSHG) were the most important variables affecting the spatial distribution of P. brasiliensis maturity stages. Juveniles were mainly located in shallow waters with low salinity, high temperatures and vertical stratification. Conversely, gravid and running individuals were found in high BSHG and low temperatures. This link suggests that adults spawn in a well-defined area of hydrographic conditions that would tend to retain pelagic eggs and larvae, thus minimizing dispersal, and ensuring their transport from the spawning to nursery areas. On the coastal shelf of El Rincon, the water mass circulation shows an anti-cyclonic gyre whose recirculation cell during spring and summer is more constrained to inshore areas than during winter. Maximum reproductive activity of P. brasiliensis coincides with the highest retention period; therefore, dispersal of early-life stages (eggs) depends on the circulation pattern and transport pathway which would contribute importantly to its recruitment variability. Keywords Percophis brasiliensis  Maturity stages  Environmental influence  Northern Argentine Sea  El Rinco ´n Introduction Fish population dynamics are generally found to be largely controlled by recruitment (i.e. net reproductive success), which corresponds to the integration over a season and shelf areas of processes affecting the survival of a population of larvae and juveniles along their drift trajectories. The survival of these individ- uals results from the interaction between spawning dynamics (which determines trajectories origin) and environmental variability (which determines trans- port and physical–biological interactions along the Handling editor: Koen Martens K. A. Rodrigues (&)  A. J. Jaureguizar  R. A. Guerrero Instituto Nacional de Investigacio ´n y Desarrollo Pesquero (INIDEP), Paseo Victoria Ocampo No. 1, B7602HSA Mar del Plata, Argentina e-mail: krodrigues@inidep.edu.ar K. A. Rodrigues Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientı ´ficas y Te ´cnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina A. J. Jaureguizar Comisio ´n de Investigaciones Cientı ´ficas de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (CIC), La Plata, Argentina R. A. Guerrero Departamento de Ciencias Marinas, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (UNMDP), Mar del Plata, Argentina 123 Hydrobiologia (2013) 709:1–10 DOI 10.1007/s10750-013-1479-8