Optimal maturation age and length versus von Bertalanffy growth coefficient, for five survival rates. BreckJames E. SimonCarl P. RutherfordEdward S. LowBobbi S. LambersonP. J. RogersMark W. 2020 <p>In all four panels, the horizontal axis corresponds to the growth rate <i>k</i> in the non-linear von Bertalanffy growth curve. The vertical axis presents the optimal maturation <i>age</i> on the left two panels (A, C) and the optimal maturation <i>length</i> on the right two panels (B, D), for each value of <i>k</i>. For the top two panels the underlying fitness function is <i>R</i><sub>0</sub>; for the bottom two panels the underlying fitness function is <i>r</i>. In each panel, optimal age and size curves are drawn for five values of survival rates <i>s</i> (red: 0.25; orange: 0.50; green: 0.70; blue: 0.80; violet: 0.85). As the annual survival rate increases from <i>s</i> = 0.25 to 0.85, the optimal maturation age and length increase for a given <i>k</i>. In panels A & C, the horizontal black dashed line indicates the age at smolting; the colored points at the peak of the vertical lines indicate the maximum value of optimal maturation ages for a given annual survival <i>s</i>. In panels B and D, the horizontal red dashed line represents the asymptotic length of the von Bertalanffy growth function.</p>