The first weeks in life are crucial for the fate of fish. During this period, fish show large dispersal rates and suffer from massive mortality due mainly to predation. Intrinsic and extrinsic processes (growth rates, advection, behavior, diseases) affect this mortality and have profound consequences on populations. For a century now, describing the distribution, physiology and dynamics of fish early life phases has been the focus of intense research, building a solid community of scientists that met at the 43rd Annual Larval Fish Conference, held in Palma, Spain, 21-24 May 2019. The present Theme Section consists of 19 papers that are a sample of the research presented at the conference. The papers are organized around 5 main topics: (1) mortality estimation and process understanding, (2) parental effects on larval fish ecology, (3) larval settlement to juvenile grounds, (4) early life stages of fish within food webs, and (5) contribution of early life stages of fish to assessment and management. Contributions to this Theme Section focus on hot topics as well as old paradigms; the latter continue to elicit much research work, which has benefited from recent advances in technology.

中文翻译：

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鱼类早期生命阶段研究：生机勃勃的领域

生命的最初几周对鱼的命运至关重要。在此期间，鱼类表现出较大的扩散速度，并且主要由于捕食而遭受大量死亡。内在和外在过程（增长率、平流、行为、疾病）会影响这种死亡率并对人口产生深远的影响。一个世纪以来，描述鱼类早期生命阶段的分布、生理学和动力学一直是深入研究的重点，建立了一个坚实的科学家社区，他们在 21 至 24 日在西班牙帕尔马举行的第 43 届年度幼鱼鱼类会议上会面2019 年 5 月。目前的主题部分由 19 篇论文组成，这些论文是会议上提交的研究样本。这些论文围绕 5 个主要主题进行组织：(1) 死亡率估计和过程理解，(2) 亲本对幼鱼生态的影响，(3) 幼体在幼体的栖息地，(4) 食物网中鱼类的早期生命阶段，以及 (5) 鱼类早期生命阶段对评估和管理的贡献。本主题部分的贡献集中在热门话题和旧范式上；后者继续引发大量研究工作，这得益于最近的技术进步。