Use of diverse growth models to estimate annual survival from mean size in a sample: examples using sea urchins

Various models have been used to describe sea urchin growth including the von Bertalanffy, Richards, logistic, Tanaka, Gaussian, Gompertz, logistic dose response, and one derived from the Gamma function. Data from three sea urchins, Mesocentrotus (Strongylocentrotus) franciscanus, Echinometra mathaei, and Stomopeustes variolaris, tagged with tetracycline were used to order models based on levels of support determined by the wi measure of the Akaike's Information Criterion. Growth parameters were combined with the mean of measured size-frequency data to estimate survival and showed that estimates were insensitive to the growth model selected.