View article

We show that chemical differences found along the open coast are sufficiently strong to leave a readable natal signature in fish otoliths. Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometric (LA‐ICPMS) analysis of individual larval otoliths taken from near‐term females of the primitively viviparous rockfish Sebastes atrovirens indicates detectable levels of several trace elements. Although these larvae show considerable between‐brood differences in elemental concentrations for females taken at the same site, there was significant between‐site discrimination of natal signatures for regions only tens of kilometers apart in the waters off of Santa Barbara, California. For several (but not all) elements, differences between regions were consistent between 2 yr. We also explore three different possible proxies (edges of otoliths of adult fishes, resin‐based elemental accumulators, and samples of seawater) that …