This volume includes 19 of the contributions presented at the 32nd Annual Larval Fish Conference of the Early Life History Section (ELHS) of the American Fisheries Society held in Kiel, Germany from 4 to 7 August 2008. The conference was convened to provide a venue for the presentation and discussion of recent research on a wide range of topics related to early life stages of fish and cephalopods. Papers for this book were first presented at the conference and prepared, peer-reviewed and edited thereafter. The outcome is a set of papers dealing with the link between larval ecology and physical processes, developmental fish physiology, early life history strategies and aquaculture and stock enhancement. The first seven papers included in this book represent a variety of topics including the effects of abiotic factors on small-scale spatial distributions, seasonal variation in larval fish assemblages and vital rates in fish eggs and larvae, as well as research utilising biophysical, individual-based modelling. The following two papers summarise the challenges and opportunities related to the study of developmental physiology and the effect of acclimation processes on gene expression. Eight papers then deal with life history strategies. Topics covered include exploring repeated measurements of cumulative length frequencies of developing cohorts, patterns of growth and condition, methods for defining growth and condition, trophic flexibility, interactions between species and aspects of recolonisation. The final two papers of this book deal with aquaculture aspects. We hope that you enjoy this special volume of Scientia Marina. It was our pleasure to act as guest editors.