Size, diet, and condition of age-0 Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) during warm and cool climate states in the eastern Bering sea

The revised Oscillating Control Hypothesis for the Bering Sea suggests that recruitment of groundfish is linked to climatic processes affecting seasonal sea ice that, in turn, drives the quality and quantity of prey available to young fish for growth and energy storage during their critical life his...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Deep-sea research. Part II, Topical studies in oceanography Topical studies in oceanography, 2016-12, Vol.134, p.247-254
Main Authors: Farley, Edward V., Heintz, Ron A., Andrews, Alex G., Hurst, Thomas P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age-0
Bering Sea
Climate
Copepoda
Diet
Diets
Energetics
Euphausiid
Fish
Gadus macrocephalus
Marine
Pacific cod
Recruitment
Shelves
Stomach
Winter
Winter survival
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The revised Oscillating Control Hypothesis for the Bering Sea suggests that recruitment of groundfish is linked to climatic processes affecting seasonal sea ice that, in turn, drives the quality and quantity of prey available to young fish for growth and energy storage during their critical life history stages. We test this notion for age-0 (juvenile) Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) by examining the variability in size, diet, and energetic condition during warm (2003–2005), average (2006), and cool (2007–2011) climate states in the eastern Bering Sea. Juvenile cod stomachs contained high proportions of age-0 walleye pollock (by wet weight) during years with warm sea temperatures with a shift to euphausiids and large copepods during years with cool sea temperatures. Juvenile cod were largest during years with warm sea temperatures and smallest during years with cool sea temperatures. However, energetic status (condition) of juvenile cod was highest during years with cool sea temperatures. This result is likely linked to the shift to high quality, lipid-rich prey found in greater abundance on the shelf and in the stomach contents of juvenile cod during cool years. Our examination of juvenile cod size, diet, and energetic status provided results that are similar to those from studies on juvenile pollock, suggesting that the common mechanisms regulating gadid recruitment on the eastern Bering Sea shelf are climate state, prey quality and quantity, and caloric density of gadids prior to winter.
ISSN:0967-0645
1879-0100
DOI:10.1016/j.dsr2.2014.12.011