Comparative analysis of Calanus finmarchicus demography at locations around the Northeast Atlantic

Standardized time-series sampling was carried out throughout 1997 at seven locations around the Northeast Atlantic to investigate regional variations in the seasonal demography of Calanus finmarchicus. Sites ranged from an inshore location in the North Sea, where C. finmarchicus formed only a small component of the zooplankton (2000 mgC m-2 during spring and summer). The internal consistency of the demographic time-series from each site was investigated by three partial models of life-cycle processes. In general, the demography of late copepodites could be accounted for by a relatively simple forecast model of stage development and diapause. However, there was a large discrepancy between nowcast estimates of egg production based on female abundance, temperature, and chlorophyll, and hindcast simulations of the egg production required to account for the observed abundance of early copepodite stages. The results point to a gap in our understanding of seasonal variations in rates of egg production and/or survival of nauplii. Overall, the population sampled at Weathership M appeared to be reasonably self-contained, but all other sites were reliant on invasion of overwintered stock in spring. At least two generations were observed at all but one site, but the extent to which these were generated by discrete bursts of egg production varied between sites and seemed to be partly dependent on the proximity to an overwintering location

Influence of larval transport and temperature on recruitment dynamics of North Sea cod (Gadus morhua) across spatial scales of observation

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Romagnoni, G., Kvile, K. o., Dagestad, K., Eikeset, A. M., Kristiansen, T., Stenseth, N. C., & Langangen, O. Influence of larval transport and temperature on recruitment dynamics of North Sea cod (Gadus morhua) across spatial scales of observation. Fisheries Oceanography, (2020): 1-16, doi:10.1111/fog.12474.The survival of fish eggs and larvae, and therefore recruitment success, can be critically affected by transport in ocean currents. Combining a model of early‐life stage dispersal with statistical stock–recruitment models, we investigated the role of larval transport for recruitment variability across spatial scales for the population complex of North Sea cod (Gadus morhua ). By using a coupled physical–biological model, we estimated the egg and larval transport over a 44‐year period. The oceanographic component of the model, capable of capturing the interannual variability of temperature and ocean current patterns, was coupled to the biological component, an individual‐based model (IBM) that simulated the cod eggs and larvae development and mortality. This study proposes a novel method to account for larval transport and success in stock–recruitment models: weighting the spawning stock biomass by retention rate and, in the case of multiple populations, their connectivity. Our method provides an estimate of the stock biomass contributing to recruitment and the effect of larval transport on recruitment variability. Our results indicate an effect, albeit small, in some populations at the local level. Including transport anomaly as an environmental covariate in traditional stock–recruitment models in turn captures recruitment variability at larger scales. Our study aims to quantify the role of larval transport for recruitment across spatial scales, and disentangle the roles of temperature and larval transport on effective connectivity between populations, thus informing about the potential impacts of climate change on the cod population structure in the North Sea.G.R. was supported by the Norden Top‐level Research Initiative sub‐programme “Effect Studies and Adaptation to Climate Change” through the Nordic Centre for Research on Marine Ecosystems and Resources under Climate Change (NorMER). K.Ø.K. was supported by the WHOI John H. Steele Post‐doctoral Scholar award and VISTA – a basic research program in collaboration between The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, and Equinor. We thank an anonymous referee for valuable comments that substantially improved the article

The swimming kinematics of larval Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua L., are resilient to elevated seawater pCO2

Kinematics of swimming behavior of larval Atlantic cod, aged 12 and 27 days post-hatch (dph) and cultured under three pCO2 conditions (control-370, medium-1800, and high-4200 μatm) from March to May 2010, were extracted from swim path recordings obtained using silhouette video photography. The swim paths were analyzed for swim duration, distance and speed, stop duration, and horizontal and vertical turn angles to determine whether elevated seawater pCO2—at beyond near-future ocean acidification levels—affects the swimming kinematics of Atlantic cod larvae. There were no significant differences in most of the variables tested: the swimming kinematics of Atlantic cod larvae at 12 and 27 dph were highly resilient to extremely elevated pCO2 levels. Nonetheless, cod larvae cultured at the highest pCO2 concentration displayed vertical turn angles that were more restricted (median turn angle, 15°) than larvae in the control (19°) and medium (19°) treatments at 12 dph (but not at 27 dph). Significant reduction in the stop duration of cod larvae from the high treatment (median stop duration, 0.28 s) was also observed compared to the larvae from the control group (0.32 s) at 27 dph (but not at 12 dph). The functional and ecological significance of these subtle differences are unclear and, therefore, require further investigation in order to determine whether they are ecologically relevant or spurious