Pronounced environmental trends across fronts suggest that the otolith chemistry of oceanic fish can resolve zones on either side, promoting application to population questions at similar spatial scales. Trace and minor elements laid down immediately prior to capture -along the edges of otoliths from Patagonian toothfish Dissostichus eleginoides -discriminated frontal zones in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current in the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean. Mean values differentiated sampling areas by up to 2.6 standard deviations, suggesting: (1) otolith Mg/Ca enrichment related to fish activity around the Burdwood Bank; (2) Mn/Ca enrichment associated with South America; (3) Sr/Ca linked to the presence of Circumpolar Deep Water; and (4) Ba/Ca to nutrient production and mixing. In the Polar Frontal Zone, meanders or eddies may account for affinities with neighbouring sampling areas, bringing water from the Subantarctic and Antarctic Zones onto the North Scotia Ridge. Moreover, fish age showed a significant relationship with depth and improved cross-validation by 14%, giving 85% classification rates to South American and Antarctic regions, and 57 tο 83% to areas along the Patagonian Shelf. These results indicate that otolith chemistry reflects hydrography, detecting oceanic gradients across the slope of continental shelves and between zones separated by strong trends like fronts.KEY WORDS: Otoliths ⋅ Spatial ecology ⋅ Fishery ⋅ Laser-ICPMS ⋅ Patagonian toothfish ⋅ Southern Ocean
Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisherMar Ecol Prog Ser 351: [249][250][251][252][253][254][255][256][257][258][259][260] 2007 ulation structuring occurs where differences in biogeochemistry are small, the mismatch can render the technique ineffective. The research questions that otolith chemistry can address, therefore, depend on whether the scale at which it varies matches the scale at which populations are structured.
Environmental structuring by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC)The ACC connects the southern hemisphere continents and islands and banks around the Antarctic. Within it, the Subantarctic Front (SAF), Polar Front (PF), and Southern ACC Front (SACCF) are identifiable around the continent (Orsi et al. 1995), penetrate the entire water column (e.g. Nowlin & Clifford 1982) and appear stable where they flow over large bathymetric features (Hofmann 1985). Frontal current jets account for most ACC transport. Between them are quiescent zones of slower moving water. The Subantarctic Zone is bounded on its equatorial side by the Subtropical Front (STF) and poleward by the SAF. Between the SAF and the PF lies the Polar Frontal Zone; south of the PF is the Antarctic Zone (Pollard et al. 2002).The contribution of temperature and salinity to vertical stratification distinguishes the 3 zones (Pollard et al. 2002). In the Subantarctic Zone, temperature dominates over salinity, so that a subsurface salinity minimum associated with Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) is stable because of relat...