Early Life History and Fisheries Oceanography: New Questions in a Changing World

Abstract

In the past 100 years since the birth of fisheries oceanography, research on the early life history of fishes, particularly the larval stage, has been extensive, and much progress has been made in identifying the mechanisms by which factors such as feeding success, predation, or dispersal can influence larval survival. However, in recent years, the study of fish early life history has undergone a major and, arguably, necessary shift, resulting in a growing body of research aimed at understanding the consequences of climate change and other anthropogenically induced stressors. Here, we review these efforts, focusing on the ways in which fish early life stages are directly and indirectly affected by increasing temperature; increasing CO 2 concentrations, and ocean acidification; spatial, temporal, and magnitude changes in secondary production and spawning; and the synergistic effects of fishing and climate change. We highlight how these and other factors affect not only larval survivorship, but also the dispersal of planktonic eggs and larvae, and thus the connectivity and replenishment of fish subpopulations. While much of this work is in its infancy and many consequences are speculative or entirely unknown, new modeling approaches are proving to be insightful by predicting how early life stage survival may change in the future and how such changes will impact economically and ecologically important fish populations. CAPTION. Larval stage of selected fish (from left to right): armored searobin, largetooth flounder, bythitid brotula, and little tunny. Photos by Cedric Guigand

Socio-economic Impacts—Fisheries

“…Sea surface temperature during winter affected the date of peak spawning, although the effect differed between stocks. Recruitment is critically dependent on the match or mismatch between the occurrence of the larvae and the availability of their food (Cushing 1990) and other climate-sensitive processes (Peck and Hufnagl 2012;Llopiz et al 2014), thus a change in spawning date could have knock-on effects for larval survival and hence future fisheries.…”

“…Under a high CO 2 emission scenario, model outputs indicate that much of the North Sea seafloor is likely to become undersaturated with regard to aragonite (a form of calcium carbonate used by some marine organisms to build their shells or skeletons) during late winter/early spring by 2100 (Artioli et al 2012). Ocean acidification may have direct and indirect impacts on the recruitment, growth and survival of exploited species (Fabry et al 2008;Llopiz et al 2014) and some species may become more vulnerable to ocean acidification with increases in temperature (Hale et al 2011). Impacts may be particularly apparent for animals with calcium carbonate shells and skeletons such as molluscs, some crustaceans, and echinoderms (Hendriks et al 2010;Kroeker et al 2010), but studies show large variations in responses to ocean acidification between and within taxonomic groups.…”

Relationship between swimming capacities and morphological traits of fish larvae at settlement stage: a study of several coastal Mediterranean species

“…Most coastal marine fish species have a bipartite life with a pelagic larval stage and a relatively sedentary adult stage. During the pelagic stage, larvae must migrate from offshore to inshore in search of suitable settlement habitats (Doherty et al, ; Leis, ; Leis & McCormick, ; Llopiz et al, ). The behavioural, physical and morphological traits of larvae have many implications for their dispersal potential, survival rate and habitat colonisation (Montgomery et al, ; Stobutzki & Bellwood, ).…”

Hamburger Klimabericht – Wissen über Klima, Klimawandel und Auswirkungen in Hamburg und Norddeutschland

“…Auch für die Nordsee zeigen Modellprojektionen eine Versauerung durch die vermehrte Aufnahme von Kohlendioxid aus der Luft durch das Meerwasser (Artioli et al 2012). Die Versauerung hat mög-licherweise direkte und indirekte Einflüsse auf die Rekrutierung, das Wachstum und das Überleben der genutzten Fischbestände (Fabry et al 2008;Llopiz et al 2014), die durch die Erwärmung noch verstärkt werden können (Hale et al 2011). Dabei sind zuerst Tiere mit Hüllen und Skeletten aus Kalziumkarbonat wie Mollusken, Crustaceen und Echiondermen gefährdet (Kroeker et al 2010;Hendriks et al 2010), und Effekte sind dokumentiert für Miesmuschel, Austern, Hummer und Kaisergranat (Nephrobs norvegicus) (Agnalt et al 2013;Gazeau et al 2010;Styf et al 2013).…”