Novel biodiversity baselines outpace models of fish distribution in Arctic waters

Christiansen, Jørgen S.; Bonsdorff, Erik; Byrkjedal, Ingvar; Fevolden, Svein-Erik; Karamushko, Oleg V.; Lynghammar, Arve; Mecklenburg, Catherine W.; Møller, Peter D. R.; Nielsen, Julius; Nordström, Marie C.; Præbel, Kim; Wienerroither, Rupert

doi:10.1007/s00114-016-1332-9

Cited by 34 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…This opinion might possibly be based on fishermen visiting Greenland waters observing specific morphometric (phenotypic) characteristics of the cod growing up in Greenland waters that they recognize in Norwegian spawning sites. In a possible support, of considering the northeastern Greenland shelf as being a distant part of NEA cod habitat, are recent findings of adult cod in the area (Christiansen et al, 2016), see Figure 1.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

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The Northeast Greenland Shelf as a Potential Habitat for the Northeast Arctic Cod

et al. 2017

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Observations (1978)(1979)(1980)(1981)(1982)(1983)(1984)(1985)(1986)(1987)(1988)(1989)(1990)(1991) of distributions of pelagic juvenile Northeast Arctic cod (Gadus morhua L.) show that up to 1/3 of the year class are dispersed off the continental shelf and into the deep Norwegian Sea while on the way from the spring-spawning areas along the Norwegian coast to the autumn-settlement areas in the Barents Sea. The fate of this variable fraction of pelagic juveniles off-shelf has been an open question ever since Johan Hjort's (1914) seminal work. We have examined both the mechanisms causing offspring off-shelf transport, and their subsequent destiny using an individual-based biophysical model applied to quantify growth and dispersal. Our results show, consistently with the observations, that total off-shelf transport is highly variable between years and may be up to 27.4%. Offspring from spawning grounds around Lofoten have a higher chance of being displaced off the shelf. The off-shelf transport is dominated by episodic events where frequencies and dates vary between years. Northeasterly wind conditions over a 3-7-day period prior to the off-shelf events are a good proxy for dispersal of offspring off the shelf. Offspring transported into the open ocean are on average carried along three following routes: back onto the adjacent eastern shelves and into the Barents Sea (36.9%), recirculating within the Lofoten Basin (60.7%), or drifting northwest to the northeast Greenland shelf (2.4%). For the latter fraction the transport may exceed 12% depending on year. Recent investigations have discovered distributions of young cod on the northeast Greenland shelf indicating that conditions may support survival for Northeast Arctic cod offspring.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…The thick black trajectory shows the 2009 drifter with arrival at the Greenland shelf as commented in section Connectivity Studies on Atlantic Cod. Locations of observed cod on Greenland are marked with green dots (taken from Christiansen et al, 2016). Currents are marked as NCC (green arrow), AW/NASC (red arrow), and Arctic water (blue arrow).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Northeast Greenland Shelf as a Potential Habitat for the Northeast Arctic Cod

et al. 2017

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“…Changes in fish distributions in the Arctic region have been found to be faster than predicted from models Ingvaldsen et al 2015;Christiansen et al 2016). The distributional changes are causing reconfigurations of ecological interactions in the Arctic (Kortsch et al 2015).…”

Section: Spatial Variation In Fish and Benthos Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Currently, changes in species distributions, interactions and food web structure in the Arctic cannot be predicted by models and data from regular large-scale surveys like the one used here are needed (e.g. Ingvaldsen et al 2015;Christiansen et al 2016).…”

Section: Spatial Variation In Fish and Benthos Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large-scale patterns in community structure of benthos and fish in the Barents Sea

et al. 2016

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Biogeographical patterns have an ecological basis, but few empirical studies possess the necessary scale and resolution relevant for investigation. The Barents Sea shelf provides an ideal study area, as it is a transition area between Atlantic and Arctic regions, and is sampled by a comprehensive survey of all major functional groups. We studied spatial variation in species composition of demersal fish and benthos to elucidate how fish and benthos communities co-varied in relation to environmental variables. We applied co-correspondence analysis on presence-absence data of 64 fishes and 302 benthos taxa from 329 bottom trawl hauls taken at the Barents Sea ecosystem survey in August-September 2011. We found highly significant similarities in the spatial pattern of distribution of benthos and fishes, despite their differences in motility and other ecological traits. The first common ordination axis separated boreal species in the south-west (Atlantic temperate water) from Arctic species in the north-east (Arctic cold water, ice-covered in winter). The second common axis separated shallow bank species from species found in deep basins and trenches. Our results show that fish and benthos communities had a similar relationship to the environmental gradients at the scale of hundreds to thousands of kilometres. We further discussed how fish-benthos interactions vary between sub-regions in the Barents Sea based on species traits and a food web topology for the Barents Sea. This study forms a basis for further investigations on links between fish and benthos communities in the Barents Sea.

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“…During a recent marine biological expedition, Christiansen et al (2016) made the first discovery of Atlantic cod on the Northeast Greenland Shelf break on the western side of Fram Strait. The observed cod were juveniles, and Christiansen et al (2016) found it conceivable that the individuals were advected with the Return Atlantic Current from the Barents Sea during their young pelagic phases.…”

Section: Implications and Future Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) feeding over deep water in the high Arctic

et al. 2017

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Novel biodiversity baselines outpace models of fish distribution in Arctic waters

Cited by 34 publications

References 25 publications

The Northeast Greenland Shelf as a Potential Habitat for the Northeast Arctic Cod

The Northeast Greenland Shelf as a Potential Habitat for the Northeast Arctic Cod

Large-scale patterns in community structure of benthos and fish in the Barents Sea

Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) feeding over deep water in the high Arctic

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