Patterns of declining zooplankton energy in the northeast Atlantic as an indicator for marine survival of Atlantic salmon

Publication history: Accepted - 20 May 2024; Published - 22 June 2024 Return rates of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) from the sea to European rivers have declined in recent decades. The first months at sea are critical for growth and survival; recent evidence suggests that reduced food availability m...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:ICES Journal of Marine Science
Main Authors: Tyldesley, Emma, Banas, Neil S, Diack, Graeme, Kennedy, Richard, Gillson, Jonathan, Johns, David G, Bull, Colin
Other Authors: Fisheries and Aquatic Ecosystems
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Oxford University Press 2024
Subjects:
Salmo salar
marine survival
ecosystem-based management
forage fish larvae
zooplankton
Calanus
copepods
oceanography
North Atlantic Ocean
continuous Plankton Recorder
Atlantic salmon
North Atlantic
Northeast Atlantic
Copepods
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12518/759
https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsae077
Description
Summary:Publication history: Accepted - 20 May 2024; Published - 22 June 2024 Return rates of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) from the sea to European rivers have declined in recent decades. The first months at sea are critical for growth and survival; recent evidence suggests that reduced food availability may be a contributory factor to the observed declines. Here, zooplankton abundance data are used to derive a measure of prey energy available to forage fish prey of salmon during early marine migration. This zooplankton prey energy has significantly and dramatically declined over much of the northeast Atlantic, and specifically within key salmon migration domains, over the past 60 years. Marine return rates from a set of southern European populations are found to exhibit clustering not entirely predictable from geographical proximity. Variability in grouped return rates from these populations is correlated with zooplankton energy on a range of scales, demonstrating the potential use of zooplankton energy as an indicator of salmon marine survival. Comparison with environmental variables derived from ocean model reanalysis data suggests zooplankton energy is regulated by a combination of climate change impacts on ecosystem productivity and multi-decadal variability in water mass influence along the migration routes. This work was supported by the UK Missing Salmon Alliance under the Likely Suspects Framework project and assisted by additional funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) EcoWind Ecosystem Change, Offshore Wind, Net Gain, and Seabirds (ECOWINGS) grant NE/X008983/1. The CPR Survey has been funded by numerous projects and grants since inception. The current funded projects relevant to this dataset include: UK NERC grant/award numbers NE/R002738/1 and NE/M007855/1; European Maritime and Fisheries Fund; Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science, grant/award numbers NE/R015953/1; Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) UK ECM-64770; Horizon 2020: 862428 Atlantic Mission and ...

Similar Items