Modeling climate effects on the dispersal and distribution of early life stages of walleye pollock over the eastern Bering Sea Shelf ...

• Main Authors: Petrik, Colleen M., Duffy-Anderson, Janet T., Mueter, Franz, Hedstrom, Katherine, Danielson, Seth, Curchitser, Enrique, Barbeaux, Steven
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: ASC 2013 - Theme session B 2024
• Subjects: The sea and human culture and societies; Pressures, impacts, conservation, and management; Bering Sea; Theragra chalcogramma
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.24753108; https://ices-library.figshare.com/articles/conference_contribution/Modeling_climate_effects_on_the_dispersal_and_distribution_of_early_life_stages_of_walleye_pollock_over_the_eastern_Bering_Sea_Shelf/24753108

No abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author. We developed a coupled biological-physical model (ROMS-TRACMASS) to examine how variable atmospheric and oceanographic forcing affects the spawning, transport, and distribution of walleye pollock early life stages (ELS) in the eastern Bering Sea. The eastern Bering Sea recently experienced a prolonged warm period followed by a prolonged cold period. Analyses of observational data indicated that spatial distributions of walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma; hereafter pollock) ELS are influenced by broad-scale and fine-scale variables, with temperature explaining more of the variation in abundance than wind, spawning stock biomass, and zooplankton biomass. Under warmer-than-average thermal conditions over the Bering Sea shelf distributions were shifted to the east, suggesting a relationship with the predominant wind patterns in these years. Additionally, adult fishery data indicate a change in the time of peak spawning between warm and cold ...