Comparison of the effects of climate variations on pelagic ocean habitats and their potential role in structuring the forage fish distributions in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska ...

• Main Authors: Hollowed, Anne B., Barbeaux, Steven, Farley, Ed, Cokelet, Ned, Kotwicki, Stan, Logerwell, Elizabeth, Ressler, Patrick, Wilson, Christopher
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: ASC 2010 - Theme session R 2024
• Subjects: Pressures, impacts, conservation, and management; Bering Sea; Gulf of Alaska; Theragra chalcogramma; Alaska
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.25133285.v1; https://ices-library.figshare.com/articles/conference_contribution/Comparison_of_the_effects_of_climate_variations_on_pelagic_ocean_habitats_and_their_potential_role_in_structuring_the_forage_fish_distributions_in_the_Bering_Sea_and_Gulf_of_Alaska/25133285/1

No abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author.Theoretical ecology suggests that competition between species and predator-prey interactions are modulated by the quality and quantity of suitable habitat. This paper examines whether climate variations influence the boundaries of suitable pelagic habitat, and whether these changes effect the spatial distribution and interactions between key fish species in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. The study focuses on the summer distributions of forage fish (age-0 and age-1 walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma), and capelin, (Mallotus villous). Forage fish distributions were collected during summer acoustic and bottom trawl surveys conducted as part of the NOAA groundfish trawl and acoustic surveys in the Bering Sea in 2003 -2007, and the NOAA Fishery Interaction Team experiments in the Gulf of Alaska conducted in 2000-2006. We compare the responses of age-0 and age-1 walleye pollock, and capelin to climate induced shifts in pelagic habitats in ...