Relationships of sea ice extent and bottom water temperature with abundance of snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) on the Newfoundland - Labrador Shelf ...

• Main Authors: Dawe, Earl G., Parsons, Donald G., Colbourne, Eugene B.
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: ASC 2008 - Theme session B 2024
• Subjects: Arctic Sea FAO area 18; Ecosystem observation, processes and dynamics; Arctic; Canada; Labrador Shelf; Newfoundland; Chionoecetes opilio; Sea ice; Snow crab
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.25243474.v1; https://ices-library.figshare.com/articles/conference_contribution/Relationships_of_sea_ice_extent_and_bottom_water_temperature_with_abundance_of_snow_crab_Chionoecetes_opilio_on_the_Newfoundland_-_Labrador_Shelf/25243474/1

No abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author.It is widely believed that recent increases in crustacean resources, including snow crab, in Atlantic Canada are due to reduced predation (top-down effects). We advance an alternative hypothesis that snow crab production and early survival are regulated primarily by effects of ocean climate variation (bottom up effects) during early life history. We address this hypothesis by using time series analysis to establish relationships between recruitment indices and ocean climate indices at various time lags. We selected two indices of ocean climate variation, one to represent effects on epipelagic larval stages (ice coverage) and another to represent effects on early benthic stages (bottom temperature). Using catch per unit effort (CPUE) from the commercial snow crab fishery as our index of snow crab abundance we applied an autoregressive, integrated moving average (ARIMA) procedure with environmental input (transfer function) to explore ...