Decoupling carry-over effects from environment in fish nursery grounds

• Published in: Science of The Total Environment
• Main Authors: Teichert, Nils, Lizé, Anne, Cabral, Henrique, Acou, Anthony, Trancart, Thomas, Virag, Laure-Sarah, Feunteun, Eric, Carpentier, Alexandre
• Other Authors: Biologie des Organismes et Ecosystèmes Aquatiques (BOREA), Université de Caen Normandie (UNICAEN), Normandie Université (NU)-Normandie Université (NU)-Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université des Antilles (UA), University of Liverpool, Station marine Dinard, Centre De Recherche et d'Enseignement sur les Systèmes Côtiers (CRESCO), Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER), Ecosystèmes aquatiques et changements globaux (UR EABX), Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER), Pôle OFB-INRAE-Institut Agro-UPPA pour la gestion des migrateurs amphihalins dans leur environnement (MIAME), Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour (UPPA)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Office français de la biodiversité (OFB)-Institut Agro Rennes Angers, Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro)-Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN), Université de Rennes 1 (UR1), This study was financially supported by the French Biodiversity Agency (5 square Félix Nadar 94300 Vincennes) as part of the CRIJEST project. We are grateful to the two anonymous referees for their comments and suggestions that have contributed to improve the relevance and quality of our manuscript. We would like to thank Elodie Réveillac for their constructive remarks on the seabass otolith reading, and the Adour Garonne Water Agency, Loire Bretagne Water Agency, Seine Normandie Water Agency and Artois Picardie Water Agency for their implication in the data collection as part of the Water Framework Directive (WFD; 2000/60/EC). We warmly thank the field staffs who organized and carried out the field samplings: Cellule de Suivi du Littoral Normand, Seaneo, and Nereis environnement.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2023
• Subjects: Early life-history traits; Fish nursery; Food limitation; Human impact; Ontogenetic trajectory; Otolith analysis; Trait covariance; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Northeast Atlantic
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03890706; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159487

International audience Life-history trait expression not only depends on the current environmental constraints, but also on the past ones that shaped traits expressed earlier in life. Such an effect, named carry-over, can occur in fish nursery grounds when juvenile performances after settlement are influenced by their larval traits in combination with conditions experienced in nurseries. To date, the impacts of environmental and human stressors on post-settlement traits have been assessed, but independently from larval traits, so that the contributions of environmental versus carry-over constraints remain unquantified. Here, we used a reconstructive approach based on otolith microstructure to investigate how carry-over and environment affect life-history traits of the European seabass, Dicentrarchus labrax. In the northeast Atlantic Ocean, seabass juveniles were collected in six French estuarine nursery areas with contrasted environmental conditions (water temperature, salinity, food availability, and anthropogenic impacts), and five of their life-history traits across ontogenetic stages were measured (pelagic growth, larval duration, size at settlement, post-settlement growth and body condition). Piecewise structural equation model emphasized the strong co-variation of larval traits in response to food availability and temperature in the pelagic environment, stressing that fast growing larvae are characterized by shorter pelagic larval duration, but larger size at recruitment. However, the magnitude of carry-over effects greatly varied between traits, revealing that larval trait impacts on post-settlement traits remained minor as compared to the nursery environment. In estuarine nurseries, our findings suggest that resource allocation results from a trade-off between somatic growth and energy storage. Fish juveniles exposed to anthropogenic stress or risk of food limitation tended to predominantly invest in storage, whereas individuals in favourable conditions allocated their resources in somatic growth. ...