Pelagic food-webs in a changing Arctic: a trait-based perspective suggests a mode of resilience

• Published in: ICES Journal of Marine Science
• Main Authors: Renaud, Paul Eric, Daase, Malin, Banas, Neil, Gabrielsen, Tove M., Søreide, Janne, Varpe, Øystein, Cottier, Finlo Robert, Falk-Petersen, Stig, Halsband, Claudia, Vogedes, Daniel Ludwig, Heggland, Kristin, Berge, Jørgen
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press (OUP) 2018
• Subjects: VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Zoology and botany: 480; VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480; Arctic; Renaud; Calanus finmarchicus; Calanus glacialis; Calanus hyperboreus; Zooplankton; Copepods
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10037/14535; https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsy063

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in ICES Journal of Marine Science following peer review. The version of record Renaud, P.E., Daase, M., Banas, N.S., Gabrielsen, T.M., Søreide, J.E., Varpe, Ø., . Berge, J. (2018). Pelagic food-webs in a changing Arctic: a trait-based perspective suggests a mode of resilience. ICES Journal of Marine Science , is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsy063 . Arctic marine ecosystems support fisheries of significant and increasing economic and nutritional value. Commercial stocks are sustained by pelagic food webs with relatively few keystone taxa mediating energy transfer to higher trophic levels, and it remains largely unknown how these taxa will be affected by changing climate and the influx of boreal taxa. Calanus species store large quantities of lipids, making these zooplankton a critical link in marine food-webs. The Arctic Calanus species are usually larger and, importantly, have been suggested to contain disproportionately larger lipid stores than their boreal congeners. Continued climate warming and subsequent changes in primary production regimes have been predicted to lead to a shift from the larger, lipid-rich Arctic species, Calanus glacialis and Calanus hyperboreus , toward the smaller, boreal Calanus finmarchicus in the European Arctic, with negative consequences for top predators. Our data show that lipid content is closely related to body size for all three species, i.e. is not a species-specific trait, and that there is considerable overlap in size between C. finmarchicus and C. glacialis . A trait-based life-history model was used to examine an idealized scenario where, in a changed Arctic with a longer period of primary production, C. glacialis - and C. hyperboreus -like copepods are indeed replaced by C. finmarchicus -like individuals, whether through competition, plasticity, hybridization, or evolution. However, the model finds that transfer of energy from primary producers to higher predators may actually be more efficient in this future scenario, because of the changes in generation length and population turnover rate that accompany the body-size shifts. These findings suggest that Arctic marine food webs may be more resilient to climate-related shifts in the Calanus complex than previously assumed.