Heatwave-induced synchrony within forage fish portfolio disrupts energy flow to top pelagic predators.

ABSTRACT: During the Pacific marine heatwave of 2014-2016, abundance and quality of several key forage fish species in the Gulf of Alaska were simultaneously reduced throughout the system. Capelin (Mallotus catervarius), sand lance (Ammodytes personatus), and herring (Clupea pallasii) populations were at historically low levels, and within this community abrupt declines in portfolio effects identify trophic instability at the onset of the heatwave. Although compensatory changes in age structure, size, growth or energy content of forage fish were observed to varying degrees among all these forage fish, none were able to fully mitigate adverse impacts of the heatwave, which likely included both top-down and bottom-up forcing. Notably, changes to the demographic structure of forage fish suggested size-

SUBMITTER: Arimitsu ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8048560 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature