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Diet of juvenile cod (age 0–2) in the Barents Sea in relation to food availability and cod growth

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Abstract

Diet investigations were carried out on 0-, 1- and 2-year-old Northeast Arctic cod (Gadus morhua) sampled in the Barents Sea during 1984–2002. Stomach-content analyses showed that the 0 and 1 group cod fed mainly on crustaceans, with krill and amphipods composing up to 70% of their diet. Krill (Thysanoessa spp. and Meganyctiphanes norvegica) and amphipods (Themisto spp.) were mainly found in cod stomachs sampled in the central and close to the Polar Front region in the Barents Sea where these prey organisms are reported to be abundant in summer. A shift in the main diet from crustaceans to fish was observed from age 1 to age 2. The diet of 2-year-old cod mainly comprised capelin (Mallotus villosus) and other fish, and to a lesser degree, krill and amphipods. Shrimp (mainly Pandalus spp.) was also an important prey in both age 1 and 2 cod. A statistically significant positive relationship was obtained between capelin stock size and the amount of capelin in the diet of 2-year-old cod. Results from this study also show that the larger age-2 cod preyed more on capelin in winter and that larger cod (>22 cm) prefer larger capelin (>12 cm). During periods of low capelin abundance, the 2-year-old cod shift their diet more to crustaceans, such as krill and amphipods. A positive significant relationship was also obtained between Total Fullness Index (TFI) and the amount of capelin in the diet and between TFI and the growth of 2-year-old cod, indicating that the growth of age-2 cod is to a large extent dependent on the amount of capelin consumed. Growth of age-1 cod was also positively correlated to TFI.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support for this study has been provided by two EU projects: (1) The Barents Region: Linking Arctic Natural resources, climate change and Economics (BALANCE) EVK2-2001-00369, and (2) Development of structurally detailed statistically testable models of marine populations (dst2) QLK5-CT1999-01609. This project is placed under the research program “Climate and Fish” at the Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway. We thank PINRO (Murmansk, Russia) for kindly providing the temperature data from the Kola section from 1995–2002. We would also like to thank Dr. Philip Reid and one anonymous referee for their constructive comments on the manuscript.

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  1. Institute of Marine Research, P.O. Box 1870, 5817 , Bergen, Norway

    Padmini Dalpadado & Bjarte Bogstad

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  1. Padmini Dalpadado
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  2. Bjarte Bogstad
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Correspondence to Padmini Dalpadado.

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Dalpadado, P., Bogstad, B. Diet of juvenile cod (age 0–2) in the Barents Sea in relation to food availability and cod growth. Polar Biol 27, 140–154 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-003-0561-5

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