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Spatiotemporal occurrence of summer ichthyoplankton in the southeast Beaufort Sea

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Abstract

Current trends of fish communities in the interior Arctic Ocean are largely unknown, whereas more fishes of boreal origin are reported from the Chukchi and Barents Seas recently. To assess variability in species composition and spatiotemporal occurrence in ichthyoplankton in the southeast Beaufort Sea, we sampled larval and juvenile fish using square-conical nets in the upper water column (<100 m) from June to September between 2002 and 2011. Gadidae consisting of Boreogadus saida and Arctogadus glacialis numerically accounted for >75 % of total catches every month. Cottidae and Liparidae usually followed Gadidae, together representing 9–94 % of non-gadid species in number. The majority of dominant and subdominant species occurred ubiquitously through the sampling area, whereas Gymnocanthus tricuspis (Cottidae), Liparis gibbus (Liparidae), and Leptoclinus maculatus (Stichaeidae) occurred abundantly on the Mackenzie Shelf. In contrast, Triglops nybelini (Cottidae) was frequently found in the Amundsen Gulf, which was characterized by higher salinities (>25). Exceptional species composition was observed in September 2011, when Ammodytes hexapterus (Ammodytidae) numerically accounted for 67 % of non-gadid species. In the southeast Beaufort Sea, summer ichthyoplankton are characterized by the overwhelming dominance of Arctic gadids as well as the frequent occurrence of Arctic cottids and liparids. However, the sudden and frequent occurrence of A. hexapterus may be a first sign of significant changes in fish communities in the interior Arctic Ocean.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the officers and crew of the Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers Amundsen, Pierre Radisson, and Sir Wilfrid Laurier for their technical assistance under the extreme conditions of the Arctic Ocean. We also express gratitude to A. Forest for his valuable suggestions on CTD data processing. Laboratory technicians L. Létourneau, C. Aubry, and H. Cloutier analyzed ichthyoplankton samples attentively. The present study was partly supported by a grant to L. Fortier from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada. K. Suzuki benefited from the scholarship program of le Fonds de recherche du Québec-Nature et technologies (FRQNT). This article is a contribution to the Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Study (CASES), ArcticNet, Québec-Océan, and the Canada Research Chair on the response of marine arctic ecosystems to climate warming.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Maizuru Fisheries Research Station, Field Science Education and Research Center, Kyoto University, Nagahama, Maizuru-shi, Kyoto, 625-0086, Japan

    Keita W. Suzuki

  2. Québec-Océan, Département de Biologie, Université Laval, Quebec, QC, G1V 0A6, Canada

    Caroline Bouchard & Louis Fortier

  3. Centre for Fisheries Ecosystems Research, Fisheries and Marine Institute, Memorial University of Newfoundland, PO Box 4920, St. John’s, NL, A1C 5R3, Canada

    Dominique Robert

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  1. Keita W. Suzuki
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  2. Caroline Bouchard
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  4. Louis Fortier
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Correspondence to Keita W. Suzuki.

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Suzuki, K.W., Bouchard, C., Robert, D. et al. Spatiotemporal occurrence of summer ichthyoplankton in the southeast Beaufort Sea. Polar Biol 38, 1379–1389 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-015-1701-4

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