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Life history strategies of the Scotia Sea icefish, Chaenocephalus aceratus, along the Southern Scotia Ridge

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Abstract

Reproductive capacity can influence distribution and abundance over large spatial scales through larval dispersal, even when adult stages remain isolated following settlement. We examined size distribution, reproductive traits and age structure in Scotia Sea icefish, Chaenocephalus aceratus, an abundant benthic species with a long larval pelagic phase found on continental shelves along the Southern Scotia Ridge. In particular, we compared life history strategies between fish caught during surveys undertaken off the South Orkney Islands (SOI) and South Shetland Islands (SSI). Results corroborated regional separation after settlement and suggested distinct life history strategies, in which fish from SOI invested much less in reproduction, and somewhat more in somatic growth earlier in their life history. Compared to SSI, body weight increased faster with length and absolute fecundity was 46 % lower and increased more slowly with size for SOI population. In addition, the proportion of spawning cohorts and L ∞ was lower and k higher for SOI. The differences appeared to be a phenotypic response to environmental conditions related to regional hydrography. Lower reproductive capacity around the SOI, and strong eastward flow in the large-scale circulation, suggests that the SSI may be more important in influencing distributions and abundance of icefish along the Southern Scotia Ridge.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Alfred Wegener Institut für Polar-und Meeresforschung that provided us the opportunity to collect samples during ANT-XXVIII/4 2012 Polarstern cruise. A special thank goes to C. Papetti for helping in the gonad and otolith collection of the Scotia Sea icefish. We thank all the scientific staff, crew members and personnel aboard the RV Polarstern, for their essential support in sampling activities. We thank the crew and scientific team aboard the Yuzhmorgeologiya. Finally, we are grateful to two anonymous referees and to Karl-Hermann Kock, whose suggestions greatly improved the early draft of the manuscript. This research was supported by the Italian National Program for Antarctic Research (PNRA) to MLM and MIUR (Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca) to CM; by the United States National Science Foundation (NSF-OPP-0338294) and NOAA Antarctic Marine Living Resources Program to JRA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

    Emilio Riginella & Carlotta Mazzoldi

  2. UOS Ancona, Institute of Marine Sciences, CNR, Ancona, Italy

    Emilio Riginella & Mario La Mesa

  3. Center for Quantitative Fisheries Ecology, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA

    Julian Ashford & Christina Morgan

  4. Southwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Christopher D. Jones

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  1. Emilio Riginella
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  6. Mario La Mesa
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Correspondence to Mario La Mesa.

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Riginella, E., Mazzoldi, C., Ashford, J. et al. Life history strategies of the Scotia Sea icefish, Chaenocephalus aceratus, along the Southern Scotia Ridge. Polar Biol 39, 497–509 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-015-1802-0

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