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Ecological significance of 0-group fish in the Barents Sea ecosystem

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Abstract

Investigations into the 0-group fish in the Barents Sea have been carried out since 1965, with the goal of estimating the abundance of 0-group fish. 0-group abundance indices have been used in the assessment of the recruitment level and in recruitment variability studies. However, the ecological importance of the 0-group fish in the Barents Sea has been less studied. Although 0-group capelin, herring, cod and haddock are widely distributed in the Barents Sea, the central area seems to be the most important, accounting for approximately 50–80% of the annual biomass. The total biomass of the four most abundant 0-group fish species can be up to 3.3 million tonnes, with an average of 1.3 million tonnes (1993–2009). Wide distribution and high biomass of pelagically distributed 0-group fish make these fishes an important element in the energy transport between different trophic levels and different geographical areas, having a critical impact on the entire Barents Sea ecosystem. In recent years, capelin have shown a pronounced northward shift in biomass distribution, and several successive strong year classes occurred during warm temperature conditions. Cod biomasses were unexpectedly low during warm years and were positively correlated with spawning stock biomass, while the correlation with temperature was not significant. Haddock and herring show, as expected, increasing biomass with increased temperature when the spawning stock is at a sufficiently high level.

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Abbreviations

0-group fish:

Fish in their first year of life when they are 5–7 months old in August–September

SSB:

Spawning stock biomass

AB:

Actual biomass

EB:

Estimated biomass

Kola T:

Temperature

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Acknowledgments

We thank Natalia Yaragina, an anonymous referee and the editor for their constructive comments which greatly improved the quality of the paper. We also thank Daniel Howell for providing language improvements. We would like to acknowledge economic support provided by the Barents Sea Research program at IMR and from the EU project FACTS.

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    Elena Eriksen, Bjarte Bogstad & Odd Nakken

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  1. Elena Eriksen
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  2. Bjarte Bogstad
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  3. Odd Nakken
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Correspondence to Elena Eriksen.

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Eriksen, E., Bogstad, B. & Nakken, O. Ecological significance of 0-group fish in the Barents Sea ecosystem. Polar Biol 34, 647–657 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-010-0920-y

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