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Review article - Peer-reviewed, 2023

Caught in the middle: bottom-up and top-down processes impacting recruitment in a small pelagic fish

Moyano, Marta; Illing, Bjorn; Akimova, Anna; Alter, Katharina; Bartolino, Valerio; Boerner, Gregor; Clemmesen, Catriona; Finke, Annegret; Groehsler, Tomas; Kotterba, Paul; Livdane, Lina; Mittermayer, Felix; Moll, Dorothee; von Nordheim, Lena; Peck, Myron A.; Schaber, Matthias; Polte, Patrick

Abstract

Understanding the drivers behind fluctuations in fish populations remains a key objective in fishery science. Our predictive capacity to explain these fluctuations is still relatively low, due to the amalgam of interacting bottom-up and top-down factors, which vary across time and space among and within populations. Gaining a mechanistic understanding of these recruitment drivers requires a holistic approach, combining field, experimental and modelling efforts. Here, we use the Western Baltic Spring-Spawning (WBSS) herring (Clupea harengus) to exemplify the power of this holistic approach and the high complexity of the recruitment drivers (and their interactions). Since the early 2000s, low recruitment levels have promoted intense research on this stock. Our literature synthesis suggests that the major drivers are habitat compression of the spawning beds (due to eutrophication and coastal modification mainly) and warming, which indirectly leads to changes in spawning phenology, prey abundance and predation pressure. Other factors include increased intensity of extreme climate events and new predators in the system. Four main knowledge gaps were identified related to life-cycle migration and habitat use, population structure and demographics, life-stage specific impact of multi-stressors, and predator-prey interactions. Specific research topics within these areas are proposed, as well as the priority to support a sustainable management of the stock. Given that the Baltic Sea is severely impacted by warming, eutrophication and altered precipitation, WBSS herring could be a harbinger of potential effects of changing environmental drivers to the recruitment of small pelagic fishes in other coastal areas in the world.

Keywords

Atlantic herring; Clupea harengus; Baltic Sea; Early life stages of fishes

Published in

Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries
2023, volume: 33, number: 1, pages: 55-84
Publisher: SPRINGER

Authors' information

Moyano, Marta
University of Agder
Moyano, Marta
Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA)
Illing, Bjorn
Johann Heinrich von Thunen Institute
Akimova, Anna
Johann Heinrich von Thunen Institute
Alter, Katharina
Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ)
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Aquatic Resources
Boerner, Gregor
University of Hamburg
Clemmesen, Catriona
GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel
Finke, Annegret
Johann Heinrich von Thunen Institute
Groehsler, Tomas
Johann Heinrich von Thunen Institute
Kotterba, Paul
Johann Heinrich von Thunen Institute
Livdane, Lina
Johann Heinrich von Thunen Institute
Mittermayer, Felix
GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel
Moll, Dorothee
Johann Heinrich von Thunen Institute
von Nordheim, Lena
Johann Heinrich von Thunen Institute
Peck, Myron A.
Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ)
Schaber, Matthias
Johann Heinrich von Thunen Institute
Polte, Patrick
Johann Heinrich von Thunen Institute

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG14 Life below water

UKÄ Subject classification

Fish and Aquacultural Science

Publication Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11160-022-09739-2

URI (permanent link to this page)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/121490