Details:

Journal Title:
Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography
Personal Author:
Parada, Carolina ; Hinckley, Sarah ; Horne, John ; Mazur, Michael ; Hermann, Albert ; ... More +
Parada, Carolina ; Hinckley, Sarah ; Horne, John ; Mazur, Michael ; Hermann, Albert ; Curchister, Enrique Less -
NOAA Program & Office:
NOAA General Documents
Description:
We investigated the connectivity of walleye pollock in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) and linkages to the Bering Sea (BS) and Aleutian Island (AL) regions. We used a spatially-explicit Individual-based model (IBM) coupled to 6 years of a hydrodynamic model that simulates the early life history of walleye pollock in the GOA (eggs to age-0 juveniles). The processes modeled included growth, movement, mortality, feeding and the bioenergetics component for larvae and juveniles. Simulations were set to release particles on the 1st of the month (February to May) in fourteen historical spawning areas in the GOA up to the 1st of September each year. Model results reproduced the link between the Shelikof Strait spawning area and the Shumagin nursery region for March and April spawners, besides other Potential Nursery Areas (PNAs) found in the GOA. A prominent finding of this study was the appearance of the BS as important PNAs for several GOA spawning grounds, which is supported by a consistent flow into the BS through Unimak Pass. The simulations showed the highest density of simulated surviving pollock in the western Bering Sea (WBS) region with the lowest coefficients of variation of the whole domain. Three spawning sectors were defined, which aggregate multiple spawning areas in the eastern (EGOA), central (CGOA) and western Gulf of Alaska (WGOA). A connectivity matrix showed strong retention within the CGOA (25.9%) and EGOA (23.8%), but not in the WGOA (7.2%). Within the GOA, the highest connectivity is observed from EGOA to CGOA (57.8%) followed by the connection from CGOA to WGOA (24.3%). Overall, one of the most prominent connections was from WGOA to WBS (62.8%), followed by a connection from CGOA to WBS (29.2%). In addition, scenarios of shifting spawning locations and nursery sectors of GOA, BS and AL are explored and implications for walleye pollock stock structure hypotheses are discussed.
Keywords:
[+]
Oceanography
Source:
Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography, 132, 227-239
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr2.2015.12.010
ISSN:
0967-0645
Format:
PDF
Publisher:
Elsevier BV
Document Type:
Journal Article
Rights Information:
Accepted Manuscript
Compliance:
Library
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:720c0e50fc389593799930b3f579ec4bed74f8a777e07be3c3acf3db1afccc74
Download URL:
https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/57680/noaa_57680_DS1.pdf
File Type:

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