Temporal variability in the environmental and geographic predictors of spatial-recruitment in nearshore rockfishes

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 574:97-111 (2017) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps12120 Temporal variability in the environmental and geographic predictors of spatial-recruitment in nearshore rockfishes Russell W. Markel1,2,*, Katie E. Lotterhos3,*,**, Clifford L. K. Robinson4 1Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada 2Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre, Bamfield, BC V0R 1B0, Canada 3Northeastern University Marine Science Center, 430 Nahant Road, Nahant, MA 01908, USA 4Marine Protected Areas Research Group, Geography Department, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8P 5C2, Canada *These authors contributed equally to this work**Corresponding author: k.lotterhos@neu.edu ABSTRACT: Geography and habitat availability may be key drivers underlying spatial patterns of larval supply and recruitment success of nearshore marine fishes, but they are poorly understood. We assessed spatial recruitment patterns of nearshore young-of-the-year Pacific rockfishes Sebastes spp. in kelp forest and eelgrass meadow habitats from 2004 to 2014 on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Our sites varied in habitat area, wave exposure, sea surface temperature, and distance from the open coast. We observed recruitment of several species of rockfish, including black rockfish S. melanops, bocaccio rockfish S. paucispinis, and a complex of copper, quillback, and brown rockfishes (S. caurinus, S. maliger, and S. auriculatus; CQB). For black rockfish, the species recruiting in highest abundances, we found that although the environmental variables that predicted recruitment were temporally variable, in some years recruitment was higher at sites with colder sea surface temperature, higher tidal velocity, higher fetch, and higher salinity. In contrast, CQB rockfish recruitment was consistently higher at sites with higher fetch but lower tidal velocity, and this relationship was stable through time. Interactions among environmental variables and habitat area explained the counterintuitive observation of higher recruitment in smaller eelgrass meadows but larger kelp forests. Moreover, sites in or on the boundary of a rockfish conservation area experienced the lowest recruitment during an exceptionally strong black rockfish recruitment event in 2006. These results suggest that temporal variability in the ability of environmental variables to predict the spatial distribution of young-of-the-year rockfishes should be considered in models of population connectivity. KEY WORDS: Marine protected areas · Larval supply · Population replenishment · Spatial patterns · Rockfish Conservation Areas Full text in pdf format Supplementary material PreviousNextCite this article as: Markel RW, Lotterhos KE, Robinson CLK (2017) Temporal variability in the environmental and geographic predictors of spatial-recruitment in nearshore rockfishes. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 574:97-111. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps12120 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 574. Online publication date: July 04, 2017 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2017 Inter-Research.