10.5061/DRYAD.CJSXKSN45
Tanner, Susanne E.
0000-0003-2225-7002
University of Lisbon
Giacomello, Eva
University of the Azores
Menezes, Gui M.
University of the Azores
Mirasole, Alice
Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn
Neves, João
University of the Azores
Sequeira, Vera
University of Lisbon
Vasconcelos, Rita P.
Portuguese Sea and Atmosphere Institute
Vieira, Ana Rita
University of Lisbon
Morrongiello, John R.
University of Melbourne
Data from: Marine regime shifts impact synchrony of deep‐sea fish growth
in the Northeast Atlantic
Dryad
dataset
2020
2020-08-28T00:00:00Z
2020-08-28T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.07332
337664 bytes
2
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
The complexity and spatio–temporal scale of populations’ dynamics
influence how populations respond to large-scale ecological pressures.
Detecting and attributing synchrony (i.e. temporally coincident
fluctuations in populations’ parameters) is key as synchronous populations
can become more vulnerable to stochastic events that can affect the
viability of harvest and have profound consequences to community
structure. Here, we aimed to estimate the level of synchrony in fish
growth within and among species across 1 million km2 and identify the
environmental drivers contributing to synchronous population fluctuations.
We developed otolith increment-based growth chronologies for two deep-sea
scorpaenid fishes (Helicolenus dactylopterus and Pontinus kuhlii) from
geographically and bathymetrically disjunct populations in the northeast
Atlantic (one species in three locations; two species with different depth
preferences). We used hierarchical models to partition variation in growth
within and between populations attributing it to intrinsic (age, species,
population) and extrinsic (environmental variables) drivers. We assessed
synchrony in growth variation within and among species and identified
common change points in population specific growth patterns. We documented
time-variant synchrony in growth variation of geographically and
bathymetrically segregated deep-sea fish populations, lasting 25 and 18
years, respectively. The observed synchrony was likely driven by shared
environmental forcing (Moran effect) as large-scale climate indices (East
Atlantic pattern and North Atlantic Oscillation) were important
environmental drivers of overall growth variation while the onset of
synchrony in growth variation was likely related to marine regime shifts
occurring in a wide area of the northeast Atlantic that affected the
entire ecosystem. However, our capacity to extrapolate growth information
across species and locations was dependent on the timing and magnitude of
environmental change. Developing a better understanding of the mechanisms
driving growth synchrony is key to ensure sustainable management of
populations in habitats that are fragile and highly sensible to
environmental change, such as the deep-sea.