Citation:

Loiselle, R., D. REUSSER, H. LEE, II, AND M. R. FRAZIER. Identifying circumstantial evidence in North Eastern pacific benthic fish species for suspected polar invasion. Presented at USGS PNW Science Conference, Vancouver, WA, March 01 - 03, 2011.

Impact/Purpose:

There is a growing need to understand how marine species respond to projected climate changes at geographic scales relevant to individual species.

Description:

There is a growing need to understand how marine species respond to projected climate changes at geographic scales relevant to individual species. One approach is to use widespread and publicly available fisheries data. These databases provide a cost-effective means to explore relationships between historic environmental conditions and fishery distributions on a large geographic scale. One such data source is NOAA’s RACE program, a long term bottom trawl sampling program of wide geographic extent. In an effort to extrapolate patterns in species’ dispersals across large areas, we used 28 years of data collected in the North Pacific to describe the observed environmental niches for several demersal fish species. In addition, we are examining regional temperature trends to determine potential routes of migration for southern species into polar waters. As a specific example from these analyses, we present data for the Pacific dogfish, Squalus acanthias. Niche diagrams, depicting occurrence distributions as a function of depth and temperature, indicate that this species has a wide geographical extent, is found at all depths of the coastal shelf, and at bottom temperatures between 5-15 °C. Although this species occurs near the polar waters of the Eastern Bering Sea, its presence there is limited. A closer look at its occurrence within the Eastern Bering Sea reveals its potential to migrate into the area during warm years. An additional comparison of regional temperature regimes may expose mechanisms for thermal barriers to species’ dispersal pathways.

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