A large-scale comparison of reproduction and recruitment of the stalked barnacle Pollicipes pollicipes across Europe

Abstract

Understanding large-scale spatial and temporal patterns of marine populations is a central goal in ecology, which has received renewed attention under climate change. However, few studies explore the large-scale dynamics of populations using standardized protocols and during the same time frames. We studied the phenology and intensity of reproduction and recruitment for the intertidal stalked barnacle Pollicipes pollicipes over an European scale and described their potential linkages with environmental variables. This species supports profitable fisheries in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal). In Brittany (France), we had observed a significant lower reproductive effort (long non-breeding season, short breeding period in summer) and low values of recruitment intensity. This pattern may be related to the fact that Brittany corresponds to the northern limit of the distribution of this species in continental Europe. On the Iberian Peninsula, the most different region was Galicia (Spain), with Asturias (Spain) and SW Portugal being more similar. In Galicia, we have observed a contradictory pattern characterized by the absence of a non-breeding period and by a shorter recruitment season than observed in other Iberian regions. Our results suggest that air temperature, SST and chlorophyll-a might be related to the variability in reproduction and recruitment patterns of P. pollicipes. Moreover, spring and early summer upwelling in SW Portugal and Galicia might be inhibiting recruitment in this period. At the northern limit, the expected increase in performance under climate change might facilitate the recovery of populations after exploitation, increasing the resilience of the resource to fishing pressure.