Mortality and survival in early stages control recruitment in Calanus finmarchicus

Abstract

We present a data set describing the seasonal climatology and the spatial pattern in mortality and recruitment in early stages of Calanus finmarchicus in the lower St Lawrence estuary (LSLE) and the Gulf of St Lawrence (GSL), respectively. Contrary to the common assumption of constant mortality, daily mortality during development from egg to N3 or N6 showed important seasonal and spatial variations mostly independent from patterns in population egg production. Patterns in recruitment rate to late naupliar stages were mainly associated with patterns in survival, and dictated patterns in abundance of nauplii N4‐6 (seasonal, LSLE) and early copepodite C1‐2 (spatial, GSL). Consequently, recruitment to late naupliar and early copepodid stages was largely independent from patterns in population egg production. A multiple regression model showed that phytoplankton biomass and female abundance exerted opposite effects in the control of mortality, illustrating the beneficial effect of high phytoplankton biomass on the survival due to a relaxation of the cannibalism pressure or mortality owing to food shortage. A sensitivity analysis using a stage-based model clearly showed variations in the amplitude and the timing in recruitment to late naupliar stages solely due to different mortality formulations. Moreover, our simulations suggested that temperature alone should not be of primary importance in determining patterns in survival because of its general scaling effect on metabolism. Our study reinforces the importance of an adequate description of mortality and survival in studies of population dynamics and illustrates the importance of developing dynamic mortality formulations integrating multiple effects for future use in models of C. finmarchicus.