Department of Biology, Coastal Studies Institute, East Carolina University, Wanchese, North Carolina, United States of America.
Department of Environmental Quality, North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, Morehead City, North Carolina, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2023 May 15;18(5):e0285498. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0285498. eCollection 2023.
Species with short life spans frequently show a close relationship between population abundance and environmental variation making these organisms potential indicator species of climatic variability. White (Penaeus setiferus), brown (P. aztecus), and pink (P. duorarum) penaeid shrimp typically have an annual life history and are of enormous ecological, cultural, and economic value to the southeastern United States and Gulf of Mexico. Within North Carolina, all three species rely on the Pamlico Sound, a large estuarine system that straddles Cape Hatteras, one of the most significant climate and biogeographic breaks in the world, as a nursery area. These characteristics make penaeid species within the Pamlico Sound a critical species-habitat complex for assessing climate impacts on fisheries. However, a comprehensive analysis of the influence of the environmental conditions that influence penaeid shrimp populations has been lacking in North Carolina. In this study, we used more than 30 years of data from two fishery-independent trawl surveys in the Pamlico Sound to examine the spatial distribution and abundance of adult brown, white, and pink shrimp and the environmental drivers associated with adult shrimp abundance and juvenile brown shrimp recruitment using numerical models. Brown shrimp recruitment models demonstrate that years with higher temperature, salinity, offshore windstress, and North Atlantic Oscillation phase predict increased abundance of juveniles. Additionally, models predicting adult brown, white, and pink shrimp abundance illustrate the importance of winter temperatures, windstress, salinity, the North Atlantic Oscillation index, and the abundance of spawning adult populations from the previous year on shrimp abundance. Our findings show a high degree of variability in shrimp abundance is explained by climate and environmental variation and indicate the importance of understanding these relationships in order to predict the impact of climate variability within ecosystems and develop climate-based adaptive management strategies for marine populations.
寿命短的物种通常与环境变化之间存在密切关系，这使得这些生物成为气候变异性的潜在指示物种。白虾（Penaeus setiferus）、褐虾（P. aztecus）和粉虾（P. duorarum）通常具有一年生的生活史，对美国东南部和墨西哥湾具有巨大的生态、文化和经济价值。在北卡罗来纳州，这三个物种都依赖于帕姆利科海峡，这是一个横跨哈特拉斯角的大型河口系统，哈特拉斯角是世界上最重要的气候和生物地理分界线之一，是一个育苗区。这些特征使得帕姆利科海峡内的对虾物种成为评估渔业对气候影响的关键物种-栖息地复合体。然而，北卡罗来纳州缺乏对影响对虾种群的环境条件的综合分析。在这项研究中，我们使用了帕姆利科海峡两个独立渔业拖网调查超过 30 年的数据，使用数值模型研究了成年褐虾、白虾和粉虾的空间分布和丰度，以及与成年虾丰度和幼体褐虾补充量相关的环境驱动因素。褐虾补充模型表明，温度、盐度、离岸风应力和北大西洋涛动相位较高的年份预示着幼体丰度增加。此外，预测成年褐虾、白虾和粉虾丰度的模型说明了冬季温度、风应力、盐度、北大西洋涛动指数以及前一年繁殖成年种群的丰度对虾丰度的重要性。我们的研究结果表明，虾类丰度的高度变化可以通过气候和环境变化来解释，并表明了解这些关系的重要性，以便预测生态系统内气候变化的影响，并制定基于气候的海洋种群适应性管理策略。
