Groundfish species in the Bering Sea are undergoing pronounced changes in spatial distribution and abundance due to warming ocean temperatures. The main drivers of interannual variability in this ecosystem are the alternating warm and cold thermal stanzas. Yellowfin sole (Limanda aspera; YFS) and northern rock sole (Lepidopsetta polyxystra; NRS) are commercially-valuable flatfishes in the Bering Sea and are among the most dominant groundfish species there in numbers and biomass. We examined the variability in the spatial distribution and abundance of juvenile NRS and YFS in relation to the ice and temperature conditions associated with warm-cold thermal shifts from 1982 to 2017. The goal was to assess the implications of the fluctuating thermal environment for Bering Sea flatfish production. We found ice cover and bottom temperature indices in the preceding 1 to 3 years to be the best predictors of NRS juvenile distribution. In contrast, these indices were not significantly correlated with YFS juvenile distribution, which could be an artifact of their relatively low availability to sampling. A warm stanza, as the Bering Sea is currently in, is expected to favor high numbers of NRS juveniles and the northward expansion of their distribution.

中文翻译：

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对比白令海东部两种幼体比目鱼相对于热节的空间分布变异性

由于海洋温度升高，白令海的底栖鱼类物种的空间分布和丰度发生了明显变化。这个生态系统中年际变化的主要驱动因素是交替的暖节和冷节。黄鳍（Limanda aspera； YFS）和北部岩（Lepidopsetta polyxystra; NRS）是白令海中具有商业价值的比目鱼，并且在数量和生物量方面都是最主要的底层鱼类之一。我们研究了1982年至2017年与冰冷和温度条件相关的，幼年NRS和YFS的空间分布和丰度的变化。目标是评估热环境变化对白令海的影响比目鱼生产。我们发现前1至3年的冰盖和底部温度指数是NRS幼年分布的最佳预测指标。相反，这些指数与YFS少年分布没有显着相关性，这可能是它们相对较低的采样可用性。如白令海（Bering Sea）目前正在温暖的节