We investigated the pelagic habitat requirements of Arctic larval fish and the effects of interannual variability of ocean conditions on their distribution. We examined the distribution of larval Arctic cod, Bering flounder, yellowfin sole and capelin in the Chukchi and northern Bering seas during two years with different oceanographic conditions. We found that despite marked changes in water mass distribution, the distributions of larval fishes were not significantly different between the two years. In both years, Arctic cod and Bering flounder were found in cold, high salinity shelf waters advected from the south and influenced by winter cooling (Chukchi Winter Water and Anadyr Water mix). Yellowfin sole and capelin distributions were also similar from year-to-year but they were only found in warm, low salinity Alaska Coastal Water. The cold, high salinity water masses had elevated large copepod biomass, and the Alaska Coastal Water had elevated small copepod biomass. Thus, we propose that these water masses provided different but nonetheless potentially profitable foraging habitat for the four species of larval fishes. We conclude by suggesting that the timing and location of spawning of these species has evolved such that larval offspring are distributed in suitable foraging habitat despite interannual variability in ocean conditions. This study provides a baseline of Arctic larval fish distribution and insight into the degree of climate variability that might be expected to impact early life history stages of larval fish. Our results also increase the knowledge of the mechanistic links between oceanography and the early life history of fish. Because growth and survival of early life stages of fish often drives population change, our results contribute to the understanding of the impacts of climate change on Arctic fish populations.

我们调查了北极幼体鱼的中上生境需求以及海洋条件的年际变化对其分布的影响。在两年的不同海洋条件下，我们检查了楚科奇海和白令海北部幼体北极鳕鱼，白令比目鱼，黄鳍sole和毛鳞鱼的分布。我们发现尽管水质分布发生了显着变化，但两年间幼体鱼的分布没有显着差异。在这两年中，北极鳕鱼和白令比目鱼都在南方吹来的寒冷，高盐度的陆架水域中发现，并受到冬季降温的影响（楚科奇冬季水和阿纳德尔水混合气）。黄鳍和毛鳞鱼的分布逐年也相似，但仅在温暖，低盐度的阿拉斯加沿海水中发现。感冒 高盐度水团提高了co足类动物的生物量，而阿拉斯加沿海水域则提高了co足类动物的生物量。因此，我们建议这些水团为这四种幼鱼提供了不同但仍具有潜在收益的觅食栖息地。通过得出结论，我们认为这些物种的产卵时间和地点已经发生了变化，尽管海洋条件每年发生变化，但幼虫后代仍分布在合适的觅食栖息地中。这项研究提供了北极幼鱼分布的基线，并深入了解了可能影响幼鱼早期生活史阶段的气候变化程度。我们的结果还增加了对海洋学与鱼类早期生命史之间的机械联系的认识。