Spatiotemporal overlap between fish larvae and their planktonic prey is an important source of recruitment variability. Over the past decade, one species of redfish, Sebastes mentella, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence (GSL) produced multiple strong cohorts following decades of low recruitment, which has generated strong interest in identifying potential drivers of larval survival. The present study provides the first detailed, multi-year assessment of larval redfish (Sebastes spp.) trophodynamics. Interannual variability in larval redfish diet composition and prey selectivity was assessed using high-resolution prey identification of larval gut contents and in situ prey fields. Eggs from the calanoid copepod Calanus finmarchicus represented the most frequently consumed prey in 3 of the 4 collection years, and contributed the largest proportion of carbon ingested by redfish larvae in all years. The high consumption of C. finmarchicus eggs by larvae, combined with evidence of positive selection for this taxon in some years, supports the hypothesis of a strong trophic link between larval redfish and a key calanoid copepod in the GSL ecosystem. Our results indicate that future efforts investigating GSL redfish recruitment processes should consider environment-driven variability in the reproductive phenology and abundance of C. finmarchicus.

中文翻译：

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圣劳伦斯湾幼鱼红鱼（Sebastes spp。）的饮食组成和捕食偏好的年际变化

鱼幼虫与其浮游猎物之间的时空重叠是募集变异性的重要来源。在过去十年中，来自圣劳伦斯湾（GSL）的一种红鱼，Sebastes mentella，在几十年的低招募之后产生了多个强大的种群，这引起了人们对于寻找潜在的幼体存活驱动力的强烈兴趣。本研究提供了对幼体红鱼（Sebastes spp。）营养动力学的第一个详细的多年评估。幼虫红鱼日粮组成和捕食选择性的年际变化是通过使用高分辨的猎物鉴定幼虫肠道内容物和原地猎物场来评估的。the足类pe足类鱼类的蛋代表了4个采集年份中3个采集最频繁的猎物，并且在所有年份中，红鱼幼虫摄入的碳占最大比例。幼虫大量食用finmarchicus卵，再加上几年来对该分类群进行积极选择的证据，支持了在GSL生态系统中幼虫红鱼与关键a足类pe足之间存在强烈营养联系的假说。我们的结果表明，在研究GSL红鱼募集过程的未来工作中，应考虑环境因素导致的生殖物候和丰度C. finmarchicus的变异性。