Spreading the offspring in space and time may offer bet-hedging benefits by buffering environmental influences on parts of the offspring distribution. It has previously been shown that high mean age and size of spawners in the Northeast Arctic stock of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) is positively associated with high abundance and wide spatiotemporal distribution of eggs. However, little support has been found for a wide egg distribution acting as a buffer against environmental influences by leading to higher mean or less variable recruitment. The lacking relation between egg distribution and recruitment can be due to data limitation or alternatively that wide egg distributions may be of limited relevance for survival in later stages. To investigate these two alternatives, we analysed the output from a mechanistic coupled physical–biological drift model that projected the abundance of juvenile cod on the nursing grounds in the Barents Sea from empirically estimated egg distributions. The projections were performed with initial egg distributions reflecting the expected distributions at high and low mean weight of the spawners. We found that the extended distribution at the fringes only marginally contributed to recruitment, as a large proportion of the extra eggs at high mean age and size of spawners did not reach suitable nursing areas or failed to grow to a suitable size by the end of the season. In conclusion, our results suggest that the buffering effect of a geographically wide distribution of spawning products is insignificant compared to other effects on recruitment.

中文翻译：

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阐明东北北极鳕鱼卵空间分布与生存之间的联系

通过缓冲环境对部分后代分布的影响，在空间和时间上传播后代可能会提供对冲收益。先前已经表明，大西洋鳕鱼（Gadus morhua）的东北北极种群中产卵者的平均年龄和大小较高) 与鸡蛋的高丰度和广泛的时空分布正相关。然而，很少有人支持广泛的鸡蛋分布，通过导致更高的平均招募或更少的变量招募来缓冲环境影响。卵子分布和募集之间缺乏关系可能是由于数据限制，或者广泛的卵子分布可能与后期生存的相关性有限。为了研究这两种替代方案，我们分析了机械耦合物理-生物漂移模型的输出，该模型根据经验估计的卵分布预测了巴伦支海哺乳场上幼鳕的丰度。预测是用初始鸡蛋分布进行的，反映了产卵器高和低平均重量的预期分布。我们发现边缘的扩展分布仅对补充有很小的贡献，因为在高平均年龄和产卵者大小的情况下，很大一部分额外的鸡蛋没有到达合适的护理区域或在结束时未能长到合适的大小季节。总之，我们的结果表明，与其他对补充的影响相比，产卵产品在地理上广泛分布的缓冲作用微不足道。因为在产卵者的平均年龄和大小较高的情况下，大部分额外的鸡蛋没有到达合适的护理区或在季节结束时未能长到合适的大小。总之，我们的结果表明，与其他对补充的影响相比，产卵产品在地理上广泛分布的缓冲作用微不足道。因为在产卵者的平均年龄和大小较高的情况下，大部分额外的鸡蛋没有到达合适的护理区或在季节结束时未能长到合适的大小。总之，我们的结果表明，与其他对补充的影响相比，产卵产品在地理上广泛分布的缓冲作用微不足道。