Factors influencing capelin (Mallotus villosus) recruitment on the Newfoundland shelf
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Environmental conditions experienced by marine fish eggs, larvae and juveniles are critical for recruitment into the spawning population, thereby influencing patterns in population fluctuations and year-class strength. Marine fish typically show a type III survivorship curve, where the most vulnerable stage occurs early in life. Capelin (Mallotus villosus) is a small, short-lived (3-6 years) forage fish species that occupies an important middle trophic position in the food web. In the 1980-1990s, capelin population collapses occurred in the three commercial fisheries in Iceland, the Barents Sea, and Newfoundland and Labrador. The Newfoundland population is the only one that has not shown any recovery in the subsequent three decades. The aims of this thesis were to: 1. Determine habitat- and bay-specific larval densities (as a proxy of site quality) (Ch.1) 2. Investigate environmental drivers (prey, predators) of larval densities and condition (Ch.2) 3. Determine the influence of ambient water chemistry on larval otolith chemistry (Ch.3) 4. Investigate connectivity among bays using otolith chemical signatures (Ch.4) In Chapter 1, I found consistent trends in the timing of spawning and annual larval densities in two northeastern Newfoundland bays (Trinity Bay and Notre Dame Bay (NDB)), suggesting coast-wide interannual trends in recruitment. Intertidal and subtidal habitats within NDB were of similar quality based on temperature, egg density, proportion of dead eggs, and larval densities. In Chapter 2, emergent larval densities were correlated with prey biomass, but not predator biomass or temperature, suggesting that larvae are emerging into a favourable prey environment but not necessarily into low predator abundances. Higher variation in larval length and condition was observed between years, with less variation between intertidal and subtidal habitats. In Chapter 3, I found that the concentrations of some non-essential elements increased in capelin embryonic otoliths with increasing environmental concentrations (i.e., strontium), while others do not (i.e., barium). Lastly, in Chapter 4, I found distinct otolith chemistry signatures in recently hatched capelin larvae from five bays throughout coastal Newfoundland that could be classified with high success. Overall, this research is important for the management of the Newfoundland capelin stock to ensure the survival of this critical species.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".