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Trophic ecology of a deep-sea fish assemblage in the Northwest Atlantic

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Abstract

Understanding the trophic ecology of deep-sea communities provides valuable insight into deep-water ecosystem functioning, and can help inform fisheries management and conservation initiatives. However, few deep-sea food webs have been studied so far in the Northwest Atlantic. Here, stable isotope, gut content, and morphometric analyses were combined to explore trophic relationships in a deep-water fish assemblage off eastern Canada. While a weak depth effect was found on the isotopic composition of the species analyzed, isotopic and dietary records revealed the existence of two main, strongly coupled trophic pathways. The pelagic pathway either comprised pelagic fishes (e.g., meso- and bathypelagic species), primarily feeding on zooplankton and fish, or benthopelagic predators that showed a more pelagic-oriented diet. Such fishes displayed the lowest values of stable N and C isotope ratios. In contrast, demersal fishes representing the benthic trophic pathway had significantly higher values of δ15N and δ13C, and a taxonomically more benthic-oriented and diverse diet. Furthermore, smaller body sizes, larger mouths, and adaptations (e.g., bioluminescent structures and lures) prevailed in the pelagic species, consistent with living in a relatively food-poor environment. The largest average body sizes were found in the demersal fishes suggesting enhanced food intake and growth investment for the species. Only juvenile individuals of threatened species, such as Coryphaenoides rupestris and Rajella fyllae were caught, providing evidence of the vulnerability of such species to commercial fishing.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant (Grant no. 311406 to A. Mercier and 105379 to C.C. Parrish) and Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) Leaders Opportunity Fund (Grant no. 11231 to A. Mercier). The authors also want to thank the associate editor C. Harrod and the reviewers for their insightful comments and great contributions to this manuscript; the DFO staff, in particular D. Stansbury, K. Tipple, D. Pittman, V.E. Wareham, and M. Koen-Alonso for help with logistics and species identification; E. Montgomery for sample collection; A. Pye, J. Wells, U. Tilves, N. Ӧzdemír, K.S.P. Gale, L. Cárreon-Palau, R. Belley, and J. Ammendolia for technical support.

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  1. Department of Ocean Sciences, Memorial University, St. John’s, NL, A1C 5S7, Canada

    Camilla Parzanini, Christopher C. Parrish & Annie Mercier

  2. Society for Exploration and Valuing of the Environment (SEVE), Portugal Cove-St. Philips, NL, A1M 2B7, Canada

    Jean-François Hamel

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  1. Camilla Parzanini
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Correspondence to Camilla Parzanini.

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Parzanini, C., Parrish, C.C., Hamel, JF. et al. Trophic ecology of a deep-sea fish assemblage in the Northwest Atlantic. Mar Biol 164, 206 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-017-3236-4

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