Identifying Pelagic Habitat Hotspots of Neon Flying Squid in the Temperate Waters of the Central North Pacific

Irene D Alabia; Sei-Ichi Saitoh; Robinson Mugo; Hiromichi Igarashi; Yoichi Ishikawa; Norihisa Usui; Masafumi Kamachi; Toshiyuki Awaji; Masaki Seito

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0142885

Identifying Pelagic Habitat Hotspots of Neon Flying Squid in the Temperate Waters of the Central North Pacific

PLoS One. 2015 Nov 16;10(11):e0142885. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0142885. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Irene D Alabia^{1

2}, Sei-Ichi Saitoh^{1

2}, Robinson Mugo³, Hiromichi Igarashi⁴, Yoichi Ishikawa⁴, Norihisa Usui⁵, Masafumi Kamachi⁵, Toshiyuki Awaji⁶, Masaki Seito⁷

Affiliations

¹ Arctic Research Center, Hokkaido University, N21 W11 Kita-Ku, Sapporo, 001-0021, Japan.
² Laboratory of Marine Environment and Resource Sensing, Graduate School of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University, 3-1-1 Minato-cho, Hakodate, 041-8611, Hokkaido, Japan.
³ Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development-SERVIR-Africa, Kasarani Road, P.O. Box 632-00618, Ruaraka, Nairobi, Kenya.
⁴ Data Research Center for Marine-Earth Sciences, Japan Agency for Marine Earth-Science and Technology, JAMSTEC, 3173-25 Showamachi, Kanazawa-ward, Yokohama City, Kanagawa, 236-0001, Japan.
⁵ Oceanographic Research Department, Meteorological Research Institute, 1-1 Nagamine, Tsukuba, 305-0052, Japan.
⁶ Graduate School of Science Division of Earth and Planetary Science, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ward, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan.
⁷ Aomori Prefectural Industrial Technology Research Center, 4-11-6 Dainitonya-machi, Aomori-shi, Aomori, 030-0113, Japan.

Abstract

We identified the pelagic habitat hotspots of the neon flying squid (Ommastrephes bartramii) in the central North Pacific from May to July and characterized the spatial patterns of squid aggregations in relation to oceanographic features such as mesoscale oceanic eddies and the Transition Zone Chlorophyll-a Front (TZCF). The data used for the habitat model construction and analyses were squid fishery information, remotely-sensed and numerical model-derived environmental data from May to July 1999-2010. Squid habitat hotspots were deduced from the monthly Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) models and were identified as regions of persistent high suitable habitat across the 12-year period. The distribution of predicted squid habitat hotspots in central North Pacific revealed interesting spatial and temporal patterns likely linked with the presence and dynamics of oceanographic features in squid's putative foraging grounds from late spring to summer. From May to June, the inferred patches of squid habitat hotspots developed within the Kuroshio-Oyashio transition zone (KOTZ; 37-40°N) and further expanded north towards the subarctic frontal zone (SAFZ; 40-44°N) in July. The squid habitat hotspots within the KOTZ and areas west of the dateline (160°W-180°) were likely influenced and associated with the highly dynamic and transient oceanic eddies and could possibly account for lower squid suitable habitat persistence obtained from these regions. However, predicted squid habitat hotspots located in regions east of the dateline (180°-160°W) from June to July, showed predominantly higher squid habitat persistence presumably due to their proximity to the mean position of the seasonally-shifting TZCF and consequent utilization of the highly productive waters of the SAFZ.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Chlorophyll / analysis
Chlorophyll A
Decapodiformes / physiology*
Ecosystem*
Geography
Models, Theoretical
Pacific Ocean
Seasons
Spatio-Temporal Analysis
Uncertainty
Water*

Substances

Water
Chlorophyll
Chlorophyll A

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Research on Climate Change Adaptation (RECCA) Project from the Grant-in-Aid (Grant No. 10101028) from Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.