Pacific Herring (Clupea pallasii) Stable Isotope Tracers: Food Webs of Fishes-Prince William Sound, Alaska (1994-1998)

This project is a component of the Sound Ecosystem Assessment (SEA) program, a multi-disciplinary effort to acquire an ecosystem level understanding of the marine and freshwater processes that interact to constrain levels of fish, marine bird, and marine mammal production in Prince William Sound (PWS). Research conducted under the Sound Ecosystem Assessment project (SEA, /320) has shown that Pacific herring have significant dependence on Gulf of Alaska carbon. Accordingly, herring are subject to changes in carbon flow occurring between the Gulf of Alaska and Prince William Sound. The first step in understanding how this fundamental environmental process affects herring recruitment is to isotopically analyze a time series of herring for which energetic data have been collected. This will expand upon the data series available from SEA, providing a total four-year time period corresponding to one period in the cyclicity of herring population abundance in Prince William Sound. (Source: EVOSTC website)

-----Funding and Support Provided by:
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council (EVOSTC),
Sound Ecosystme Assessment (SEA),
Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics (GLOBEC)

-----Sources cited:

Norcross, B. L., E. D. Brown, K. D. E. Stokesbury, and M. Frandsen. 1996. Juvenile herring growth and habitat, Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Restoration Project Annual Report (Restoration Project 95320T), University of Alaska Fairbanks, Institute of Marine Science, Fairbanks, Alaska.

Kline, T.C. 1999. Temporal and spatial variability of 13C/12C and 15N/14N in pelagic biota of Prince Willam Sound, Alaska. canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 56(Suppl. 1):94-117.

Kline, T.C. Jr. 2001. The trophic position of Pacific herring in Prince William Sound, Alaska based on their stable isotope abundance. In: F. Funk, J. Blakkburn, D. Hay, A.J. Paul, R. Stephenson, R. Toresen and D. Witherell, editors. Herring: Expectations for a New Millenium. University of Alaska Sea Grant, Fairbanks, AK. AK-SG-01-04. p. 69-80.

-----Publications:

Kline, T. C. Jr. 1997. Confirming forage fish food web dependencies in the Prince William Sound ecosystem using natural stable isotope tracers. Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Role of Forage Fishes in Marine Ecosystems. Alaska Sea Grant College Program Report No. 9701. University of Alaska Fairbanks. P. 257 - 269.

Kline, T. C. Jr. 1998. Salmon Fry. In: T. A. Okey and D. Pauly (eds), A Trophic Mass-Balance Model of Alaskas Prince William Sound Ecosystem, for the Post-Spill Period 1994-1996. Fisheries Centre Research Reports 1998 Volume 6 Number 4. Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. p. 26-3 1. (included in the ECOPATH project (Pauly and Pimm, P.1.s) final report)

Kline, T.C. Jr. and D. Pauly. 1998. Cross-validation of trophic level estimates from a mass-balance model of Prince William Sound using 15N/14N data. In: Funk, F., T.J. Quinn II, J. Heifetz, J.N. Ianelli, J.E. Powers, J.F. Schweigert, P.J. Sullivan, and C.I. Zhang (eds.), Fishery Stock Assessment Models. University of Alaska Sea Grant, AK-SG-98-01. Fairbanks, Alaska. p. 693-702.

Kline, T.C., Jr. 1999. Temporal and spatial variability of 13C/12C and 15N/14N in pelagic biota of Prince William Sound, Alaska. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. Vol. 56, Suppl. 1, pg. 94-117.

Kline, T. C. Jr. 1999. Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopic Composition of Prince William Sound Pelagic Biota Shift on Annual Time Scales: A Tool for Monitoring Changes in Oceanographic Forcing. In: Ecosystem Consideration in Fisheries Management. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Ecosystem Consideration in Fisheries Management. Alaska Sea Grant College program Report No. 99-01. University of Alaska Fairbanks. IN PRESS: (included in Project 3 11 (Kline P.I.) final report)

Norcross, B. L., E. D. Brown, S. Gay, R. J. Foy, M. Jin, T. Kline, J. Kirsch, D. Mason, C. N. K. Mooers, V. Patrick, A. J. Paul, IS. D. E. Stokesbury, S. J. Thornton, S. Vaughan, J. Wang. Biological and Physical Effects on the Early Life History of Herring in Prince William Sound, Alaska. (to be submitted to Fisheries Oceanography, included in project 320 SEA-Synthesis (Cooney et al.) final report)

Kline, T.C. Jr. 1999a. Monitoring Changes in Oceanographic Forcing Using the Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopic Composition of Prince William Sound Pelagic Biota. In: Ecosystem Approaches for Fisheries Management. University of Alaska Sea Grant, AK-SG-99-01, Fairbanks. p. 87-95

Kline, Thomas C., Jr. 2000. Prince William Sound Food Webs: Structure and Change, Exxon Valdez Restoration Project Annual Report (Restoration Project 99393), Prince William Sound Science Center, Cordova, Alaska.

Eslinger, D.L., R.T. Cooney, C.P. McRoy, A. Ward, T.C. Kline Jr., E.P. Simpson, J. Wang and J.R. Allen. 2001. Plankton dynamics: observed and modeled responses to physical conditions in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Fisheries Oceanography 10 (Suppl. 1):81-96.

Norcross, B.L., E.D. Brown, R.J. Foy, M. Frandsen, S.M. Gay III, T.C. Kline Jr., D.M. Mason, E.V. Patrick, A.J. Paul and K.D.E. Stokesbury. 2001. A synthesis of the life history and ecology of juvenile Pacific herring in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Fisheries Oceanography 10, (Suppl. 1):42-57.