Project Information

Title: HRM Program: Fatty Acid Analysis as Evidence for Winter Migration of Age-0 Herring in Prince William Sound 12120111-I

Project Year and Number: 2012: 12120111-I

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: 2013: 13120111-I

Principal Investigator (PI): Ron Heintz

Managing Agency: NOAA

Assisting Personnel: JJ Vollenweider

Project Website: https://pwssc.org/fatty-acid-analysis-as-evidence-for-winter-migration-of-age-0-herring/

Research Location: Prince William Sound

Restoration Category: Research

Injured Resources Addressed: Pacific Herring

Abstract:

This project is a component of the integrated Long-term Monitoring of Marine Conditions and Injured Resources and Services submitted by McCammon et al. Monitoring of age-0 herring should be an important component of the Trustee herring program, but the appropriate spatial scale for monitoring is unknown. The current program assumes age-0 herring remain in their nursery bays over winter. If true, observations of differences among bays in terms of age-0 condition and marine conditions will allow for identifying conditions that lead to improved recruitment to age-1. We propose to test the assumption by monitoring the fatty acid (FA) composition of age-0 herring over winter. The FA composition of depot lipids derives from diets (Budge et al. 2006), so differences in the prey fields in different bays should produce differences in the FA compositions of herring in those bays (Otis et al. 2009). Therefore, the FA composition of age-0 herring in fall can act as a natural tag for identifying migration. Changes in FA composition due to winter feeding are likely to be minimal because age-0 herring experience energy deficits in winter, proscribing lipid storage. We plan to test this assumption in a laboratory study. We hypothesize that migration of herring will result in increasing similarity of herring FA compositions over winter. Alternatively, if the FA composition of age-0 herring in given bays remains constant over winter then migration must be limited.


Proposal: View (326 KB)

Reports:
Annual Report FY12: View (1,112 KB)
Final Report: See Project 13120111-I

Publications from this Project: None Available