Climate Effects on Fish Growth: Integrating Otolith Biochronologies and Somatic Growth of Yellowfin Sole

Increasing studies have explored linkages between climate variability and fish growth, productivity, and survival throughout the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. Recently, dendrochronology (tree-ring) techniques were applied to develop growth-increment chronologies from the otoliths of Bering Sea flatfish. In the current study, we extended an existing biochronology for yellowfin sole (Limanda aspera) to span the years 1964 through 2006. The yellowfin sole biochronology was strongly and positively related to May sea surface temperature (R² = 0.65, p < 0.0001) and summer bottom (R² = 0.79, p < 0.0001). The relationship between somatic and otolith growth was explored by relating the otolith biochronology to time series of age-specific fish weights collected during scientific trawl surveys. Mean weight-at-age strongly related to the otolith biochronology and water temperature, demonstrating the influence of climate upon both otolith and somatic growth.