Alternating Habitat Use By Juvenile Flatfish Based on Thermal Regime in the Eastern Bering Sea

Applying an ecosystem-based fishery management approach to EFH entails the understanding of species-habitat relationships at each life stage.  In the eastern Bering Sea, the group of small-mouthed flatfishes that feed on benthic infauna, mainly the yellowfin sole (Limanda aspera) and the northern rock sole, (Lepidopsetta polyxystra), constitutes a large fishery.  The adult flatfishes are widely distributed over the continental shelf.  Of the juveniles very little is known, and effort to gather ecological data on this critical life stage is relatively new.  Recent studies on the rock sole suggest that warm-cold regime shifts – a signature oceanic-atmospheric phenomenon of multi-year periods in the eastern Bering Sea - may lead to the use of different geographical locations as habitat by the juveniles, and that some locations may produce more juveniles.  The patterns and drivers associated with alternate habitat selection of flatfishes have to be clarified, which necessitates long-term monitoring of juvenile ecology, including abundance, distribution and condition, on time-scales that commensurate with the driving processes.  The management of EFH in large marine ecosystems may also have to considerate the spatial-temporal variability of ecosystem processes.