Using movement, diet, and genetic analyses to understand Arctic charr responses to ecosystem change

Abstract

Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus are a commercially and culturally valued species for northern Indigenous peoples. Climate shifts could have important implications for charr and those that rely on them, but studies that evaluate responses to ecosystem change and the spatial scales at which they occur are rare. We compare marine-phase habitat use, long-term diet patterns, and trends in effective population size of Arctic charr from 2 areas (Nain and Saglek) of Nunatsiavut, Labrador, Canada. Tagged charr in both areas frequently occupied estuaries but some also used other habitats that extended to the headland environments outside of their natal fjords. Despite the relatively small distances separating these study areas (<200 km), we observed differences in habitat use and diet. Northern stocks (including Saglek) were more reliant on invertebrates than southern stocks (e.g. Nain), for which capelin and sand lance were important prey. The use of coastal headlands also varied, with Saglek charr occupying these environments more frequently than those from Nain, which only used these habitats in 1 year of the study. Long-term commercial catches also indicate that the tendency for Nain charr to stay within fjords varies annually and relates to capelin availability. Despite the demonstrated capacity to alter diet and habitat use to changing environmental conditions, notable declines in effective population size were associated with the regime shift of the 1990s in the northwest Atlantic. Collectively, these results demonstrate that behavioral plasticity of Arctic charr may be insufficient to deal with the large environmental perturbations expected to arise from a changing climate.