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First records of Pacific sand lance (Ammodytes hexapterus) in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

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Abstract

An increasing number of boreal marine species are expected to invade the warming Arctic Ocean with the potential to displace endemic species. We provide first evidence that Pacific sand lance (Ammodytes hexapterus) is expanding its range in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, a region far outside the species temperate-boreal traditional range south of the Bering Strait. To the best of our knowledge, supported by local Inuit knowledge, the species was not present in the area until the present decade. We observed an increasing density of larval Pacific sand lance with time over the 2011–2016 period, suggesting that environmental conditions are becoming increasingly favorable for the species to reproduce in the Central Canadian Arctic. The northward distribution change of Pacific sand lance is occurring earlier than predicted by current models and could trigger abrupt shifts in Arctic marine food webs if the boreal invader displaces polar cod, a key prey species for top predators in Arctic marine ecosystems.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the captains and crews of the CCGS Amundsen and the R/V Martin Bergmann. Thanks to C. Aubry, D. Chen and L. N. Harris for field and/or laboratory support, and to C. J. Mundy, B. Else, J.-S. Moore, and E. M. Bennett for logistical support and/or supervision. We thank the team of the Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes (IBIS) for their assistance with the genetic analysis. The Arctic Research Foundation, Polar Knowledge Canada, ArcticNet, the CREATE program in Environmental Innovation, the Marine Environmental Observation, Prediction and Response network (MEOPAR) and the W. Garfield Weston Foundation provided financial and/or logistical support. We are very thankful to the Ekaluktutiak Hunters and Trappers Organization (EHTO) for providing insights and for supporting this project, and to all the Inuit harvesters who participated in the study. M. Falardeau received a scholarship from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec—Nature et Technologies (FRQNT).

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Author notes

  1. Caroline Bouchard

    Present address: Greenland Climate Research Centre, Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, 3900, Nuuk, Greenland

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC, H9X 3V9, Canada

    Marianne Falardeau

  2. Département de Biologie, Québec-Océan, Université Laval, Québec, QC, G1V 0A6, Canada

    Caroline Bouchard & Louis Fortier

  3. Canada Research Chair in Fisheries Ecology, Institut des Sciences de la mer de Rimouski, Université du Québec à Rimouski, Rimouski, QC, G5L 3A1, Canada

    Dominique Robert

Authors
  1. Marianne Falardeau
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  2. Caroline Bouchard
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  4. Louis Fortier
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Correspondence to Marianne Falardeau.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors. All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Additional informed consent was obtained from all individual participants for whom identifying information is included in this article.

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Falardeau, M., Bouchard, C., Robert, D. et al. First records of Pacific sand lance (Ammodytes hexapterus) in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Polar Biol 40, 2291–2296 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-017-2141-0

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