Potential influence of offshore oil and gas platforms on the feeding ecology of fish assemblages in the North Sea

Toyonobu Fujii

doi:10.3354/meps11534

Potential influence of offshore oil and gas platforms on the feeding ecology of fish assemblages in the North Sea

Toyonobu Fujii^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Aberdeen Centre For Environmental Sustainability

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

13 Citations (Scopus)

8 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This article presents results from the first detailed study on the feeding habits of fish assemblages associated with offshore oil and gas platforms in the North Sea. Multi-seasonal sampling was conducted at one of the oil platforms located in the central North Sea between September 2010 and January 2014 to characterise temporal variation in the stomach contents of different fish species. A total of 6 fish species were recorded, including commercially important gadoids such as saithe Pollachius virens, haddock Melanogrammus aeglefinus and cod Gadus morhua. Saithe fed predominantly on euphausiids and haddock consumed a large proportion of ophiuroids, whereas cod were mainly piscivorous. The prey compositions were significantly different between species, indicating the presence of interspecific prey resource partitioning among those species. To further investigate possible links between the feeding habits of the most dominant fish species, saithe, and the physical presence of offshore platforms across the North Sea, a separate set of stomach data was collected during the 2012 Quarter 3 International Bottom Trawl Survey aboard the FRV `Scotia'. The multivariate analysis of both data sets showed that the observed spatio-temporal variability in the saithe diet was significantly explained by proximity to the nearest offshore platforms and changes in water temperatures, which appear to reflect patterns of euphausiid availability over space and time. The physical presence of the offshore structures may potentially affect the distribution/availability of zooplankton (i.e. euphausiids) and thereby influence the feeding behaviour of saithe and any other marine populations that are interconnected to the dynamics of such trophic interactions.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	167-186
Number of pages	20
Journal	Marine Ecology Progress Series
Volume	542
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3354/meps11534
Publication status	Published - 19 Jan 2016

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgements.
The author thanks OSPAR for providing data for offshore oil and gas structures in the North Sea and Imants G. Priede, Alan Jamieson, Jim Mair, Inigo Martinez, Michelle Horsfield, Anne Walls and all the crew members of BP’s Miller platform and the FRV ‘Scotia’, cruise 0912S, in particular Chief Scientist Finlay Burns, for invaluable advice and support in conducting this fish biology project. This work was coordinated by Oceanlab, University of Aberdeen, and was supported by the BP Fellowship in Applied Fisheries Programme.

Keywords

artificial reefs
offshore oil and gas platforms
marine feeding ecology
euphausiids
fish assemblages
North Sea

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Potential influence of offshore oil and gas platforms on the feeding ecology of fish assemblages in the North Sea
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Final published version, 2.78 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Potential influence of offshore oil and gas platforms on the feeding ecology of fish assemblages in the North Sea",

abstract = "This article presents results from the first detailed study on the feeding habits of fish assemblages associated with offshore oil and gas platforms in the North Sea. Multi-seasonal sampling was conducted at one of the oil platforms located in the central North Sea between September 2010 and January 2014 to characterise temporal variation in the stomach contents of different fish species. A total of 6 fish species were recorded, including commercially important gadoids such as saithe Pollachius virens, haddock Melanogrammus aeglefinus and cod Gadus morhua. Saithe fed predominantly on euphausiids and haddock consumed a large proportion of ophiuroids, whereas cod were mainly piscivorous. The prey compositions were significantly different between species, indicating the presence of interspecific prey resource partitioning among those species. To further investigate possible links between the feeding habits of the most dominant fish species, saithe, and the physical presence of offshore platforms across the North Sea, a separate set of stomach data was collected during the 2012 Quarter 3 International Bottom Trawl Survey aboard the FRV `Scotia'. The multivariate analysis of both data sets showed that the observed spatio-temporal variability in the saithe diet was significantly explained by proximity to the nearest offshore platforms and changes in water temperatures, which appear to reflect patterns of euphausiid availability over space and time. The physical presence of the offshore structures may potentially affect the distribution/availability of zooplankton (i.e. euphausiids) and thereby influence the feeding behaviour of saithe and any other marine populations that are interconnected to the dynamics of such trophic interactions.",

keywords = "artificial reefs, offshore oil and gas platforms, marine feeding ecology, euphausiids, fish assemblages, North Sea",

author = "Toyonobu Fujii",

note = "Acknowledgements. The author thanks OSPAR for providing data for offshore oil and gas structures in the North Sea and Imants G. Priede, Alan Jamieson, Jim Mair, Inigo Martinez, Michelle Horsfield, Anne Walls and all the crew members of BP{\textquoteright}s Miller platform and the FRV {\textquoteleft}Scotia{\textquoteright}, cruise 0912S, in particular Chief Scientist Finlay Burns, for invaluable advice and support in conducting this fish biology project. This work was coordinated by Oceanlab, University of Aberdeen, and was supported by the BP Fellowship in Applied Fisheries Programme.",

year = "2016",

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day = "19",

doi = "10.3354/meps11534",

language = "English",

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AU - Fujii, Toyonobu

N1 - Acknowledgements. The author thanks OSPAR for providing data for offshore oil and gas structures in the North Sea and Imants G. Priede, Alan Jamieson, Jim Mair, Inigo Martinez, Michelle Horsfield, Anne Walls and all the crew members of BP’s Miller platform and the FRV ‘Scotia’, cruise 0912S, in particular Chief Scientist Finlay Burns, for invaluable advice and support in conducting this fish biology project. This work was coordinated by Oceanlab, University of Aberdeen, and was supported by the BP Fellowship in Applied Fisheries Programme.

PY - 2016/1/19

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N2 - This article presents results from the first detailed study on the feeding habits of fish assemblages associated with offshore oil and gas platforms in the North Sea. Multi-seasonal sampling was conducted at one of the oil platforms located in the central North Sea between September 2010 and January 2014 to characterise temporal variation in the stomach contents of different fish species. A total of 6 fish species were recorded, including commercially important gadoids such as saithe Pollachius virens, haddock Melanogrammus aeglefinus and cod Gadus morhua. Saithe fed predominantly on euphausiids and haddock consumed a large proportion of ophiuroids, whereas cod were mainly piscivorous. The prey compositions were significantly different between species, indicating the presence of interspecific prey resource partitioning among those species. To further investigate possible links between the feeding habits of the most dominant fish species, saithe, and the physical presence of offshore platforms across the North Sea, a separate set of stomach data was collected during the 2012 Quarter 3 International Bottom Trawl Survey aboard the FRV `Scotia'. The multivariate analysis of both data sets showed that the observed spatio-temporal variability in the saithe diet was significantly explained by proximity to the nearest offshore platforms and changes in water temperatures, which appear to reflect patterns of euphausiid availability over space and time. The physical presence of the offshore structures may potentially affect the distribution/availability of zooplankton (i.e. euphausiids) and thereby influence the feeding behaviour of saithe and any other marine populations that are interconnected to the dynamics of such trophic interactions.

AB - This article presents results from the first detailed study on the feeding habits of fish assemblages associated with offshore oil and gas platforms in the North Sea. Multi-seasonal sampling was conducted at one of the oil platforms located in the central North Sea between September 2010 and January 2014 to characterise temporal variation in the stomach contents of different fish species. A total of 6 fish species were recorded, including commercially important gadoids such as saithe Pollachius virens, haddock Melanogrammus aeglefinus and cod Gadus morhua. Saithe fed predominantly on euphausiids and haddock consumed a large proportion of ophiuroids, whereas cod were mainly piscivorous. The prey compositions were significantly different between species, indicating the presence of interspecific prey resource partitioning among those species. To further investigate possible links between the feeding habits of the most dominant fish species, saithe, and the physical presence of offshore platforms across the North Sea, a separate set of stomach data was collected during the 2012 Quarter 3 International Bottom Trawl Survey aboard the FRV `Scotia'. The multivariate analysis of both data sets showed that the observed spatio-temporal variability in the saithe diet was significantly explained by proximity to the nearest offshore platforms and changes in water temperatures, which appear to reflect patterns of euphausiid availability over space and time. The physical presence of the offshore structures may potentially affect the distribution/availability of zooplankton (i.e. euphausiids) and thereby influence the feeding behaviour of saithe and any other marine populations that are interconnected to the dynamics of such trophic interactions.

KW - artificial reefs

KW - offshore oil and gas platforms

KW - marine feeding ecology

KW - euphausiids

KW - fish assemblages

KW - North Sea

U2 - 10.3354/meps11534

DO - 10.3354/meps11534

M3 - Article

SN - 0171-8630

VL - 542

SP - 167

EP - 186

JO - Marine Ecology Progress Series

JF - Marine Ecology Progress Series

ER -

Potential influence of offshore oil and gas platforms on the feeding ecology of fish assemblages in the North Sea

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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