Advection of zooplankton onto the Nordic shelves and effects on forage fish, demersal fish and seabirds

In this report indices of the strength of the subpolar gyre (SPG) and the East Icelandic Current (EIC) are compared with zooplankton, forage fish (capelin, sandeels, herring), recruitment of demersal fish (cod, haddock) and production of seabirds (Atlantic puffin, black-legged kittiwake) on the Icelandic, Faroe and Norwegian shelves. Results strongly indicated that a large SPG and/or strong EIC seemed to cause elevated levels of zooplankton, forage fish, demersal fish recruitment and seabird productivity on the three Nordic shelves. Importantly there was a prominent low-production period from 2003 to 2014 that could clearly been seen in most of the data series. Hence, this study is of vital importance to ecosystem based management on the three Nordic shelves.