Arctic char enter the marine environment before annual ice breakup in the high Arctic

摘要: Mobile consumers often match their movements to short-term resource pulses. In the Arctic, seasonal ice breakup facilitates an ephemeral productivity pulse exploited by marine consumers. The migration of anadromous Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) waters occurs around beginning breakup, but precise timing movement is equivocal and current evidence conflicting. To investigate migratory char, 34 individuals were tagged with acoustic telemetry transmitters within Tremblay Sound, Nunavut, Canada in two successive years. All fish entered environment before coastal ice-off date (mean ± SE: 7.56 ± 0.56 days). Further metrics revealed that utilized much sound date, only slightly higher mean home ranges (0.3 km2 larger) residency indices (by ~ 0.05) during period following than prior. Such entry use prior may impart energetic benefits early migrants, maximizing exploitation short, anticipated productivity. study provides a unique example tracking could confer heightened fitness consumer rapidly warming high Arctic.