Diet composition and feeding activity of larval spring-spawning herring: Importance of environmental variability

Availability of suitable prey in sufficient quantities during the shift to exogenous feeding is an important factor determining survival and growth of larval fish. The question of what factors regulate prey consumption in larval fish has remained a focus of fisheries oceanography. In this paper feeding ecology of the larval spring-spawning herring Clupea harengus membras was studied in relation to selected environmental abiotic and biotic parameters in the shallow sheltered Pärnu Bay during the 1970s and 2000s. The copepod Eurytemora affinis was the strongly dominating dietary item during all the years while other prey items were ingested only sporadically. Feeding activity of herring larvae was governed by different environmental variables and the relationships varied amongst the size classes of herring larvae. The studied abiotic (i.e., wind speed, water temperature, water transparency) or biotic variables (i.e., density of copepod nauplii, copepodite stages I–V and adults of E. affinis, mean developmental stage of copepods and density of fish larvae) had no significant effects on the feeding activity of small larvae. The feeding activity of medium larvae was only affected by water transparency and that of large larvae by a combination of water temperature, wind speed and the structure of local copepod community, respectively. On the other hand, the diet composition of all herring larvae was best described by the density of copepod nauplii. In addition, the density of fish larvae improved the model of small larvae and the density of adult copepods that of medium larvae, respectively. Time was significant for the feeding activity of medium larvae indicating some unexplained variability that was not taken into account by the studied abiotic and biotic variables.

► This study reports on feeding activity and prey composition of Baltic herring larvae.
► Copepod Eurytemora affinis was the strongly dominating dietary item.
► Larval herring feeding activity were governed by different environmental variables.
► Independent of fish size, their food composition is governed by food availability.
► Large dissimilarities in the stage of ingested prey were met in all size groups.