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ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil Advance Access published online on June 3, 2008
ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil, doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsn094
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© 2008 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. Published by Oxford Journals. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

The relation between concentrations of ovarian trace elements and the body size of Atlantic cod Gadus morhua

A. Bang1, P. Grønkjær1 and B. Lorenzen2

1 Marine Ecology, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Aarhus, Finlandsgade 14, 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark
2 Plant Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Aarhus, Ole Worms Allé 1135, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark

Correspondence to A. Bang: tel: +45 89424379; fax: +45 89424387; e-mail: anders.bang{at}biology.au.dk

Bang, A., Grønkjær, P., and Lorenzen, B. 2008. The relation between concentrations of ovarian trace elements and the body size of Atlantic cod Gadus morhua. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 65.

Trace metals in the ovaries of fish are transferred from the female via the yolk to the offspring, which makes the early life stages susceptible to deleterious effects of potentially toxic elements contained in the ovaries. Here, the concentrations of 13 elements from the ovaries of 133 ripe female North Sea cod Gadus morhua weighing 0.2–18 kg were correlated with female size, accounting for differences in maturity and condition. Most elements were negatively correlated with the size variables weight, length and, especially, ovarian dry weight. Further, they were negatively correlated with maturity and condition. Many of the trace elements showed true size-dependence, but the correlations were generally weak. A linear discriminant analysis separated "small" and "large" fish at a length of 85 cm based on concentrations of Co, Mn, Se, and Zn, and correctly assigned 78 of 102 small fish and 23 of 31 large fish to their respective size category. This corresponds to an overall classification success of 75.9%. The results suggest that embryos and early larvae from small females are exposed to higher levels of potentially harmful metals. If the differences in trace element concentration influence survival success, this will add to the negative effects of size distribution truncation and declines in size-at-maturity experienced by many populations of cod.

Keywords: bioaccumulation, elemental fingerprint, gonads, maternal transfer, North Sea, size-dependence

Received 31 October 2007; accepted 11 May 2008.


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