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Individual growth and the timing of life history events determine the course of individual body sizes. Hence, these factors can influence size-dependent species interactions, such as predation. In the Wadden Sea, predation by crustaceans plays an important role in the survival of pre-recruit bivalves. To investigate growth rates and size-dependent loss in 2 distant regions of the Wadden Sea, in situ marking with the fluorochrome calcein was combined with cage experiments. Through marking, we obtained, for the first time, size-increment data for the fragile newly settled juveniles of the species Macoma balthica and Cerastoderma edule in the field. Growth and size-selective mortality were analysed separately, whereas hitherto both have usually been inferred from size distributions at this life stage. Fluorescent marking also revealed that growth rates were very variable among individuals. Growth was temporarily higher at Texel than at Sylt in both species. In combination with the exclosure experiments and the sampling of predators and migrating bivalves, selective loss of smaller individuals was detected in both regions and was related to predation pressure. Climate influences on phenology have potentially strong effects on species interactions, altering survival and thus recruitment and population dynamics. © Inter-Research 2013.

Climate change might affect marine top predators by altering availability and nutritional quality of their prey. Climate effects vary on a regional basis, and our understanding of the relationships between fluctuations in climate and food resources in sub-arctic regions with seasonal ice cover is limited. We studied the effects of inter-annual climate variability (as reflected in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, PDO, and the timing of the winter ice retreat) on zooplankton– planktivorous predator linkages in one of the most productive regions of the southeastern Bering Sea, the ‘Green Belt’. We examined changes in diets (species composition of chick meals and stable isotope signatures of adult blood) and relative food availability (as reflected in blood plasma concentrations of the stress hormone corticosterone) of planktivorous least auklets Aethia pusilla breeding on St. George I. (shelf-break) and St. Paul I. (shelf) during 2003 to 2005 and 2008 to 2009. We found that isotopic signatures of blood and composition of chick meals differed between the colonies. The proportion of energy-rich oceanic copepods Neocalanus spp. in the diet declined during warm years (high PDO and early ice retreat) on St. Paul but not on St. George. However, inter-annual and seasonal dynamics of corticosterone were similar between the colonies, and auklets experienced higher nutritional stress during warm compared to cold years. Our results suggest that the influx of prey-bearing water masses from the ocean basin and the retention time of oceanic copepods on the shelf are the main factors affecting composition of prey and its availability to auklets. We conclude that anticipated climate warming will negatively affect food availability of planktivorous predators in the Green Belt region of the southeastern Bering Sea.