Decreased lipid storage in juvenile Bering Sea crabs (Chionoecetes spp.) in a warm (2014) compared to a cold (2012) year on the southeastern Bering Sea

The decline of eastern Bering Sea snow ( Chionoecetes opilio ) and Tanner ( Chionoecetes bairdi ) crab has coincided with loss of spring sea ice extent and northward contraction of the ‘cold pool,’ a layer of cold ( 10 µm) such as diatoms was elevated in the colder year particularly over the central middle shelf. During the cold year, crab storage of diatom-sourced fatty acids (16:1n-7 to 16:0, r 2 = 0.72) as well as a station-specific relationship between large size-fraction integrated chla and crab total fatty acids ( r 2 = 0.5) points to the potential importance of diatoms to juvenile crab nutrition. Our results suggest that continued warming and loss of sea ice across the Bering Sea may reduce juvenile crab lipid storage through both direct thermal effects as well as through the reduction of large-size phytoplankton delivered to the benthos.