A review of migratory Alosidae marine ecology in the northwest Atlantic Author Brown, Caliyena R. Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada caliyena.brown@gmail.com Author Sergio, Ava J. A. Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Author Bate, Caitlin S. Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada & Ocean Tracking Network, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Author Koopman, Natalie Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Author Roland, Joshua B. Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Author Notman-Grobler, Oscar D. P. Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Author Mastrodimitropoulos, Paris M. B. Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Author Piczak, Morgan L. Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Author Lennox, Robert J. Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada & Ocean Tracking Network, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada text Journal of Fish Biology 2025 2024-11-10 106 3 677 695 https://doi.org/10.1111/jfb.15977 journal article 313117 10.1111/jfb.15977 af51419e-a7a0-42db-a592-b78ff3971966 1095-8649 PMC11949747 39523025 17003533

TABLE 3 Summary of identified paucities regarding the marine ecology of anadromous alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus), blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis), and American shad (Alosa sapidissima).

Knowledge gap		Description	Reference
Marine movement		Little is understood about marine distribution, habitat preferences, thermal boundaries, and precise migration routes (seasonal patterns)	ASMFC, 2012; Neves, 1981
		Extent of alewife overwintering is unknown
		The cues that influence movement (lunar, environmental, or physical) are understudied
Effects of climate change	Behavior	Unknown response to changes in food distribution and prey availability	Bi et al., 2021; Bindoff et al., 2022; Behrenfeld &
			Falkowski, 1997; Jessop, 1975; Jones et al., 1978; Loesch & Lund, 1977; Richardson & Schoeman, 2004; Tsitrin et al., 2022
		Changing ocean currents and rising water temperatures have unknown consequences on habitat use
		Few assessments on resilience to warming oceans and population-specific eurythermality
	Migration	Unknown effects of sea surface temperature changes on spatial distribution and migration patterns	Jessop, 1975; Loesch & Lund, 1977; Jones et al., 1978; Ogburn et al., 2024; Bi et al., 2021; Tsitrin et al., 2022
		Outdated research on temperature-driven movement
Population dynamics	Genetic diversity	Genetic integrity and diversity within individual stocks are unknown	Dadswell et al., 1987; Bethoney et al., 2013; Hasselman & Limburg, 2012; Rulifson & Dadswell, 2020; Bozeman Jr & Van Den Ayvle, 1989
		Are populations from different rivers genetically distinct?
	Stock mixing	Degree of straying from natal rivers is unknown for blueback	(Bethoney et al., 2013; Dadswell et al., 1987; Rulifson & Dadswell, 2020).
		Stock mixing into heterogeneous populations or single-species aggregations during marine migrations is unclear
Distinguishing alewife from blueback and hybridization		Alewife and blueback are managed as one species due to morphological similarities and spatiotemporal overlap	Bigelow & Schroeder, 1953; Messieh, 1977; Collette & KleinMacphee, 2002; Lynch et al., 2015; Hare et al., 2021
		Inaccurate stock assessments and misinterpretation of population trends due to misidentification