Prices for different ranges of size, for the three species (source: National Research Council, Institute for coastal marine environment).

<p>Prices for different ranges of size, for the three species (source: National Research Council, Institute for coastal marine environment).</p

Boxplots of Relative importance index (RI) for the EMPNs input variables, organized in 6 groups for the sake of conciseness and clearness.

<p>Boxplots of Relative importance index (RI) for the EMPNs input variables, organized in 6 groups for the sake of conciseness and clearness.</p

Parameters used for the different modules of SMART [22]–[25], [90]–[92].

<p>Parameters used for the different modules of SMART <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0086222#pone.0086222-Sobrino1" target="_blank">[22]</a>–<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0086222#pone.0086222-Voliani1" target="_blank">[25]</a>, <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0086222#pone.0086222-Bethke1" target="_blank">[90]</a>–<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0086222#pone.0086222-Fiorentino4" target="_blank">[92]</a>.</p

Conceptual scheme of the simulation approach used in exploring different scenarios of fishing effort (Section 3.7).

<p>Conceptual scheme of the simulation approach used in exploring different scenarios of fishing effort (Section 3.7).</p

Figure 5

<p>Distributions of the fishing effort in years 2006–2010 (a). Each map represents the 6 min×6 min grid in which the Log10 of the number of fishing points (VMS frequency = 10 minutes) is reported in a yellow-red scale color; b) trend in total fishing effort, from 2006 to 2010, in the GSA 16 area.</p

Analysis of trained EMPNs by comparison between observed and predicted abundances for the three species.

<p>Each dot represents the average value for a cell, while abundances are reported as relative values (range between 0 and 1). The comparison was carried out on the test subset of data, that is a group of observations (cells) not used during the training phase. Training and testing of EMPN was performed 100 times for each species, since performance could be theoretically influenced by the composition of training and validation dataset, which is randomly determined.</p

Outputs of the simulations for the first scenario (change of total fishing effort without spatial constraints).

<p>Convex hulls are used to represent the set of values of <i>B₂₀₁₁</i> (Predicted biomass at year 2011) versus <i>G₂₀₁₀</i> (Gains for year 2010) corresponding to the optimized patterns returned by each run, with red dashed lines and red points represent <i>G₂₀₁₀</i> and <i>B₂₀₁₁</i> for the real (observed) pattern of fishing effort in 2010. The bottom x axis reports the absolute values for <i>B₂₀₁₁</i>, while the top x axis shows the same values as differential percentage from the reference value (<i>B₂₀₁₁</i> for the observed pattern of fishing effort at year 2010). A yellow-red color scale is used to emphasize the progressive increase of total effort from 70% to 130% of the real (observed) value at year 2010.</p

Results of the regression for the costs model (* marks statistically significant values).

<p>Results of the regression for the costs model (* marks statistically significant values).</p

Outputs of the simulations for both scenarios: box plots are used to represent the set of values of Pattern Score (<i>PS₂₀₁₀</i>), that is the proxy for the evaluation of costs associated to each fishing effort pattern, with respect to the effort configuration, as computed by simulations.

<p>Outputs of the simulations for both scenarios: box plots are used to represent the set of values of Pattern Score (<i>PS₂₀₁₀</i>), that is the proxy for the evaluation of costs associated to each fishing effort pattern, with respect to the effort configuration, as computed by simulations.</p

Representation of the Elman network used in this study for the <i>Mullus barbatus</i> (MUT) model.

<p>The input layer comprises: four neurons related to cohort abundances (two cohorts for males and two cohorts for females) at each time for each cell; other four neurons related to abundance of the same cohorts in the neighboring cells (ray = 2); a neuron for the fishing effort; three neurons for the sea bottom characteristics and mean annual sea surface temperature. These neurons directly propagate the information to the basic hidden neurons. At each step of the training procedure, the updated pattern of the basic hidden neurons is memorized by the context neurons and, at the successive step, propagated to the basic hidden neurons together with the new information in the input neurons. The output layer contains as many neurons as the number of cohorts in the input layer.</p