Fine-scale vertical structure of sound-scattering layers over an east border upwelling system and its relationship to pelagic habitat characteristics

Understanding the relationship between sound-scattering layers (SSLs) and pelagic habitat characteristics is a substantial step to apprehend ecosystem dynamics. SSLs are detected on echo sounders representing aggregated marine pelagic organisms. In this study, SSL characteristics of zooplankton and micronekton were identified during an upwelling event in two contrasting areas of the Senegalese continental shelf. Here a cold upwelling-influenced inshore area was sharply separated by a strong thermal boundary from a deeper, warmer, stratified offshore area. Mean SSL thickness and SSL vertical depth increased with the shelf depth. The thickest and deepest SSLs were observed in the offshore part of the shelf. Hence, zooplankton and micronekton seem to occur more frequently in stratified water conditions rather than in fresh upwelled water. Diel vertical and horizontal migrations of SSLs were observed in the study area. Diel period and physicochemical water characteristics influenced SSL depth and SSL thickness. Although chlorophyll-a concentration insignificantly affected SSL characteristics, the peak of chlorophyll a was always located above or in the middle of the SSLs, regularly matching with the peak of SSL biomass. Such observations indicate trophic relationships, suggesting SSLs to be mainly composed of phytoplanktivorous zooplankton and micronekton. Despite local hypoxia, below 30 m depth, distribution patterns of SSLs indicate no vertical migration boundary. The results increase the understanding of the spatial organization of mid-trophic species and migration patterns of zooplankton and micronekton, and they will also improve dispersal models for organisms in upwelling regions.publishedVersio

Aggregative and schooling behaviour of small pelagic fish schools through echo type characteristics

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Climate change impacts on small pelagic fish distribution in Northwest Africa: trends, shifts, and risk for food security.

Climate change is recognised to lead to spatial shifts in the distribution of small pelagic fish, likely by altering their environmental optima. Fish supply along the Northwest African coast is significant at both socio-economic and cultural levels. Evaluating the impacts of climatic change on small pelagic fish is a challenge and of serious concern in the context of shared stock management. Evaluating the impact of climate change on the distribution of small pelagic fish, a trend analysis was conducted using data from 2363 trawl samplings and 170,000 km of acoustics sea surveys. Strong warming is reported across the Southern Canary Current Large Marine Ecosystem (CCLME), extending from Morocco to Senegal. Over 34 years, several trends emerged, with the southern CCLME experiencing increases in both wind speed and upwelling intensity, particularly where the coastal upwelling was already the strongest. Despite upwelling-induced cooling mechanisms, sea surface temperature (SST) increased in most areas, indicating the complex interplay of climatic-related stressors in shaping the marine ecosystem. Concomitant northward shifts in the distribution of small pelagic species were attributed to long-term warming trends in SST and a decrease in marine productivity in the south. The abundance of Sardinella aurita, the most abundant species along the coast, has increased in the subtropics and fallen in the intertropical region. Spatial shifts in biomass were observed for other exploited small pelagic species, similar to those recorded for surface isotherms. An intensification in upwelling intensity within the northern and central regions of the system is documented without a change in marine primary productivity. In contrast, upwelling intensity is stable in the southern region, while there is a decline in primary productivity. These environmental differences affected several small pelagic species across national boundaries. This adds a new threat to these recently overexploited fish stocks, making sustainable management more difficult. Such changes must motivate common regional policy considerations for food security and sovereignty in all West African countries sharing the same stocks

Descriptors to characterize acoustic scattered layers: evidence of interest in three Atlantic African Large Marine Ecosystems

Hydroacoustic is now a reliable and often used tool to monitor and study marine ecosystems (Brehmer et al. 2006). This study focus on acoustic scattered layers, which are the echosounder detection of pelagic marine organism of low trophic level, important in ecosystems functioning. Data have been recorded at 38 kHz in the three Atlantic African Large Marine Ecosystems (LME). Layers have been extracted using Matecho (Perrot et al. 2018) at a threshold level of -70 dB. To describe parsimoniously ecosystems, compare them and understand the difference, two descriptors have been used. Some of them are based on already used descriptors and others are new. The aim of this study is to ensure that these descriptors are relevant to monitor and compare systems. Therefore, we first explore temporal and spatial dimension. For such purpose, we use a large acoustic database collected in Canary Current Large Marine Ecosystem ‘CCLME’ (Diogoul et al., 2020; Brehmer et al. 2018). The temporal dimension is studied by diel comparison and by analysing change over years in each system. Spatial dimension is explored by intra-LME comparison concerning CCLME, which present two systems with different functioning. Results highlight the effectiveness of these descriptors. The methodology presented in this work is innovative, introducing original new descriptors to monitor pelagic compartment of each LME and should be efficiently used for environmental monitoring in case of perturbation as overfishing, climate change or marine pollution. Indeed the acoustic scattered layer are mainly composed of macrozooplankton and ichtyoplankton, which are sensitive to environmental change

PREFCLIM: A high-resolution mixed-layer climatology of the eastern tropical Atlantic

PREFCLIM is a mixed-layer climatology for the Eastern Tropical Atlantic. The climatology contains a high-resolution (0.25 degrees) monthly-mean mixed-layer hydrography (mixed-layer depth, temperature, salinity), and coarse-resolution (2.5 degrees) estimates of the mixed-layer heat and salt balance, as well as of near-surface velocities and of air-sea fluxes. All existing hydrographic products of the region were hampered by the sparse availability of near-shore data owned by the West-African coastal countries, which could, however, be included in the new climatology