Variabilidad espacial y estacional de la comunidad de peces, cefalópodos y crustáceos del mar mediterráneo noroccidental y relación con los factores ambientales y humanos

Trabajo final presentado por Daniel Vilás González para el Máster en Oceanografía y Gestión del Medio Marino de la Universitat de Barcelona (UB), realizado bajo la dirección de la Dra. Marta Coll Monton y de la Dra. Isabel Palomera Laforga del Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC).-- 42 pages, 15 figures, 3 tables, 6 annexesEste trabajo tuvo como principal objetivo el estudio de la variabilidad estacional y espacial de la biomasa, abundancia y biodiversidad de una comunidad marina demersal del Mediterráneo noroccidental durante dos épocas de un mismo año (2013). En concreto, el trabajo se llevó a cabo en el sur del mar Catalán, una área de especial complejidad por la dinámica oceanográfica ligada a las descargas de agua fluvial del río Ebro y las diferentes actividades humanas que tienen lugar en la zona y que impactan sus comunidades marinas. Los datos se recogieron en 2013 durante dos campañas oceanográficas desarrolladas dentro del proyecto ECOTRANS. Las campañas oceanográficas se llevaron a cabo durante los meses de febrero y julio. En ambas campañas se realizaron pescas de arrastre para la obtención de muestras de la comunidad marina demersal en la plataforma continental y parte superior del talud. Todas las especies recogidas fueron identificadas hasta el nivel taxonómico menor posible y se estimó la abundancia y la biomasa de ellas en cada pesca teniendo en cuenta el área de barrida. En este estudio nos centramos en las especies de peces, cefalópodos y crustáceos. Los análisis cuantitativos mostraron diferencias en cuanto a la biomasa y la abundancia de los organismos analizados – tanto para los totales como para los diferentes grupos taxonómicos – y durante las dos épocas del año. Los datos biológicos evidenciaron una variación cuantitativa estacional y, en algunos casos, diferencias espaciales. La biodiversidad media para cada grupo taxonómico mostró también diferencias espacio-temporales. Se encontró una correlación significativa entre los datos biológicos y la temperatura superficial del agua, la fluorescencia, la profundidad, la presión pesquera y el impacto humano costero. Esto indica que múltiples factores ambientales, físicos y antropogénicos modulan los patrones de distribución de la biomasa, abundancia y biodiversidad de peces, cefalópodos y crustáceos demersales en la zona de estudioPeer Reviewe

Age-structured metapopulation models to assess fisheries sustainability in the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea

Belharet, Mokrane... et al.-- Forum on Fisheries Science in the Mediterranean and The Black Sea (FishForum 2018), 10-14 December 2018, Rome, ItalyMarine biologists are increasingly using the metapopulation concept to understand and describe the dynamics of spatially structured fish populations across heterogeneous environments. [...]Peer reviewe

SafeNet: Sustainable fisheries in EU Mediterranean waters through network of Marine Protected Areas

Claudet, Joachim... et al.-- Forum on Fisheries Science in the Mediterranean and The Black Sea (FishForum 2018), 10-14 December 2018, Rome, ItalySafeNet, an EU DG MARE funded research project, aims at identifying coherent networks of Marine Protected Areas (PPAs), whose emergent properties (i.e. the interactive effect of scaling-up MPAs in networks) can help achieve fisheries maximum sustainable yield and maximize over the long-term socio-economic benefits for the stakeholders in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. [...]Peer reviewe

Fisheries management in the northwestern Mediterranean: the word to stakeholders

Prato, Giulia... et al.-- Forum on Fisheries Science in the Mediterranean and The Black Sea (FishForum 2018), 10-14 December 2018, Rome, ItalyThe heterogeneity of Mediterranean fisheries and the limits of traditional top-down fisheries management have made clear the need for pairing sicence-based advice with stakeholder consultations, as witnessed by the strengthened focus on stakeholder participation in the new EU Common Fisheries Policy (EU CFP). [...]Peer reviewe

Addressing the spatial dimension of fisheries sustainability: a case study in the Western Mediterranean Sea

Melià, Paco... et al.-- Forum on Fisheries Science in the Mediterranean and The Black Sea (FishForum 2018), 10-14 December 2018, Rome, ItalySustainable fisheries management must trade-off between long-term conservation and socioeconomic viability. [...]Peer reviewe

SaFENet : Sustainable Fisheries in EU Mediterranean waters through network of MPAs : Deliverable 4.1 : Report describing the qualitative models

17 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables, supplementary material https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ymxhcr52nul7sw3/AAB4OaX-aJTbWQUOgrOWLofTa?dl=0Ecological modelling has emerged as a highly suitable tool to integrate available biological data with the final objective to obtain insights how ecosystems are structured, how they function and how they deliver ecosystem services (Christensen and Maclean, 2011; Link, 2011). This overall ecosystem picture is the first step to move towards the development of future scenarios for sustainable use of marine ecosystem services (Fulton et al., 2015). In WP4 we used a combination of advanced qualitative (this deliverable) and quantitative (deliverables 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4) ecological modelling techniques to assess how Mediterranean ecosystems associated with networks of management units (i.e., MPAs sensu lato) are structured, how they function, and how they contribute to present conditions and may impact future change of fisheries exploitation rates and patterns in a sustainable way. In particular, we developed food-web models to describe the networks of MPAs in the study area from where we developed management scenarios to analyze the impact of exploitation of targeted stocks to their sustainable levels. The term ‘MPA‘ in this study was broadly applied to consider both formal MPAs and areas surrounding MPAs, and included areas where other sources of reduction of fisheries exploitation occur, such as seasonal-temporal closures, closures of exploitation of specific species, and reductions of fishing effort. [...]Peer reviewe

A modelling framework for the Mediterranean Sea ecosystem in support of EU policies

Forum on Fisheries Science in the Mediterranean and The Black Sea (FishForum 2018), 10-14 December 2018, Rome, ItalyAlready historically high levels of anthropogenic pressures are even futher expanding in the Mediterranean Sea with consequences for marine biodiversity and the economies that depend on it, contraining marine ecosystem services available to future generations. [...]Peer reviewe

Main drivers of spatial change in the biomass of commercial species between summer and winter in the NW Mediterranean Sea

15 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, supplementary data https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2020.105227There is a general lack of information related to the spatial structure and functioning of marine ecosystems considering seasonality. Here, we modeled the biomass distribution of eight commercial marine species in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea during winter and summer. We hypothesised that the seasonal differences of the water column and the spatial heterogeneity of oceanographic conditions in the study area could result in seasonal variations on the species biomass distributions. We employed a Bayesian hierarchical species distribution modelling approach (B-SDM) with data from two experimental trawl surveys to analyse which are the significant drivers in each season. Our results showed that bathymetry, temperature and fishing patterns are important variables explaining the species spatial biomass distributions. Furthermore, we found seasonal differentiation in the spatial distribution of biomass for all the studied species. Our results provide essential knowledge about the seasonal distributions of key species in the Mediterranean Sea, with important management implicationsE.Ll.-Ll.- was supported by a FPU fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education (FPU1704395) associated to the project PELWEB (RETOS-2017-CTM2017-88939-R: Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitivity, I+D+I projects) Science and Innovation, Spanish Government. J.N. was funded by the Spanish National Program Ramón y Cajal (RYC-2015-17809)With the funding support of the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S), of the Spanish Research Agency (AEI)Peer reviewe

Main drivers of seasonal change in commercial species distributions of the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea

Future Oceans2 Integrated Marine Biosphere Research (IMBeR) Open Science Conference, 17-21 June 2019, Brest, FranceDespite multiple studies that focus on marine Mediterranean resources and ecosystems, there is a lack of information considering the importance of seasonality on these ecosystems. This knowledge is key to predict and understand how ecosystems can react to climate change effects and how to improve fishing management. Here, we examined the spatial distribution of eight commercial marine species; including fish, crustaceans and cephalopods, in a highly exploited area of the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea during two different seasons (winter and summer). We hypothesised that the seasonal differences in the water column (with a marked thermocline in summer and absence of it in winter), as well as the spatial heterogeneity of oceanographic conditions, can result on a seasonal variation of species distributions, which may impact ecosystem spatial and functional traits. We employed a Bayesian hierarchical species distribution model with data from two experimental oceanographic surveys conducted during winter and summer of 2013. Our model included seven explanatory variables; depth, type of bottom substrate, water temperature (surface and bottom), sea surface salinity, primary production, and fishing effort as the drivers of species distributions during both seasons. We identified significant drivers in each season and we analysed if they were specific or common to all the studied species. Then, we investigated whether the functional relationships between the predicted and explanatory variables varied from winter to summer. Our results provide solid knowledge about ecosystem response to environmental and anthropogenic drivers, as well as the first systematic quantification of seasonal changes in commercial species distributions in the western Mediterranean Sea. These results could have important management applications and help project regional ecosystem responses to existing or new stressors in the futur

Seasonality of spatial patterns of abundance, biomass, and biodiversity in a demersal community of the NW Mediterranean Sea

14 pages, 5 figures, 4 tablesInformation on the spatial patterns and habitat preferences of marine species is key to understand the functioning of marine ecosystem and to manage and protect marine resources efficiently. However, the study of spatial patterns of marine ecosystems is challenging because they are dynamic environments that can vary seasonally. We modelled the spatial patterns of abundance, biomass, and biodiversity in a demersal community of the northwestern Mediterranean Sea by season using hierarchical Bayesian spatial models and environmental, physical, and anthropogenic factors. Overall, our findings revealed the importance of seasonality in the spatial patterns of the demersal community, which were mainly driven by sea surface temperature. Results also underlined important patterns of movements of demersal organisms: fishes, cephalopods, and crustaceans showed high densities in the area surrounding the Ebro Delta River in winter mainly driven by species-specific behaviour. Our results are relevant to inform future management measures in the study area, such as seasonal fishing restrictions, or to adapt local marine protected areas to seasonal processes. This study provides evidence of the need to expand current monitoring schemes to capture the seasonality of marine demersal communities for a more comprehensive marine spatial planning frameworkThis study forms a contribution to the project ECOTRANS (CTM2011-26333, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain) and SafeNET (EU-DGMARE MARE/2014/41). [...] Joan Navarro was supported by Spanish National Program Ramón y CajalWith the funding support of the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S), of the Spanish Research Agency (AEI