Modelling spatio-temporal patterns of fish community size structure across the northern Mediterranean Sea: an analysis combining MEDITS survey data with environmental and anthropogenic drivers

Isabella Bitetto; Giovanni Romagnoni; Angeliki Adamidou; Gregoire Certain; Manfredi Di Lorenzo; Marilena Donnaloia; Giuseppe Lembo; Porzia Maiorano; Giacomo Milisenda; Claudia Musumeci; Francesc Ordines; Paola Pesci; Panagiota Peristeraki; Ana Pesic; Maria Teresa Spedicato

doi:10.3989/scimar.05015.06A

Authors

Isabella Bitetto COISPA Tecnologia & Ricerca https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8497-1642
Giovanni Romagnoni COISPA Tecnologia & Ricerca - Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), Dept. of Biosciences, University of Oslo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2208-3017
Angeliki Adamidou FRI https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9958-3407
Gregoire Certain UMR MARBEC IFREMER-LHM https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5242-5268
Manfredi Di Lorenzo Institute for Biological Resources and Marine Biotechnologies, National Research Council (IRBIM-CNR) https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3786-5772
Marilena Donnaloia COISPA Tecnologia & Ricerca https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6707-0503
Giuseppe Lembo COISPA Tecnologia & Ricerca https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9899-6189
Porzia Maiorano Dipartimento di Biologia, Bari University of Aldo Moro https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5737-3025
Giacomo Milisenda SZN (Stazione zoologica Anton Dohrn), Dipartimento di ecologia marina integrata https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1334-9749
Claudia Musumeci CIBM https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9778-6254
Francesc Ordines Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centre Oceanogràfic de les Balears https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2456-2214
Paola Pesci Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Cagliari https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9066-8076
Panagiota Peristeraki Hellenic Center of Marine Research https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8608-078X
Ana Pesic University of Montenegro - Institute of Marine Biology https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8669-6744
Maria Teresa Spedicato COISPA Tecnologia & Ricerca https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9939-9426

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3989/scimar.05015.06A

Keywords:

demersal fish community, size structure indicators, geographical sub-area, Marine Strategy Framework Directive, dynamic factor analysis, redundancy analysis

Abstract

The state of marine systems subject to natural or anthropogenic impacts can be generally summarized by suites of ecological indicators carefully selected to avoid redundancy. Length-based indicators capture the status of fish community structure, fulfilling the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requirement for Descriptor 3 (status of commercial fish species). Although the MSFD recommends the development of regional indicators, a comparison among alternative length-based indicators is so far missing for the Mediterranean Sea. Using principal component analysis and dynamic factor analysis, we identified the most effective subset of length-based indicators, whether or not based on maximum length. Indicator trends and time series of fishing effort and environmental variables are also compared in order to highlight the individual and combined capability of indicators to track system changes across geographical sub-areas. Two indicators, typical length and mean maximum length, constitute the smallest set of non-redundant indicators, capturing together 87.45% of variability. Only in combination can these indicators disentangle changes in the fish community composition from modifications of size structure. Our study supports the inclusion of typical length among the regional MSFD Descriptor 3 indicators for the Mediterranean Sea. Finally, we show dissimilarity between the western and eastern-central Mediterranean, suggesting that there are sub-regional differences in stressors and community responses.

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