Structure in a sea of sand: Fish abundance in relation to man-made structures in the North Sea

Wright, Serena R., Lynam, Christopher P., Righton, David A., Metcalfe, Julian, Hunter, Ewan, Riley, Ainsley, Garcia, Luz, Posen, Paulette and Hyder, Kieran ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1428-5679 (2020) Structure in a sea of sand: Fish abundance in relation to man-made structures in the North Sea. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 77 (3). pp. 1206-1218. ISSN 1054-3139

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Abstract

Artificial structures in the marine environment may have direct and/or indirect impact on the behaviour and space use of mobile foragers. This study explores whether environmental and physical features in the North Sea-including artificial structures (wrecks, wind turbines, cables, and oil and gas structures) were associated with local abundance of three fish species: cod (Gadus morhua), plaice (Pleuronectes platessa), and thornback ray (Raja clavata). Generalized additive models (GAMs) were used to compare distributions between data collected by fisheries surveys and electronic tags. Distributions of cod, plaice, and ray were correlated with environmental variables including temperature, depth, and substrate, matching findings from previous studies. All species showed seasonal increases in their abundance in areas with high densities of artificial structures, including oil and gas platforms and wrecks. Independent of whether fish purposefully associate with these features or whether structures happen to coincide with locations frequented by these populations, the strong association suggests that greater consideration needs to be given to regulation of habitat alterations, including decommissioning.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	archival tags,artificial structures,fish abundance,oil and gas,oceanography,ecology, evolution, behavior and systematics,aquatic science,ecology,sdg 14 - life below water ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1900/1910
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Collaborative Centre for Sustainable Use of the Seas
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	25 Nov 2023 03:21
Last Modified:	07 Jun 2024 15:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/93785
DOI:	10.1093/icesjms/fsy142

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