Tools
Tools
Watson, Joseph W., Radford, Zachary, Bannister, Hayley, Bradley, Robin, Brown, Mary, Ciotti, Benjamin J., Goodwin, Derek, Graham, Jennifer A. 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1950-5266, Nash, Richard D. M., Roche, William K., Wogerbauer, Ciara and Hyder, Kieran ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1428-5679
(2024)
Assessing the coherence in biological and environmental drivers of young sea bass abundance across important estuarine nursery areas of the northern European sea bass stock.
Frontiers in Marine Science, 10.
ISSN 2296-7745
Preview |
PDF (fmars-10-1209311)
- Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (4MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Year class strength is an important determinant of fish population size, but the drivers are often unknown. The northern stock of European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) is an important target species for both commercial and recreational fisheries. Scientific assessments showed a rapid decline in spawning stock biomass from 2010-18 attributed to a combination of fishing mortality and poor year class strength. Recruitment to the adult stock is linked to the abundance and temporal dynamics of young bass in estuarine nursery areas, but little is known about the relative importance of environmental and biological drivers on the survival of these young life stages. In this study, we use Generalised Linear Models to attempt to identify important local environmental (sea surface temperature and river flow) and biological (chlorophyll-a concentration and predator abundance) drivers of young sea bass abundance. We focus on seven British and Irish estuarine areas that are important to the northern stock of European sea bass. In four English estuarine areas there were good model fits to the abundance of young sea bass, but predictors differed amongst these suggesting that drivers of abundance may differ among individual nursery areas. This was further demonstrated by poor fits of models generated for English estuaries to interannual patterns of abundance in the Irish nursery areas tested. The differences found in the most important abundance drivers amongst areas highlight the complex and differing dynamics between estuaries. If the number of young bass that eventually join the adult stock is dependent on survivors from a diverse set of unique nursery area conditions, then endeavours to incorporate this knowledge into fisheries management should be further explored.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Data availability statement: The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation. Requests to access these datasets should be directed to joseph.watson@cefas.gov.uk. Funding information: The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was funded by UK Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA, FRD009, FRD052). |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | dicentrarchus labrax,european sea bass,estuary,fisheries management,recruitment,year class strength,oceanography,global and planetary change,aquatic science,water science and technology,environmental science (miscellaneous),ocean engineering ,/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: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 04 Nov 2024 16:30 |
| Last Modified: | 11 Nov 2024 09:30 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/97467 |
| DOI: | 10.3389/fmars.2023.1209311 |
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |