Large scale spatio-temporal study on European hake depicts sensitivity to sea bottom temperature, sea bottom oxygen concentration and sea surface temperature

Paradinas, Iosu; Chust, Guillem; Garcia, Dorleta; Ibaibarriaga, Leire

doi:10.1101/2023.09.16.558035

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Among the factors that seem to influence marine ecological processes, temperature has been suggested to be the most influential climatic variable [ 70 ], but also seems to be the most studied [ 10 , 49 , 71 , 72 ]. Furthermore, the warming of seawater has been linked to decreased size-at-maturity in fish [ 68 , 73 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decline in Size-at-Maturity of European Hake in Relation to Environmental Regimes: A Case in the Eastern Ionian Sea

Legaki,

Chatzispyrou,

Damalas

et al. 2023

Animals

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European hake, Merluccius merluccius L. 1758, is a highly valuable demersal fish species exploited in both the east Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. Changes in the size-at-maturity of this species have been reported in various geographic areas. Size-at-maturity is a key parameter in fishery management. Our main goal was to study the trend of the size-at-maturity of European hake in the eastern Ionian Sea (Central Mediterranean) over the last five decades. Utilizing a multi-decadal series of data for various environmental variables, we employed multivariate analyses and non-additive modeling in an attempt to identify shifts in the climatic environment of the eastern Ionian Sea and whether the maturation of the hake population could be affected by these changes. The analyses used suggest a plausible environmental regime shift in the study area in the late 1990s/early 2000s. The decrease in size-at-maturity that was detected in the last two decades may, thus, be associated with environmental changes. However, as many fish stocks already experience fishery-induced evolution, further investigation is necessary to determine whether this environmental effect is an additional stressor on a possibly already fishery-impacted population. The outcomes of this study highlight the importance of investigating the relationship between fish reproductive traits and altered environmental conditions, as the latter are generally ignored during assessments, affecting the robustness of fishery management.

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