Retrospective analysis of the pelagic ecosystem of the Western Mediterranean Sea: drivers, changes and effects

In the Western Mediterranean Sea, forage fishes have changed in abundance, body condition, growth, reproduction and distribution in the last decades. Different hypotheses have been proposed to explain these changes, including increase in fishing mortality; changes in environmental conditions affecting species fitness, and planktonic productivity and quality; recovery of top predators; and increases in competitors. We investigated the main drivers and changes of the pelagic ecosystem and their effects using an ecosystem-based modelling approach. Specifically, we (1) quantified the potential historical contribution of various drivers of change, (2) investigated changes in temporal trends and spatial distributions of main ecosystem components, and (3) identified ecological consequences of these changes in top predator and competitor species, their fisheries and ecosystem traits during 2000-2020. We updated an Ecopath food-web model for the year 2000 representing the Spanish and French Mediterranean Geographical sub-areas (GSA06 and GSA07) with the most recent available data. We applied the temporal dynamic Ecosim model and used historical time series of fishing effort, fishing mortality and environmental factors as potential drivers from 2000 to 2020.

COLL Marta;  BELIIDO Jose Maria;  PENNINO Maria Grazia;  ALBO-PUIGSERVER Marta;  BAEZ Jose Carlos;  CHRISTENSEN Villy;  CORRALES Xavier;  FERNÁNDEZ-CORREDOR Elena;  GIMÉNEZ Joan;  JULIÀ Laura;  LLORET-LLORET Elena;  MACIAS MOY Diego;  OULED-CHEIKH Jazel;  RAMÍREZ Francisco;  SBRAGAGLIA Valerio;  STEENBEEK Jeroen; 

2023-11-02

ELSEVIER

JRC134576

0048-9697 (online),   

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969723064173,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC134576,   

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.167790 (online),