A model of preferred habitat for the young-of-the-year European hake, Merluccius merluccius L., 1758, was developed in the Mediterranean Sea to help defining spatio-temporal protection measures of nurseries. Ecological traits such as growth, mobility, feeding strategy and temperature tolerance of age-0 hake were linked with chlorophyll-a fronts, sea bottom current and temperature of the shelf and shelf break to highlight favourable nursery habitats. The results show that hake nurseries require stable bottom temperature (11.7-15.0oC), low bottom currents (< 0.034m.s-1) and a frequent occurrence of productive fronts in low chlorophyll-a areas (0.1-0.9mg.m-3) to have a successful recruitment. The prediction explains the relative balance between biotic and abiotic drivers of hake recruitment in the Mediterranean Sea and, in particular, that the low recruitment of 2010 and 2011 was mostly caused by large scale atmospheric forcing. This ecological niche modelling approach of potential habitat provides, as a recruitment carrying capacity, essential spatio-temporal information for fisheries management.

DRUON Jean-Noel;  FIORENTINO Fabio;  MURENU Matteo;  KNITTWEIS Leyla;  COLLOCA Francesco;  OSIO Giacomo Chato;  MERIGOT Bastien;  GAROFALO Germana;  MANNINI Alessandro;  JADAUD Angelique;  SBRANA M.;  SCARCELLA Giuseppe;  TSERPES G.;  PERISTERAKI Panagiota;  CARLUCCI R.;  HEIKKONEN Jukka; 

2015-01-05

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

JRC90269

0079-6611,   

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0079661114001803,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC90269,   

10.1016/j.pocean.2014.11.005,