Influence of ecological traits on spatio-temporal dynamics of an elasmobranch community in a heavily exploited basin.

ABSTRACT: Elasmobranchs, which include sharks and batoids, play critical roles in maintaining the integrity and stability of marine food webs. However, these cartilaginous fish are among the most threatened vertebrate lineages due to their widespread depletion. Consequently, understanding dynamics and predicting changes of elasmobranch communities are major research topics in conservation ecology. Here, we leverage long-term catch data from a standardized bottom trawl survey conducted from 1996 to 2019, to evaluate the spatio-temporal dynamics of the elasmobranch community in the heavily exploited Adriatic Sea, where these fish have historically been depleted. We use joint species distribution modeling to quantify the responses of the species to environmental variation while also including important

SUBMITTER: Maioli F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10264359 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature