Landscape effects on demersal fish revealed by field observations and predictive seabed modelling.

ABSTRACT: Nature conservation and fisheries management often focus on particular seabed features that are considered vulnerable or important to commercial species. As a result, individual seabed types are protected in isolation, without any understanding of what effect the mixture of seabed types within the landscape has on ecosystem functions. Here we undertook predictive seabed modelling within a coastal marine protected area using observations from underwater stereo-video camera deployments and environmental information (depth, wave fetch, maximum tidal speeds, distance from coast and underlying geology). The effect of the predicted substratum type, extent and heterogeneity or the diversity of substrata, within a radius of 1500 m around each camera deployment of juvenile gadoid relative abundance

SUBMITTER: Elliott SAM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5724865 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature