Search

Lauria, V., Vaz, S., Martin, C. S., Mackinson, S., and Carpentier, A. 2011. What influences European plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) distribution in the eastern English Channel? Using habitat modelling and GIS to predict habitat utilization. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68: 1500–1510. Conservation of fish habitat requires knowledge of how spatial distributions of species are related to environmental factors. Habitat modelling and mapping are useful in predicting species–environment relationships. Species abundance is modelled as a function of environmental parameters to understand species habitat utilization better. The influence of environmental factors on plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) distribution was investigated for two life stages and over two seasons. Generalized linear modelling and quantile regression modelling were used to relate the relative abundance of (juvenile and adult) fish to environmental predictors (seawater temperature, salinity, water column depth, bed-shear stress, and sediment type) in autumn and summer. The resulting regression parameters were used to map preferential and potential habitat distributions within a geographic information system. Models were evaluated by comparing predicted against observed abundances. Seabed sediment type was the main significant predictor of plaice preferential and potential habitats, whereas other factors did not show such a clear influence. The results contribute to a better understanding of the spatial ecology of the species. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Rochet, M-J., Prigent, M., Bertrand, J. A., Carpentier, A., Coppin, F., Delpech, J-P., Fontenelle, G., Foucher, E., Mahé, K., Rostiaux, E., and Trenkel, V. M. 2008. Ecosystem trends: evidence for agreement between fishers' perceptions and scientific information. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 65: 1057–1068.The results of a survey on fishers' perceptions of recent changes in the eastern English Channel ecosystem carried out in 2006 were compared with fishery and bottom-trawl survey data. A hypothesis-testing framework was used, testing the null hypothesis that fishers' statements were true, which permitted evaluation of both agreement and disagreement. Overall good agreement between fishers' statements and scientific data was found, and both sources suggested that the fish community in the Channel is undergoing large changes, among which are decreases in some commercially important species; in addition, a number of human pressures impact the ecosystem. Fishers had an accurate perception of changes and their time-frames, but not necessarily of their causes. They had a greater power than survey data to detect recent changes, showing that fishers' perceptions have great potential as early warning signals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]