Sole larval supply to coastal nurseries: Interannual variability and connectivity at interregional and interpopulation scales

Authored by Pape O Le, M Savina, M Lunghi, B Archambault, L Baulier, M Huret

Date Published: 2016

DOI: 10.1016/j.seares.2015.11.010

Sponsors: European Union

Platforms: No platforms listed

Model Documentation: Other Narrative

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

Simulating fish larval drift helps assess the sensitivity of recruitment variability to early life history. An individual based model (IBM) coupled to a hydrodynamic model was used to simulate common sole larval supply from spawning areas to coastal and estuarine nursery grounds at the meta-population scale (4 assessed stocks), from the southern North Sea to the Bay of Biscay (Western Europe) on a 26-yr time series, from 1982 to 2007. The IBM allowed each particle released to be transported by currents, to grow depending on temperature, to migrate vertically depending on development stage, to die along pelagic stages or to settle on a nursery, representing the life history from spawning to metamorphosis. The model outputs were analysed to explore interannual patterns in the amounts of settled sole larvae at the population scale; they suggested; (i) a low connectivity between populations at the larval stage, (ii) a moderate influence of interannual variation in the spawning biomass, (iii) dramatic consequences of life history on the abundance of settling larvae and (iv) the effects of climate variability on the interannual variability of the larvae settlement success. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Tags

Life-history Habitat suitability North-sea Adult-population Eastern english-channel Plaice pleuronectes-platessa Marine fishes Numerical simulations Spawning habitat Dover sole