Divulgação

Lecture - “Identifying essential habitat for juvenile sardine along the Portuguese coast and Gulf of Cadiz”

Date: 2014-12-16 02:00 PM
Speaker: ??? Extended/EventDirector/Description ???
Local: IPMA Algés Lisbon
Email contact: ??? Extended/EventDirector/Email ???
Phone contact: 213027000

Understanding fish distribution, including juvenile fish distribution, is essential for sustainable fisheries management, where the protection of the juveniles (i.e. assuring first spawn) is required. The distribution of juvenile sardine (Sardina pilchardus; Walbaum, 1972) was mapped along the Portuguese coast and Gulf of Cadiz for the springs of the years 2005-2010 using data obtained during the acoustic surveys. The abundance of juveniles was then related with six environmental variables: sea surface temperature, salinity, fluorescence, zooplankton volume and depth, using Generalized Additive Models. Our results highlighted three key locations for the residence of juveniles: the Northern Portuguese shelf (centered off Aveiro), the coastal region in the vicinity of the Tagus Estuary and the Eastern Gulf of Cadiz. Enriched by the river runoff during the winter months, these areas are characterized by higher productivity in spring and lower salinities, factors cited to be crucial for the presence of juvenile stages. Moreover the combination of mesoscale and submesoscale physical processes and features occurring in these waters, have been reported to promote retention mechanisms for early life stages.Esta palestra teve por base o poster apresentado no “Johan Hjort Symposium on Recruitment Dynamics and Stock Variability”. Este simpósio teve lugar entre 7 a 9 outubro 2014 em Bergen.