Publication Abstract

Modelling Fish Habitat Suitability in the Eastern English Channel

S. Vaz, C.S. Martin, B. Ernande, P.D. Eastwood, F. Coppin, S. Harrop, G.J. Meaden and A. Carpentier

Valuable marine habitats and living resources can be found in the Eastern English Channel and in 2003, a Franco-British Interreg IIIA project, ‘Eastern Channel Habitat Atlas for Marine Resource Management’ (CHARM), was initiated to support decision-making for the management of essential fish habitats. Fish habitat corresponds to geographical areas within which ranges of environmental factors define the abundance of a particular species. Habitat Suitability (HS) modelling was used to relate fish spatial distribution to environmental factors, hence delineating their optimum habitat. This study was based on data obtained from 1988–2004 IFREMER’s Channel Ground Fish Survey and 1989-2004 CEFAS’ Beam Trawl Survey, including both species abundance and environmental data. A generic methodology allowing for the modelling of several fish species was developed including measures of fit and model validation techniques. In brief, habitat suitability modelling based on non-parametric multi-linear quantile regressions was used to relate species abundance to depth, temperature, salinity, seabed stress, and sediment type. Backward selection resulted in HS models that described species affinity with a subset of significant environmental variables and that were used to map fish optimum habitats using GIS. Models were validated by comparing predicted abundances against abundance data that were not used in the modelling process. This work will help in elaborating guidelines for the conservation and protection of natural habitats of marine living resources in the face of climate change and anthropogenic disturbances.

Reference:

S. Vaz, C.S. Martin, B. Ernande, P.D. Eastwood, F. Coppin, S. Harrop, G.J. Meaden and A. Carpentier (2005) Modelling Fish Habitat Suitability in the Eastern English Channel. ICES Copenhagen, ICES CM 2005/O:23