Contribution of ocean variability to climate-catch models of Pacific sardine

Raúl O. Martínez-Rincón, Romeo Saldívar-Lucio, Mark Morales, Salvador E. Lluch-Cota, Daniel B. Lluch-Cota, Christian Salvadeo, Germán Ponce-Díaz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Small-pelagic fishes are economically and ecologically important as they make up a large proportion of wild-caught fisheries and provide an important link between planktonic organisms and higher trophic level organisms such as piscivorous fishes, squid, seabirds and marine mammals. In the California Current Ecosystem (CCE), the distribution and abundance of Pacific sardine (Sardinops sagax) is influenced by both natural climate variability and exploitation. This study uses Generalized Additive Models to evaluate the effects of environmental forcing at multiple spatial scales (i.e. local, regional and basin) on sardine catch recorded at British Columbia (CAN), California (USA) and Bahía Magdalena (MEX). We find that the Pacific Circulation Index, sea surface temperature, upwelling strength, and primary productivity were the most influential factors explaining variability of sardine catch in the northeastern Pacific Ocean. Our CCE-wide analysis shows that regional scale environmental variability best explained catch rates of the Pacific sardine for California and Bahía Magdalena while basin-scale environmental variability did so for catch rates for British Columbia.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)103-111
Number of pages9
JournalDeep-Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography
Volume159
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2019
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • California current
  • Climate variability
  • Climate-catch models
  • Generalized additive models
  • Sardinops sagax

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