Scottish Marine and Freshwater Science Volume 1 No 2
To date, OSPAR has largely been responsible for the development of an ecosystem approach to the management of marine natural resources. Ten Ecological Quality Issues have been identified, with the intention of setting Ecological Quality Objectives (EcoQOs) for each issue. Since 2000, this scheme has been developed and piloted in the North Sea. Fish Communities is the fifth in the list of Ecological Quality Issues, and is considered to be one of three community-level issues. In addressing concerns regarding anthropogenically induced change in fish communities therefore, a community-level approach has been widely adopted. This has generally involved the application of univariate metrics to groundfish survey data to quantify change in various aspects of the community’s composition, structure and function. The element of Ecological Quality for the North Sea fish community focuses on “changes in the proportion of large fish and hence the average weight and average maximum length of the fish community”, thus clearly identifying the need for a community size composition metric as the “indicator” on which to base an EcoQO for the “fish community” Ecological Quality Issue. The chosen metric, the Large Fish Indicator (LFI) was eventually defined as “the proportion by weight of fish greater than 40cm in length”, based on ICES first quarter (Q1) International Bottom Trawl Survey (IBTS) data. The LFI was intended to be an indicator of the “general health” of the demersal fish community. However, other aspects of the composition, structure and functioning of fish communities, such as abundance, biomass, productivity, species richness, species diversity and mean life-history trait composition, can also be summarised using univariate metrics. Any one, or all, of these alternative metrics might also be considered to be indicative of the “health” of fish communities. The LFI was chosen ahead of these alternative metrics because it was believed to be particularly sensitive to variation in fishing pressure, and therefore to indicate directly the effect of fishing on the state of the fish community. But this raises the question as to whether one indicator is sufficient to inform on the general health of the demersal fish community, or is a suite of indicators necessary in order to provide information on various different aspects of a community’s composition, structure and function? In this assessment of the state of the demersal community in four OSPAR Regions, fifteen univariate metrics are applied to groundfish survey data to quantify changes in five main aspects of community composition, structure and function: abundance/biomass/productivity; size composition; species richness; species diversity; and life-history trait composition (Table 1). Bottom trawl surveys have been carried out as part of the traditional annual fisheries management process for several decades. These surveys routinely provide point estimates of the abundance at length of each species sampled; therefore providing ideal data sets for the application of univariate community metrics. Many of these surveys have run for two or three decades now, providing appropriate time series with which to evaluate changes in the composition, structure and function of fish communities. Furthermore, most coastal European nations have been involved in survey activity, providing data from most of the continental shelf waters in the OSPAR area. In this assessment, otter trawl survey data is analysed to assess changes in the fish communities present in four OSPAR Regions (Figure 1). To assess the state of the demersal fish community in OSPAR Regions, II, III, IV and V, and make a judgement on the changes observed, it was necessary to decide what constituted “beneficial” and “detrimental” change. Emphasis is generally placed on conserving and restoring biodiversity; implying that declines in species diversity (both richness and evenness) are detrimental. The converse was therefore also assumed to hold. The lifehistory trait composition responses of populations and communities to anthropogenically raised levels of mortality have recently received considerable attention. Declines in population age and length at maturity, decreased community average ultimate body length, and an increase in community average growth rate are all considered to be detrimental Assessment of the “State” of the Demersal Fish Communities in OSPAR Regions 3 consequences. Improved management would therefore be expected to induce the opposite, beneficial trends. Established population dynamics theory predicts that size-related fishing mortality reduces the mean size and proportion of large fish in exploited populations (including non-target species taken as by-catch). This concept underpins development of the LFI as the basis for the OSPAR North Sea Fish Community EcoQO. Reductions in LFI are therefore considered detrimental. Changes in LFI were generally inversely correlated with changes in the abundance, biomass and (growth) productivity of the fish community implying that declining abundance, biomass and productivity are indicative of a fish community returning to a more natural state. The von Bertalanffy growth equation makes it clear that larger fish, closer to their ultimate body length (L8), have lower daily specific growth rates. Large fish exert a strong predation loading on small fish abundance. Since trophic transfer efficiency is around 10%, every kg of production by larger fish requires 10kg of production in their smaller prey fish populations. Specific growth rates among smaller fish are approximately twice that of larger fish, so 5kg of prey fish are required to support every kg of larger fish. Reductions in the abundance of larger fish, with the consequent reduction in predation loading on smaller prey fish, would therefore tend to result in a rapid increase in the abundance and biomass of small fish; a typical trophic cascade effect.
Data and Resources
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Publisher | |
| Modified | 2020-01-07 |
| Release Date | 2014-10-24 |
| Identifier | 2c190e42-aa88-432d-a6d4-a8b3b07b4848 |
| Spatial / Geographical Coverage Location | OSPAR regions II, III, IV and V |
| Temporal Coverage | 2010-03-01 |
| License | UK Open Government Licence (OGL) |
| Author | |
| Data Dictionary | In assessing the state of the demersal fish community in each OSPAR Region, two questions were addressed. Firstly, how has the state of the community changed over the last decade, from 1999 to 2008; the period of particular interest to the current QSR. Secondly, how does the state of the community over the period 2004 to 2008 (i.e. now) compare with that prevalent during the eight-year period when data were first available for analysis. For the North Sea IBTS time series, data were available from 1983 onwards, giving a “reference period” of 1983 to 1990. Other data sets commenced later than this, the Scottish West Coast Groundfish Survey commenced in 1986, so the “reference period” for this data set was 1986 to 1993. Detrimental trends were assigned a “red” colour code and beneficial trends “green”. Where no discernable trend was apparent, an “orange” colour code was applied. Five separate aspects of composition, structure and function of the demersal fish community were considered, and a judgement was made based on the trends observed in the 15 univariate community metrics applied to the groundfish survey data. Linear regression was used to make an assessment of metric trends over the last decade. In comparing the current situation with the earlier “reference period”, mean metric values over the period 2004 to 2008 were determined and the assessment was scored red or green depending on whether the recent mean value differed by more than one standard deviation either side of the mean value determined for the “reference period”. In OSPAR Regions IV and V, only single data sets were available for analysis, each covering only a fraction of the whole region concerned. For these regions therefore, assessment was straightforward. In OSPAR Region II, data sets were available that covered almost the entire region, allowing a single “analytical” assessment to be made based on all the data from throughout the region. In OSPAR Region III, data were available that more or less covered the entire region, but from several different surveys, not a single co-ordinated survey. This necessitated the division of the Region into seven sub-regions, with each sub-region assessed individually. To determine an overall regional assessment, weighted averages were then calculated. Red cells were given a value of 1, orange a value of 2, and green a value of 3, and cells were then weighted by the number of ICES statistical rectangles in the sub-regions. For the final regional assessment, weighted average scores greater than 2.35 were considered good and assigned a “green” code; scores of less than 1.65 were considered poor and assigned a “red” code; while scores of 1.65 to 2.35 were deemed to indicate little change and assigned an “orange” code. This analysis revealed considerable variation between sub-regions in the way that the different aspects of the composition, structure and functioning of the fish community in OSPAR Region III had varied over time. So the same approach was applied to OSPAR Region II to determine whether the single “analytical” assessment had masked similar sub-regional variation. This had two benefits. Firstly, it allowed sub-regions, such as the English Channel, part of OSPAR Region II, but not covered by the single co-ordinated survey, to be included in the regional assessment. Secondly, it provided a comparison of the “analytical” and “weighted average” approaches. |
| Contact Name | Marine Scotland Science Enquiries |
| Contact Email | |
| Public Access Level | Public |