MEPS 689:137-154 (2022)  -  DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps14034

ABSTRACT: Conservation of marine biodiversity requires understanding the joint influence of ongoing environmental change and fishing pressure. Addressing this challenge requires robust biodiversity monitoring and analyses that jointly account for potential drivers of change. Here, we ask how demersal fish biodiversity in Canadian Pacific waters has changed since 2003 and assess the degree to which these changes can be explained by environmental change and commercial fishing. Using a spatiotemporal multispecies model based on fisheries independent data, we find that species density (number of species per area) and community biomass have increased during this period. Environmental changes during this period were associated with temporal fluctuations in the biomass of species and the community as a whole. However, environmental changes were less associated with changes in species occurrence. Thus, the estimated increases in species density are not likely to be due to environmental change. Instead, our results are consistent with an ongoing recovery of the demersal fish community from a reduction in commercial fishing intensity from historical levels. These findings provide key insight into the drivers of biodiversity change that can inform ecosystem-based management.

KEY WORDS: Biodiversity change · Environmental change · Groundfish · Ecosystem-based management · Marine spatial planning · Temperature · Fishing · Species richness · Community biomass

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Cite this article as: Thompson PL, Anderson SC, Nephin J, Haggarty DR and others (2022) Disentangling the impacts of environmental change and commercial fishing on demersal fish biodiversity in a northeast Pacific ecosystem. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 689:137-154. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps14034 Export citation Share:    Facebook - - linkedIn