Life-cycle spatial patterns of small pelagic fish in the Northeast Atlantic

The spatial organization of fish populations is expected to play a key role in population dynamics and its response to environmental forcing. It has been argued (Sinclair, 1988) that the size of populations and the spatial organization of their life cycles match key oceanographic physical features in space and time. The characterization of a functional

linkage between key physical features and fish habitats was recognized as a first and important step towards understanding the variability of spatial patterns and population dynamics. Therefore, the 2004 – 2006 reports of the ICES Study Group on Regional Scale Ecology of Small Pelagic Fish (SGRESP; ICES, 2004a, 2005, 2006a) attempted to characterize patterns in the life‐cycle organization of fish stocks in the Northeast Atlantic and cross‐map these with physical features. Results were consistent with previous findings.