The influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation on the abundance of Pagellus bogaraveo of the Azores

No abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author.

Recent studies suggest that climate variability may act in the marine environment from the bottomup, via primary and secondary productivities or from the top‐down through controls on key predator populations, potentially inducing substantial, wide‐ranging, and complex responses both within and among communities. Given the potential profound and varied effects of climate variability on the biomass, age structure, and growth rates of fish in the Northeast Atlantic ecosystems (namely, within the Azores region, where commercial fisheries constitute a strong economic regional revenue), a detailed description and understanding of climate patterns, processes, and impacts became critical for developing better fish management strategies in the region. In this study we use 15 years of demersal fish cruise surveys and relate Pagellus bogaraveo (a commercial fish species of the Azores) abundance indices with North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) seasonal indices for the same period of time. Preliminary results are encouraging and demonstrate positive and significant correlation between the fish abundance and the atmospheric indices. This work raised new scientific questions and challenges by integrating for the first time in the Azores, expertise from scientists from different fields (physical/biological oceanographers and fishery biologists), in an attempt to describe, explain, and establish climate–ecosystem relationships for the region.