| Essential Fish Habitats host, at least, one stage of their life cycle. As they can be distant, maintaining their connectivity is essential for the closure of fish life cycle and populations’ sustainability. This thesis focused on the connectivity between spawning areas and nurseries of European seabass. Its main spawning areas have been characterised using a non-linear geostatistical approach applied to highly resolved fishery data. A Bayesian spatio-temporal model showed that they are mainly explained by a stable spatio-temporal structure, rather than by hydro-climatic factors. A bioenergetics model (DEB) over the entire life cycle of seabass was developed and validated for the early life stages. It showed that larvae and juveniles are resistant to low... |
