Table 1.
List of the species and Mediterranean geographical sub-areas (GSAs) where recruit density was modelled for nursery identification.
Fig 1.
Map showing the study area with the position of the MEDITS trawl stations (year 2008).
Numbers refer to Mediterranean FAO-GFCM GSAs (Geographical Sub-Areas). 1 Northern Alboran Sea, 5 Balearic Islands, 6 Northern Spain, 7 Gulf of Lions, 8 Corsica Island, 9 Ligurian and North Tyrrhenian Sea, 10 South Tyrrhenian Sea, 11 Sardinia, 15 Malta Island, 16 South of Sicily, 17 Northern Adriatic, 18 Southern Adriatic Sea, 19 Western Ionian Sea, 20 Eastern Ionian Sea, 22 Aegean Sea, 23 Crete Island, 25 Cyprus Island.
Fig 2.
Trawl fishery restricted areas in the Mediterranean Sea.
Trawl fishery restricted areas are shown in blue, trawlable areas are shown in white.
Fig 3.
Distribution maps of persistence index (Ii) of nursery areas of commercial fish in the North Mediterranean Sea.
A) European hake (Merluccius merluccius), B) red mullet (Mullus barbatus), C) common Pandora (Pagellus erythrinus), D) common sole (Solea solea), e) blackmouth catshark (Galeus melastomus) and E) thornback ray (Raja clavata). The index Ii ranges between 0 (portion i of the study area never included in an annual nursery) and 1 (portion i of the study area always included in an annual nursery).
Fig 4.
Distribution maps of persistence index of nursery areas of commercial species of crustaceans and cephalopods in the North Mediterranean Sea.
A) Giant red shrimp (Aristeomorpha foliacea), B) deep-water rose shrimp (Parapenaeus longirostris), C) Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus), D) horned octopus (Eledone cirrhosa), E) broadtail shortfin squid (Illex coindetii). The index Ii ranges between 0 (portion i of the study area never included in an annual nursery) and 1 (portion i of the study area always included in an annual nursery).
Fig 5.
Map showing the spatial overlap among the persistent nursery areas of 11 species of demersal fish and shellfish in EU Mediterranean waters.
Colours indicate different classes of spatial overlap index (SO). Spatial overlap was calculated considering three different classes of the temporal persistence index (Ii): A) Ii>0.05; B) Ii>0.2; C) Ii>0.4. Numbers indicate the numbers of species modelled in each GSA. Note that, since the number of species modelled varied among GSAs, the overlap index SO was calculated separately for each GSA to avoid any comparative analysis at a larger geographical scale that can lead to misleading conclusions.
Table 2.
Surface extent in km2 of total nursery areas identified and of nursery areas with a temporal persistence >40% (N40), for a set of 11 demersal species in Mediterranean European waters.