Long-term changes in species composition of demersal fish and epibenthic species in the Jade area (German Wadden Sea/Southern North Sea) since 1972

Abstract

Within this long-term study, the short- and long-term variability of demersal fish and epibenthic species in relation to temperature and climate-driven environmental changes in the inshore tidal bay system of the Jade area was investigated. Semiquantitative sampling took place once per spring and summer period from 1972 to 2014 by using a 2 m beam trawl at one station in the Jade area (German Wadden Sea/southern North Sea). Min/max autocorrelation analysis (MAFA) and Mann-Kendall analysis revealed significant increasing trends in total abundance and species number. Homogeneity analysis revealed shifts for abundance in spring and summer in the late 1980s and for species number in the late 1980s in spring and early 2000s in summer. Abundances of the estuarine crustacean species Carcinus maenas and Liocarcinus holsatus and of the estuarine fish species Pomatoschistus spp. showed significant increasing abundances since the late 1980s. The marine juvenile species Pleuronectes platessa and Limanda limanda showed significant decreasing abundances, while abundances of Solea solea showed significant increasing abundances since the early 2000s. Abundances of L.holsatus and C. maenas showed mass occurrences since the early 2000s. Spearman correlation analysis revealed significant correlations of temperature and abundance data of some characteristic species. Statistical downscaling analysis revealed significant correlations between observations and climate indicators such as the North Sea Environmental (NSE) Index for spring. Thus, it appears that climate effects influenced the long-term variability of species number and abundance of epibenthic and demersal fish species in the Jade area, resulting in community shifts in the late 1980s and early 2000s.