Maria Grazia Pennino

Instituto Español de Oceanografia (IEO-CSIC)

Fishing is one of the most widespread and important human activities in coastal ecosystems and it plays a fundamental role in employment and the economy of coastal communities. However, in the period 2020 to 2021, the global outbreak of COVID-19 negatively affected fishing economic activity. Against this background, Andalusia (South of Spain) is an...

Seabirds are bioindicators of marine ecosystems health and one of the world's most endangered avian groups. The creation of marine protected areas plays an important role in the conservation of marine environment and its biodiversity. The distributions of top predators, as seabirds, have been commonly used for the management and creation of these f...

By evaluating genetic variation across the entire genome, one can address existing questions in a novel way while raising new ones. The latter include how different local environments influence adaptive and neutral genomic variation within and among populations, providing insights into local adaptation of natural populations and their responses to...

Despite its relevance, the economic contribution of small-scale fisheries to poverty alleviation is still poorly understood. This study investigates why some fishers perform economically better in fisheries than others under similar conditions and whether these variations in performance were due to individual adaptive strategies related to fishing...

European hake (Merluccius merluccius) is a commercially important resource in Iberian Atlantic waters. Despite the recovery plan implemented in 2006 and the multiannual management plan for western waters, fishing mortality is still higher than that corresponding to the maximum sustainable yield for the southern European hake stock. The biological p...

The level of habitat availability influences genetic divergence among populations and the genetic diversity within populations. In the marine environment, near-shore species are among the most sensitive to habitat changes. Knowledge of how historical environmental change affected habitat availability and genetic variation can be applied to the deve...

Fish body condition and growth are two interrelated traits closely associated with species life history and fitness, whose trade-off can ultimately impact population dynamics albeit seldom empirically demonstrated. They can intricately affect survival rates, which are particularly relevant for species under exploitation. Using individual spatiotemp...

Ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) aims to go beyond single-species management by incorporating ecosystem considerations to guarantee the sustainable use of marine resources. Although many countries have formally committed to the implementation of EBFM, at a practical level progress has been very slow. At the analytical level, many advance...

Despite the marine environment being typified by a lack of obvious barriers to dispersal, levels of genetic divergence can arise in marine organisms from historical changes in habitat availability, current oceanographic regimes and anthropogenic factors. Here we describe the genetic structure of the Gray Parrotfish, Sparisoma axillare, and identify...

Recently, various state-space implementations of surplus production models (SPMs) have been developed for data-limited stocks. Often, catches and fishing effort are underestimated and discards are ignored. This results in biased estimates of stock status and reference points. Therefore, we conduct a sensitivity analysis for different under-reportin...

It is widely known that the abundance and distribution dynamics of populations of small pelagic clupeid fish, such as sardines and anchovies, are affected by large-scale climate variability, which may lead to changeovers to new regimes of small pelagics. However, long-distance climatic oscillations , such as El Niño/La Niña and the Pacific Decadal...

Ecological niche models (ENMs) and species distribution models (SDMs) have been widely applied to various studies relevant to biogeography, conservation biology, and ecology. These modelling techniques seek to develop spatial maps for projecting , among others past, current, and future species distributions. Born in the field of terrestrial ecology...

Increasing the knowledge of approaches to estimate the status of data-limited stocks is of crucial importance since the vast majority of stocks are data-limited, i.e., there is not enough data to conduct a fully integrated statistical catch-at-age or at-length assessment. Among the different data-limited methods, surplus production models (SPMs) ar...

Small pelagic fish (SPF) species such as European sardine Sardina pilchardus , European anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus , round sardinella Sardinella aurita and European sprat Sprattus sprattus play important ecological roles in the Mediterranean Sea marine ecosystem. However, changes in SPF abundance and biomass have recently been observed in the b...

Bayes factor, defined as the ratio of the marginal likelihood functions of two competing models, is the natural Bayesian procedure for model selection. Marginal likelihoods are usually computationally demanding and complex. This scenario is particularly cumbersome in linear mixed models (LMMs) because marginal likelihood functions involve integrals...

Spatial-explicit ecosystem models, such as Ecopath with Ecosim and Ecospace (EwE), are useful tools for exploring ecosystem-based management strategies, as they integrate ecological processes, environmental dynamics and human activities. EwE further allows for the spatial-temporal simulation of use and conservation scenarios, helping to prioritize...

Bycatch is one of the main causes of mortality of marine megafauna over the world. In the coastal waters of southern Brazil, bycatch in gillnet fisheries affects threatened species that use this region as a breeding and feeding area. The identification of hotspot areas of bycatch is necessary to design and prioritize efficient spatial-temporal clos...

Although there is a great knowledge about individual anthropogenic threats to different fish species in the Mediterranean Sea, little is known about how these threats accumulate and interact to affect fish species richness in conjunction with environmental dynamics. This study assesses the role of these threats in the fish richness component and id...

Rfishpop is an R package for analyzing exploited populations. More precisely, our packa\-ge implements a completed Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) cycle. MSE is a tool that scientists can use to simulate the behaviour of a fisheries system and allow them to test whether potential management procedures can achieve pre-agreed management objecti...

Length-based methods have been widely applied to estimate biological parameters and to understand the dynamics of marine resource populations within the category of data-limited stocks. However, few studies have been performed to date to test the parameter sensitivity of length-based methods on stocks with different traits and fishery contexts. In...

Ecosystem models, such as Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE), are useful tools for developing ecosystem-based management strategies. Model development, however, requires data for the estimation of input parameters including time series for calibration. Most small-scale fisheries lack such information, making it difficult to reliably use ecosystem models for...

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are a promising management tool for the conservation and recovery of marine ecosystems, as well as fisheries management. MPAs are generally established as permanent closures but marine systems are dynamic, which has generated debate in favour of more dynamic designs. As a consequence, the identification of priority are...

The common sole (Solea solea) is a species of flatfish of great commercial relevance in the northern Atlantic Iberian waters. Although many studies investigated the early life-stage of this species, little is known on the adult phases and the size structure of the population. Here we provide an analysis of the spatiotemporal distribution of adult’s...

Length-based methods have been widely applied to estimate biological parameters and understand the dynamics of marine resource populations within data-limited stocks. However, to date few studies have tested the sensitivity of parameters in length-based methods examining stocks with different traits and fishery contexts. In the Bay of Biscay and th...

The Mediterranean Sea is a large marine ecosystem with high heterogeneity in both environmental and ecological characteristics. It presents clear gradients from north to south and west to east. It is also an important area in terms of biodiversity and conservation of vulnerable species, and it suffers from several cumulative human impacts, such as...

Small pelagic fish (SPF) are key organisms for the functioning of pelagic marine ecosystems. In recent decades, these species have undergone significant changes in biomass, growth and body condition in the Mediterranean Sea. Seasonal and spatial information about changes in biological and ecological traits of SPF and their relationship with environ...

Cetacean strandings represent unique opportunities to collect biological material from these wild animals and obtain information on their population statuses. Here, we apply biological and pathological perspectives to analyze stranded cetaceans collected along the Sardinian coast (Italy) between 2006 and 2011. We quali-quantitatively explore the pr...

In the Iberian Coast region, the common sole (Solea solea) is considered a very relevant species due to its high commercial value. Despite its importance, the current status of this stock is still poorly known due to the scarcity of available data to apply formal assessment methods. In data-poor situations length-based methods have been widely appl...

Skipjack tuna play a significant role in global marine fisheries and are of particular interest for socio-economy in the tropical waters of the Mozambique Channel. However , human-induced climate change has been leading to a reduction and reallocation of biomass, along with other ecological changes, thereby creating a feedback loop with negative so...

Sardine and anchovy have shown important changes in landings, biomass, abundance and body condition with time in the Western Mediterranean Sea. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain these changes, including the negative interaction with jellyfish blooms. Increases in jellyfish blooms may be one of the reasons for a decline in these fish...

Marine Ecosystem Models (MEMs) provide a deeper understanding of marine ecosystem dynamics. The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development has highlighted the need to deploy these complex mechanistic spatial-temporal models to engage policy makers and society into dialogues towards sustainably managed oceans. From our shared...

The northward expansion of round sardinella (Sardinella aurita) in the Mediterranean Sea, together with declines and fluctuations in biomass and landings of European sardine (Sardina pilchardus) and anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) observed in recent decades, may suggest potential inter-specific competition in the pelagic domain. The coexistence of...

European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) and sardine (Sardina pilchardus) are crucial species for the marine ecosystem of the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea. They account for a high percentage of fish landings and they represent an important economic income for the fishery sector. Concerns over their stock status are rising in recent years as biom...

Worldwide there is increasing concern for elasmobranch species given that their biological and ecological characteristics make them highly vulnerable to fishing pressure. The disappearance of these species could affect the structure and function of marine ecosystems, which would induce changes in trophic interactions at the community level. For eff...

We propose 'triple-blind review' for peer-reviewed journals - a process that keeps author identities and affiliations blind to manuscript editors until after first appraisal. Blinded appraisal will help to reduce the biases that negatively affect under-represented and minority scientists, ultimately better supporting equity in scientific publishing...

Old World vultures are experiencing dramatic population declines and now are among the species most threatened with extinction. Understanding the environmental variables that can influence the reproductive indexes of vulture populations can facilitate both habitat and species management. The aim of this study was to identify which environmental var...

By evaluating genetic variation across the entire genome, one can address existing questions in a novel way while new can be asked. Such questions include how different local environments influence both adaptive and neutral genomic variation within and among populations, providing insights not only into local adaptation of natural populations, but...

Small pelagic fish (SPF) in the western Mediterranean Sea are key elements of the marine food web and are important in terms of biomass and fisheries catches. Significant declines in biomass, landings, and changes in the age/size structure of sardine Sardina pilchardus and anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus have been observed in recent decades, particu...

Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) is a relatively new approach to ocean management and has been widely implemented worldwide. Ideally, MSP should be established as a public process that analyzes and distributes human activities across space and time to achieve ecological, economic and social goals, which historically have been accomplished exclusively...

Marine conservation areas are an important tool for the sustainable management of multispecies, small-scale fisheries. Effective spatial management requires a proper understanding of the spatial distribution of target species and the identification of its environmental drivers. Small-scale fisheries, however, often face scarcity and low-quality of...

Global climate change is a major threat to reefs by increasing the frequency and severity of coral bleaching events over time, reducing coral cover and diversity. Ocean warming may cause shifts in coral communities by increasing temperatures above coral’s upper thermal limits in tropical regions, and by making extratropical regions (marginal reefs)...

Many global management and conservation initiatives fail to prevent overfishing either because they do not plan for local engagement, surveillance, and enforcement, and/or because they fail to include alternatives for short-term losses. Thus, these initiatives do not gain support among fishers. In this study, we interviewed fishers to investigate t...

We investigated the main drivers of eggs and larvae distributions of European sardine and anchovy from the NW Mediterranean Sea. We used Generalized Additive Models and satellite environmental data. Mainly sea surface temperature, but also currents, surface height, and primary production were significantly correlated with both species’ early stages...

The current European Union has been progressively implementing since January 2014 a discard ban which includes the obligation to land unwanted catch for certain regulated species and sizes. Although a full enforcement of the landing obligation has a direct impact on discard reduction through more responsible and selective fishing, fishers argue tha...

Natural resources management deals with highly complex socioecological systems. This complexity raises a conundrum, since wide-ranging knowledge from different sources and types is needed, but at the same time none of these types of knowledge is able by itself to provide the basis for a viable productive system, and mismatches between the two of th...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Franciscana Pontoporia blainvillei bycatch has been high for near six decades in western South Atlantic, with large regional variation. In 2012, the Brazilian Government‐regulated gillnet fisheries in south and southeast Brazil by reducing fishing effort and establishing no‐fishing zones. However, there is evidence that the magnitude of franciscana...

In recent decades, scientists and practitioners have increasingly focused on identifying and codifying the best ways to manage activities in marine systems, leading to the development and implementation of concepts such as the social-ecological systems approach, ecosystem-based management, integrated management, marine spatial planning, participato...

Octopus insularis, despite being widely fished from Brazil to Mexico, has only recently been described as a different species from the sympatric Octopus vulgaris complex in the tropical Atlantic, where its occurrence is determined by different environmental factors. Using a 10‐year time series from Brazil, we modeled how topographic aspects and oce...

In this work, we discuss the use of a methodological approach for modelling spatial relationships among species by means of a Bayesian spatial coregionalized model. Inference and prediction is performed using the integrated nested Laplace approximation methodology to reduce the computational burden. We illustrate the performance of the coregionaliz...

The massive impact that open-boat historical whaling (18th to 20th centuries) had on whale populations has been traditionally estimated from records of oil and baleen plate production. However, an unknown proportion of hunted whales were struck, wounded, eventually killed, but lost, and not included in these records, suggesting that whaling impact...

Fishery restricted areas (FRAs) are pivotal for the mitigation of fishery impacts, but the designation of optimum FRAs is complex, and currently there is no quantitative guideline to assess the spatio-temporal variability of conservation priority areas. Fishery systems are naturally dynamic, and shifts may at two different levels, the species level...

Species occurrence and distribution have already been directly affected by climate change, a scenario that is likely to be accentuated as the temperature rise is expected to exceed 2 • C by 2100. Owing to climate change, organisms are forced to migrate or adapt to new climatic conditions, and if they fail to do so, they are at risk of declining and...

European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) and sardine (Sardina pilchardus) are crucial species for the marine ecosystem of the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea. They account for a high percentage of fish landings and they represent an important economic income. Concerns over their stock status are rising in recent years as biomass, growth, reproducti...

The protection of fish nurseries has been recognized as a useful tool to efficiently manage fisheries given that protected areas enhance the recruitment of target species. To identify and locate potential nursery areas, a solid understanding of species-environment relationships and their spatio-temporal dynamics is needed. Within this context, in t...

Mean weight-at-age of fish species is an indicator of fish growth and physiological condition, as well as a basic parameter for assessing and managing fish stocks. Here, we investigated the temporal trends of the mean weight-at-age for four different commercial species with different life strategy: i) the short-lived pelagic European sardine (Sardi...

There is a general lack of information related to the spatial structure and functioning of marine ecosystems considering seasonality. Here we modelled the biomass distribution of eight commercial marine species in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea during winter and summer. We hypothesised that the seasonal differences of the water column and the s...

Improving the knowledge on the biology, ecology and distribution of marine resources exploited by fisheries is necessary to achieve population recovery and sustainable fisheries management. European hake (Merluccius merluccius) is one of the most important target species in the Mediterranean Sea and is largely overexploited by industrial fisheries....