Habitat suitability for juvenile common sole (Solea solea, L.) in the Bay of Biscay (France): A quantitative description using indicators based on epibenthic fauna

This study describes the spatial distribution of young-of-the-year common sole based on beam trawl surveys conducted in late summer in the coastal and estuarine parts of the Bay of Biscay (France). Previous studies showed that habitat suitability for juvenile common sole varies according to physical factors and notably bathymetry and sediment structure. Nevertheless, the use of these descriptors alone to model habitat suitability led to considerable unexplained variability in juvenile common sole distribution. Hence, the epibenthic macro- and megafauna collected during beam trawl surveys was taken into account to improve models of habitat suitability for these juvenile flatfish. Ecotrophic guilds based on life traits (behaviour, mobility and feeding) were used to develop generic indicators of trawled benthic fauna. These synthetic descriptors were used in generalized linear models of habitat suitability in order to characterize the distribution of juvenile common sole. This approach significantly improved the description based on physical descriptors and allowed demonstrating that young common sole distribution is related to the density of trawled deposit and suspension feeders and also of carnivorous organisms. These models provide a reliable method to develop indicators of nursery habitat suitability from trawl survey data with the aim of assessing and surveying their quality.