Compositional analysis of fish communities in a fast changing marine ecosystem
Concerns about the effects of human activities and climate change on the Mediterranean marine ecosystem are recently demanding new research work on the response of fish communities to environmental pressures to which they are subjected. The main limitation of standard statistical approaches is that they cannot properly account for the complex interactions occurring among subpopulations. In this work, we analyze a community of 129 demersal fish species living in front of the Lazio coast. The goal is to understand if the compositions changed over time and if so, verify any statistical relationship with changes in water temperature. Results show that this area of the Mediterranean Sea is undergoing a slow but progressive meridionalization of the fish inhabiting its waters