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Assessing Octopus vulgaris distribution using presence-only model methods

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Abstract

The distribution of the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) in the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic waters is evaluated using two presence-only analyses: The maximum entropy model (Maxent) and the ecological niche factor analysis (ENFA). Maxent predicts those geographical areas that satisfy the environmental or abiotic requirements of a species while ENFA explores the niche and habitat preferences of O. vulgaris. The analyses were implemented recovering the spatial information from 213 octopus presence data collected from surveys and bibliographical records. Together, these analyses provided reasonable estimates of the species distribution and the octopus habitat. Among the gathered set of explanatory environmental variables, sea bottom temperature, sea bottom salinity, surface dissolved oxygen and sea surface chlorophyll-α appear as the main variables involved in O. vulgaris distribution. These results were confronted with the available literature.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the ECOSUMMER Project (Marie Curie Action 20501) funded by the European Commission. C. Hermosilla had an early stage researcher training through the project and F. Rocha is an Isidro Parga Pondal Researcher. The authors thank to I. Sobrino, P. Pascual and L. Gil de Sola from Instituto Español de Oceanografía for providing the O. vulgaris distribution data used to test the models.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Animal Biology, Campus As Lagoas Marcosende, University of Vigo, 36310, Vigo, Spain

    Consuelo Hermosilla & Francisco Rocha

  2. Marine GIS Laboratory, Institute of Marine Biological Resources, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Thalassocosmos, 71003, Heraklion Crete, Greece

    Vasilis D. Valavanis

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  1. Consuelo Hermosilla
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  2. Francisco Rocha
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  3. Vasilis D. Valavanis
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Correspondence to Francisco Rocha.

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Guest editors: Graham J. Pierce, Vasilis D. Valavanis, Begoña M. Santos & Julio M. Portela / Marine Ecosystems and Sustainability

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Hermosilla, C., Rocha, F. & Valavanis, V.D. Assessing Octopus vulgaris distribution using presence-only model methods. Hydrobiologia 670, 35–47 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-011-0671-y

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