Reconciling seascape genetics and fisheries science in three co-distributed flatfishes

Uncertainty hampers innovative mixed-fisheries management by the scales at which connectivity dynamics are relevant to management objectives. The spatial scale of sustainable stock management is species-specific and depends on ecology, life history and population connectivity. One valuable approach to understand these spatial scales is to determine to what extent population genetic structure correlates with the oceanographic environment. Here we compare the level of genetic connectivity in three co-distributed and commercially exploited demersal flatfish species living in the North East Atlantic Ocean. Population genetic structure was analysed based on 14, 14 and 10 neutral DNA microsatellite markers for turbot, brill and sole respectively. We then used redundancy analysis (RDA) to attribute the genetic variation to spatial (geographic location), temporal (sampling year) and oceanographic (water column characteristics) components.