Multivariate indicators for fisheries and ecosystem assessment

Scientific question

How can heterogeneous biological, fisheries, spatial, and environmental indicators be integrated into transparent and interpretable diagnostics of stock and ecosystem state?

Scope

This project develops frameworks for combining indicators without obscuring their ecological meaning, temporal behaviour, uncertainty, or management relevance.

Methods

• Indicator screening, redundancy analysis, and dimensional reduction.
• Clustering and selection of representative core indicators.
• Standardization, weighting, and multivariate index construction.
• Sensitivity, uncertainty, and robustness analysis.
• Change-point, regime, and threshold detection.
• Pressure–state interpretation and management-oriented visualization.

Current status

Active methodological programme associated with the Multivariate Health Index of anchovy and broader pressure–state applications in marine and fisheries assessment.

Expected outputs

• Multivariate indicator frameworks and diagnostic protocols.
• Scientific manuscripts and conference contributions.
• Reproducible code for indicator construction and evaluation.
• Visual products for communicating multidimensional stock condition.

Relevance

The project seeks to preserve the information contained in individual indicators while producing integrated evidence that is auditable and useful for monitoring, assessment, and adaptive management.