Finfish community change in the Northwest Atlantic: Responses to a long-term area closure on the Scotian Shelf and testing the generality of the abundance-distribution relationship

This thesis explores finfish community change in the Northwest Atlantic, investigating responses to a long-term area closure on the Scotian Shelf and the generality of the abundance-distribution relationship commonly reported in the ecological literature. The theme uniting these chapters is the exploration of changes in abundance and its connection to species' use of geographic space, with emphasis on the utility of marine protected areas.; Since 1987 a large area (∼13700 km2) encompassing Emerald and Western Banks has been closed to commercial trawling for groundfish in order to protect the juvenile stages of haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus). Possible changes in the finfish community structure before and after the closure were assessed using species abundance data collected annually (1970 to 2000). These data were subjected to multivariate analyses such as cluster analysis and randomization/permutation tests.; I further investigated intraspecific and interspecific relationships between mean abundance and geographical distribution for 24 prevalent marine finfish species occurring on the Scotian Shelf from 1970 to 2001. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...