Modelling the distribution of marine fishery resources: Where are we?

Ecological niche models (ENMs) and species distribution models (SDMs) have been widely applied to various studies relevant to biogeography, conservation biology, and ecology. These modelling techniques seek to develop spatial maps for projecting, among others past, current, and future species distributions. Born in the field of terrestrial ecology, only in recent years have these models been applied to marine environmental issues, especially to improve the forecasting of the distribution of occurrences and capturing of fishery resources. This study aimed to present through bibliometric analysis the characteristics of articles related to the use of ENMs and SDMs in marine fishery resources considering three main points: (1) state of the art: number of articles over the years, journals, countries, collaborations, and focus of research; (2) characteristics linked to fishery resources: marine biogeographic realms, taxonomic groups, life phases, oceanographic zones, and behaviours; (3) characteristics linked to methods: type of method, type of biological and, environmental data. We provide a list of 378 articles (derived from 930 screened ones), the results, and a discussion of our findings, which represent a baseline for the current status (strengths, limits, and gaps) of the interface between ENMs/SDMs and fishery resources.