RESEARCH ARTICLE Spatially Explicit Modeling Reveals Cephalopod Distributions Match Contrasting Trophic Pathways in the Western Mediterranean

Populations of the same species can experience different responses to the environment throughout their distributional range as a result of spatial and temporal heterogeneity in hab-itat conditions. This highlights the importance of understanding the processes governing species distribution at local scales. However, research on species distribution often aver-ages environmental covariates across large geographic areas, missing variability in popula-tion-environment interactions within geographically distinct regions. We used spatially explicit models to identify interactions between species and environmental, including chlo-rophyll a (Chla) and sea surface temperature (SST), and trophic (prey density) conditions, along with processes governing the distribution of two cephalopods with contrasting life-his-tories (octopus and squid) across the western Mediterranean Sea. This approach is rele-vant for cephalopods, since their population dynamics are especially sensitive to variations in habitat conditions and rarely stable in abundance and location. The regional distributions of the two cephalopod species matched two different trophic pathways present in the west-ern Mediterranean Sea, associated with the Gulf of Lion upwelling and the Ebro river dis