Trends and drivers of marine fish landings in Portugal since its entrance in the European Union

13 pages, 2 tables, 4 figuresMarine landings in Portugal have decreased at a higher rate than fishing effort in the last 20 years. Identifying the variables driving the quantity and composition of landings is pivotal to understand the dynamics of the fisheries sector, which entails complex social and environmental aspects. In this study, we investigate the main drivers of marine fish landings in continental Portugal between 1989 and 2014. To identify common trends in time series, and quantify the importance of environmental factors, we applied a dynamic factor analysis considering four regions and three types of gear (trawling, purse-seine, and a multi-gear fishery). Our results show the importance of fishing effort as the most relevant factor driving marine landings in Portugal, both at the long and short terms. In addition, the effect of environmental factors such as the winter river discharge and the spring East Atlantic Teleconnection index should not be neglected, probably through mechanisms affecting coastal productivity. We provide a comprehensive amount of information that permits to improve our understanding of the trends of the most important commercial species in Portugal during the period of studyJ. Bueno-Pardo was funded by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian Oceanos, within the project "The Economic Valuation and Governance of Marine and Coastal Ecosystem Services" (BPD/UI88/6454/2014). This work was supported by CITAB and by CESAM, through national funds from FCT - Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under the projects UID/AGR/04033/2019 and UID/AMB/50017/2019, respectively, and the co-funding by the FEDER within the PT2020 Partnership Agreement and Compete 2020. This study also received Portuguese national funds from FCT through project UID/Multi/04326/2019 and CLIMFISH project “A framework for assessing vulnerability of coastal fisheries to climate change in the Portuguese coast”, founded by Portugal 2020, n2/SAICT/2017 —SAICT (Projetos de IC&DT). This study was supported as well by FCT through the project CCMAR/Multi/04326/2013 and in the transitional norm – DL57/2016/CP1361/CT0035.Peer reviewe