Ph.D. Project by Anders Nielsen (Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University).
Supervisors: Henrik Gislason (University of Copenhagen), Ib Skovgaard (Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University), Henrik Mosegaard (DIFRES)
Spatial aspects are often neglected in fish stock assessment models. This is problematic if we wish to understand how changes in the spatial distribution effect the catches, but it is especially a problem if we wish to estimate the effect of closing an area for fishing.
This Ph.D. project is concerned with models of migration of fish stocks. Focus will be on the statistical aspects of migration such as development of models, estimation of parameters and quantifying uncertainties.
The model types we wish to investigate will include stochastic differential equations at the individual level and partial differential equations at population level. One of the main objectives of the project is to analyse what kind of data is needed to estimate the parameters of these models.
Much of this investigation will be based on simulations, as simulations are cheap and have the advantage that the true parameters are known, but biological case studies will also be included when relevant data material is available. A case study of juvenile turbots is ongoing and a major case study is planned for plaice in the North Sea.
For much more information on this project visit Anders' Ph.D. site