Changing climate associated with the range-wide decline of an estuarine finfish.

Southern flounder (Paralichthys lethostigma) are a coastal flatfish species that supports recreational and commercial fisheries but are currently experiencing range-wide declines. To quantify the range-wide declines and investigate the role of climate in these declines, fishery-independent sampling data of age-0 flounder were obtained from 34 estuaries representing four states in the Gulf of Mexico (TX, LA, AL, and FL) and three states in the Southeastern United States Atlantic Ocean (FL, SC, and NC) spanning from 1976 to 2019. Generalized additive models (GAM) were used to estimate age-0 recruitment trends.