SCW17/Paper-06 Evaluation of indices for MP considerations

Published

June 16, 2026

SPRFMO

South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation
Jack Mackerel Working Group
SCW17/Paper-06 Evaluation of indices for MP considerations

1 Introduction

This working paper evaluates the abundance indices used in the h1_0.16 assessment configuration for SCW17 model development. The analysis is intended to identify whether retained indices provide broadly consistent information about relative abundance or whether some series move in opposing directions during overlapping years.

The index-correlation diagnostics focus on observed positive index values only. Chile_AcousCS is omitted, and the Chile_AcousN series is restricted to 2006 onward to avoid mixing the early acoustic-survey period with the modern survey period. Pairwise Pearson correlations are computed on log observed indices, while Spearman correlations are computed on the observed scale.

The final section uses the ROC/AUC diagnostic generated in the jmMSE repository (output/index_auc_h1_h2_0.16.rda, produced by output_auc_peru_cpue.R). Each index is evaluated as an indicator of annual changes in spawning stock biomass (SSB). The binary truth is whether SSB increased from the previous year, and the index score is the log annual index ratio. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) summarizes how well each index discriminates years of increasing SSB from years of non-increasing SSB.

2 Models

The report evaluates observed abundance indices in h1_0.16.ctl, omitting Chile_AcousCS and dropping Chile_AcousN years before 2006. Correlations are computed pairwise using only years where both indices have positive observations. Pearson correlations use log observed indices; Spearman correlations use the observed index values.

Table 1 identifies the model input and output files used for the index-correlation diagnostics. The retained index set and the filter applied to Chile_AcousN define the data used in all index-series and correlation figures below.

Table 2 gives the effective observation coverage after applying these filters. These counts are important when interpreting pairwise correlations because each contrast is calculated only over the years where both indices are available.

Table 1: Model file included in the index-correlation evaluation.
model data_file n_indices indices omitted_indices notes first_year last_year
h1_0.16 0.15.dat 5 Chile_AcousN, Chile_CPUE, Peru_Artis, Peru_Ind, Offshore_CPUE Chile_AcousCS Chile_AcousN years before 2006 dropped 1970 2025
Table 2: Observed index coverage by model and index.
model index n first_year last_year geometric_mean min_observed max_observed
h1_0.16 Chile_AcousN 19 2006 2025 465.816 18.000 3,058.843
h1_0.16 Chile_CPUE 28 1998 2025 91.845 59.322 147.633
h1_0.16 Offshore_CPUE 17 2008 2024 683.716 428.054 1,339.693
h1_0.16 Peru_Artis 24 2002 2025 0.263 0.079 0.672
h1_0.16 Peru_Ind 20 2002 2025 0.361 0.205 0.494

3 Index Series

Figure 1 shows the retained observed index series after rescaling each series to its own geometric mean. Chile_AcousN is shown in a separate lower panel because it is the only retained survey index and has a different scale from the CPUE-style indices; separating it makes the remaining index trajectories easier to compare. Figure 2 shows the same retained index series on an arithmetic y-axis after scaling each index to its own arithmetic mean; this view preserves the separate Chile_AcousN panel but avoids the compression introduced by the log scale.

Figure 1: Observed indices for h1_0.16, rescaled to each index’s geometric mean. Chile_AcousN is shown in a separate panel with its own y-axis scale.
Figure 2: Observed indices for h1_0.16, rescaled to each index’s arithmetic mean and shown on an arithmetic y-axis. Chile_AcousN is shown in a separate panel with its own y-axis scale.

4 Correlations

Figure 3 summarizes the pairwise Pearson correlations between log observed indices. The lower triangle gives the correlation coefficient for each pair: blue cells indicate positive correlations, red cells indicate negative correlations, and values closer to zero indicate weaker linear agreement over the overlapping years.

Table 3 gives the numerical values behind Figure 3 and also includes Spearman rank correlations on the observed scale. The overlap columns should be read alongside the coefficients because correlations based on short overlapping periods are less informative than those based on longer shared histories.

Figure 4 shows the underlying paired observations for each Pearson correlation. Each panel uses only years where both indices have positive observations, with point color indicating year and the grey line giving a simple linear fit on the log-index scale.

Figure 5 shows the same log-index data as a scatterplot matrix. Pearson correlations are printed in the upper triangle, while the lower triangle shows the paired observations with linear fits and uncertainty ribbons.

The pairwise overlap was largest for Chile_CPUE vs Peru_Artis, with 24 shared years. The lowest overlap was for Offshore_CPUE vs Peru_Ind, with 13 shared years. This difference in overlap should be considered when comparing the apparent strength of correlations across index pairs.

Figure 3: Pearson correlations between log observed indices after omitting Chile_AcousCS. Blue cells indicate positive correlations, red cells indicate negative correlations, and the lower triangle reports r for each pair.
Table 3: Pairwise index correlations. Pearson correlations use log observed indices; Spearman correlations use observed values. Pairs with fewer than the minimum overlapping years are reported as NA.
index_1 index_2 n_overlap first_overlap last_overlap
Correlation
Pearson Spearman
Chile_AcousN Peru_Artis 19 2006 2025 0.835 0.704
Peru_Artis Peru_Ind 20 2002 2025 0.768 0.795
Chile_AcousN Peru_Ind 15 2006 2025 0.767 0.650
Chile_CPUE Offshore_CPUE 17 2008 2024 0.704 0.654
Offshore_CPUE Peru_Ind 13 2008 2024 0.160 0.357
Chile_CPUE Peru_Ind 20 2002 2025 −0.126 −0.343
Chile_AcousN Chile_CPUE 19 2006 2025 0.095 0.042
Chile_AcousN Offshore_CPUE 16 2008 2024 −0.064 0.109
Offshore_CPUE Peru_Artis 17 2008 2024 0.045 0.042
Chile_CPUE Peru_Artis 24 2002 2025 −0.036 −0.070
Figure 4: Pairwise index relationships for h1_0.16, excluding Chile_AcousCS. Axes are log observed indices and points are overlapping years used in the Pearson correlations.
Figure 5: Scatterplot matrix for log observed indices. Upper panels show Pearson correlations; lower panels show paired observations with linear fits and uncertainty ribbons.

5 Patterns in model fit residuals

The observation correlations above describe whether index observations move together. A complementary diagnostic is to compare model fit residuals, because shared residual patterns indicate years where indices contain similar information after the h1_0.16 model fit has already explained the common stock trend. This is more directly related to availability trade-offs among indices: two indices with strongly correlated residuals are likely to add less independent information than two indices whose residuals differ.

Table 4 gives the retained residual coverage by index for h1_0.16 and h2_0.16. Residuals are the standardized index-fit residuals reported in the JJM Obs_Survey_* output, after omitting Chile_AcousCS and dropping Chile_AcousN observations before 2006. Figure 6 shows the Pearson correlations among residuals for the one-stock hypothesis; Figure 7 shows the same diagnostic for the two-stock hypothesis.

Table 4: Model fit residual coverage by model and index. Residuals are standardized index-fit residuals from the JJM Obs_Survey output.
model index n first_year last_year mean_residual sd_residual
h1_0.16 Chile_AcousN 19 2006 2025 −2.248 8.756
h1_0.16 Chile_CPUE 28 1998 2025 −0.142 0.758
h1_0.16 Offshore_CPUE 17 2008 2024 −0.101 1.152
h1_0.16 Peru_Artis 24 2002 2025 −0.212 1.675
h1_0.16 Peru_Ind 20 2002 2025 −0.163 1.533
h2_0.16 Chile_AcousN 19 2006 2025 −2.300 9.088
h2_0.16 Chile_CPUE 28 1998 2025 −0.145 0.794
h2_0.16 Offshore_CPUE 17 2008 2024 −0.106 1.191
h2_0.16 Peru_Artis 24 2002 2025 −0.190 0.860
h2_0.16 Peru_Ind 20 2002 2025 −0.067 0.905
Figure 6: Pearson correlations between standardized model fit residuals for retained indices in h1_0.16. Blue cells indicate positive residual correlations and red cells indicate negative residual correlations.

For h2_0.16, the residual correlations span the two-stock model structure. The Peru_Artis and Peru_Ind residuals come from stock 2, while Chile_AcousN, Chile_CPUE, and Offshore_CPUE come from stock 1. Within stock 2, the residual correlation between Peru_Artis and Peru_Ind was -0.23 across 20 overlapping years (2002-2025). Pairs with strong positive residual correlations indicate indices that still tend to be high or low together after fitting their stock-specific trends; pairs closer to zero or negative values indicate more distinct residual information and may be more informative for availability trade-offs. Cross-stock residual correlations should therefore be read as comparisons between independently fitted stock components rather than as residuals from a single shared abundance trajectory.

Figure 7: Pearson correlations between standardized model fit residuals for retained indices in h2_0.16. Blue cells indicate positive residual correlations and red cells indicate negative residual correlations.

6 Index ROC/AUC

The ROC/AUC diagnostics below are loaded from the jmMSE output file output/index_auc_h1_h2_0.16.rda. They compare annual index changes against annual changes in model-estimated SSB. For each index, the score is \(\log(I_y / I_{y-1})\) and the truth is whether \(SSB_y > SSB_{y-1}\). For h1_0.16, each index is compared with the single-stock SSB trajectory. For h2_0.16, each index is compared with the SSB trajectory for the stock-specific output block in which the index appears. The Chile_AcousN ROC diagnostic uses only observations after 2005, following the implementation in jmMSE/output_auc_peru_cpue.R.

Figure 8 shows the h1 single-stock ROC diagnostics. Curves above the one-to-one dashed line indicate that positive index changes tend to coincide with years when model-estimated SSB increased; AUC values closer to one indicate stronger discrimination.

Figure 9 applies the same diagnostic to the h2 stock-specific outputs. The southern-stock indices and northern-stock indices are evaluated against their corresponding stock-specific SSB changes, so these panels should not be interpreted as a single pooled-stock diagnostic.

Table 5 summarizes the AUC and number of annual index changes used in each ROC curve from Figure 8 and Figure 9.

Figure 8: Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves for abundance indices as indicators of changes in spawning stock biomass (SSB) in h1_0.16. Chile_AcousN uses only observations after 2005.
Figure 9: Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves for abundance indices as indicators of changes in stock-specific spawning stock biomass (SSB) in h2_0.16. Chile_AcousN uses only observations after 2005.
Table 5: Index ROC/AUC summaries for h1_0.16 and h2_0.16. The truth is annual SSB direction and the score is the annual log index ratio.
model stock index n auc
h1_0.16 single stock Offshore_CPUE 16 0.933
h1_0.16 single stock Chile_CPUE 27 0.672
h1_0.16 single stock Chile_AcousCS 12 0.657
h1_0.16 single stock Chile_AcousN 18 0.525
h1_0.16 single stock Peru_Artis 23 0.485
h1_0.16 single stock Peru_Ind 19 0.443
h2_0.16 northern stock Peru_Ind 19 0.933
h2_0.16 northern stock Peru_Artis 23 0.882
h2_0.16 southern stock Offshore_CPUE 16 0.821
h2_0.16 southern stock Chile_CPUE 27 0.724
h2_0.16 southern stock Chile_AcousCS 12 0.583
h2_0.16 southern stock Chile_AcousN 18 0.508

7 Summary

Table 6 extracts the largest positive and most negative Pearson correlations from the correlation table. This is a compact way to identify the index pairs with the strongest agreement and strongest disagreement after accounting for the available overlapping years.

This evaluation shows that, for the two-stock hypotheses, the nominal CPUE indices for Peru generally track stock trends. Those same indices perform relatively poorer under the single-stock hypothesis. For the single-stock case, the offshore CPUE and Chilean CPUE indices appear to perform better. These conclusions are broadly consistent between the pairwise index comparisons and the ROC/AUC evaluations.

Table 7 reports the covariance matrix used to simulate the multivariate index draws in long form. Figure 10 uses that estimated correlation structure among the retained index series to simulate 100 multivariate draws. The simulation uses the Pearson correlations among log observed indices for Chile_AcousN, Chile_CPUE, Offshore_CPUE, Peru_Artis, and Peru_Ind; the diagonal uncertainty is set to 20% CV for all indices except the two Peruvian CPUE series, which use 30% CV.

Table 8 and Table 9 report the fitted-residual covariance structures used for residual-based simulations. Figure 11 and Figure 12 use the residual covariance among retained indices for h1_0.16 and h2_0.16, respectively. In these residual-based simulations, the diagonal is not externally specified; it is the empirical variance of the model fit residuals for each index.

Table 6: Strongest positive and negative contrasts. Based on Pearson correlations of log-observed indices.
index_1 index_2 n_overlap first_overlap last_overlap correlation
Chile_AcousN Peru_Artis 19 2006 2025 0.835
Peru_Artis Peru_Ind 20 2002 2025 0.768
Chile_AcousN Peru_Ind 15 2006 2025 0.767
Chile_CPUE Peru_Artis 24 2002 2025 −0.036
Chile_AcousN Offshore_CPUE 16 2008 2024 −0.064
Chile_CPUE Peru_Ind 20 2002 2025 −0.126
Table 7: Long-form covariance matrix used to generate the simulated multivariate index draws. Covariances are on the log-index multiplier scale after converting specified CVs to log-scale standard deviations.
index_1 index_2 cv_1 cv_2 correlation covariance
Chile_AcousN Chile_AcousN 20% 20% 1.0000 0.0392
Chile_AcousN Chile_CPUE 20% 20% 0.0951 0.0037
Chile_AcousN Offshore_CPUE 20% 20% −0.0642 −0.0025
Chile_AcousN Peru_Artis 20% 30% 0.8352 0.0486
Chile_AcousN Peru_Ind 20% 30% 0.7668 0.0446
Chile_CPUE Chile_AcousN 20% 20% 0.0951 0.0037
Chile_CPUE Chile_CPUE 20% 20% 1.0000 0.0392
Chile_CPUE Offshore_CPUE 20% 20% 0.7041 0.0276
Chile_CPUE Peru_Artis 20% 30% −0.0361 −0.0021
Chile_CPUE Peru_Ind 20% 30% −0.1257 −0.0073
Offshore_CPUE Chile_AcousN 20% 20% −0.0642 −0.0025
Offshore_CPUE Chile_CPUE 20% 20% 0.7041 0.0276
Offshore_CPUE Offshore_CPUE 20% 20% 1.0000 0.0392
Offshore_CPUE Peru_Artis 20% 30% 0.0452 0.0026
Offshore_CPUE Peru_Ind 20% 30% 0.1605 0.0093
Peru_Artis Chile_AcousN 30% 20% 0.8352 0.0486
Peru_Artis Chile_CPUE 30% 20% −0.0361 −0.0021
Peru_Artis Offshore_CPUE 30% 20% 0.0452 0.0026
Peru_Artis Peru_Artis 30% 30% 1.0000 0.0862
Peru_Artis Peru_Ind 30% 30% 0.7682 0.0662
Peru_Ind Chile_AcousN 30% 20% 0.7668 0.0446
Peru_Ind Chile_CPUE 30% 20% −0.1257 −0.0073
Peru_Ind Offshore_CPUE 30% 20% 0.1605 0.0093
Peru_Ind Peru_Artis 30% 30% 0.7682 0.0662
Peru_Ind Peru_Ind 30% 30% 1.0000 0.0862
Figure 10: Simulated multivariate index draws using the estimated correlation structure among retained indices. Diagonal uncertainty assumes 20% CV except Peru_Artis and Peru_Ind, which use 30% CV.
Table 8: Long-form covariance matrix used to generate simulated residual draws for h1_0.16. Covariances are computed from standardized index-fit residuals.
model index_1 index_2 n_overlap correlation covariance
h1_0.16 Chile_AcousN Chile_AcousN 19 1.0000 76.6691
h1_0.16 Chile_AcousN Chile_CPUE 19 −0.2101 −1.5750
h1_0.16 Chile_AcousN Offshore_CPUE 16 −0.2622 −2.7772
h1_0.16 Chile_AcousN Peru_Artis 19 0.2798 1.8054
h1_0.16 Chile_AcousN Peru_Ind 15 −0.2065 −2.5659
h1_0.16 Chile_CPUE Chile_AcousN 19 −0.2101 −1.5750
h1_0.16 Chile_CPUE Chile_CPUE 28 1.0000 0.5748
h1_0.16 Chile_CPUE Offshore_CPUE 17 0.0425 0.0440
h1_0.16 Chile_CPUE Peru_Artis 24 −0.0580 −0.0793
h1_0.16 Chile_CPUE Peru_Ind 20 0.1157 0.1101
h1_0.16 Offshore_CPUE Chile_AcousN 16 −0.2622 −2.7772
h1_0.16 Offshore_CPUE Chile_CPUE 17 0.0425 0.0440
h1_0.16 Offshore_CPUE Offshore_CPUE 17 1.0000 1.3260
h1_0.16 Offshore_CPUE Peru_Artis 17 −0.2149 −0.1873
h1_0.16 Offshore_CPUE Peru_Ind 13 0.2652 0.4330
h1_0.16 Peru_Artis Chile_AcousN 19 0.2798 1.8054
h1_0.16 Peru_Artis Chile_CPUE 24 −0.0580 −0.0793
h1_0.16 Peru_Artis Offshore_CPUE 17 −0.2149 −0.1873
h1_0.16 Peru_Artis Peru_Artis 24 1.0000 2.8068
h1_0.16 Peru_Artis Peru_Ind 20 0.5525 1.5500
h1_0.16 Peru_Ind Chile_AcousN 15 −0.2065 −2.5659
h1_0.16 Peru_Ind Chile_CPUE 20 0.1157 0.1101
h1_0.16 Peru_Ind Offshore_CPUE 13 0.2652 0.4330
h1_0.16 Peru_Ind Peru_Artis 20 0.5525 1.5500
h1_0.16 Peru_Ind Peru_Ind 20 1.0000 2.3499
Figure 11: Simulated multivariate residual draws for h1_0.16 using the estimated covariance structure among retained index fit residuals. Diagonal uncertainty is the empirical residual variance for each index.
Table 9: Long-form covariance matrix used to generate simulated residual draws for h2_0.16. Covariances are computed from standardized index-fit residuals.
model index_1 index_2 n_overlap correlation covariance
h2_0.16 Chile_AcousN Chile_AcousN 19 1.0000 82.5922
h2_0.16 Chile_AcousN Chile_CPUE 19 −0.2004 −1.6474
h2_0.16 Chile_AcousN Offshore_CPUE 16 −0.1972 −2.2536
h2_0.16 Chile_AcousN Peru_Artis 19 0.2900 2.1971
h2_0.16 Chile_AcousN Peru_Ind 15 −0.3687 −3.1899
h2_0.16 Chile_CPUE Chile_AcousN 19 −0.2004 −1.6474
h2_0.16 Chile_CPUE Chile_CPUE 28 1.0000 0.6309
h2_0.16 Chile_CPUE Offshore_CPUE 17 0.0629 0.0705
h2_0.16 Chile_CPUE Peru_Artis 24 −0.2447 −0.1804
h2_0.16 Chile_CPUE Peru_Ind 20 0.0133 0.0077
h2_0.16 Offshore_CPUE Chile_AcousN 16 −0.1972 −2.2536
h2_0.16 Offshore_CPUE Chile_CPUE 17 0.0629 0.0705
h2_0.16 Offshore_CPUE Offshore_CPUE 17 1.0000 1.4187
h2_0.16 Offshore_CPUE Peru_Artis 17 −0.4201 −0.4006
h2_0.16 Offshore_CPUE Peru_Ind 13 0.1237 0.1500
h2_0.16 Peru_Artis Chile_AcousN 19 0.2900 2.1971
h2_0.16 Peru_Artis Chile_CPUE 24 −0.2447 −0.1804
h2_0.16 Peru_Artis Offshore_CPUE 17 −0.4201 −0.4006
h2_0.16 Peru_Artis Peru_Artis 24 1.0000 0.7397
h2_0.16 Peru_Artis Peru_Ind 20 −0.2272 −0.1929
h2_0.16 Peru_Ind Chile_AcousN 15 −0.3687 −3.1899
h2_0.16 Peru_Ind Chile_CPUE 20 0.0133 0.0077
h2_0.16 Peru_Ind Offshore_CPUE 13 0.1237 0.1500
h2_0.16 Peru_Ind Peru_Artis 20 −0.2272 −0.1929
h2_0.16 Peru_Ind Peru_Ind 20 1.0000 0.8189
Figure 12: Simulated multivariate residual draws for h2_0.16 using the estimated covariance structure among retained index fit residuals. Diagonal uncertainty is the empirical residual variance for each index.