Dynamic factor analysis to estimate common trends in fisheries time series

Dynamic factor analysis (DFA) is a technique used to detect common patterns in a set of time series and relationships between these series and explanatory variables. Although DFA is used widely in econometric and psychological fields, it has not been used in fisheries and aquatic sciences to the best of our knowledge. To make the technique more widely accessible, an introductory guide for DFA, at an intermediate level, is presented in this paper. A case study is presented. The analysis of 13 landings-per-unit-effort series for Nephrops around northern Europe identified three common trends for 12 of the series, with one series being poorly fitted, but no relationships with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) or sea surface temperature were found. The 12 series could be divided into six groups based on factor loadings from the three trends.