Data, models and ecosystem services: the Marine Ecosystems Research Programme

10.7287/peerj.preprints.26749v1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Paul J. Somerfield

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Food Web ◽

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Marine Ecosystem ◽

Research Programme ◽

Marine Ecosystems ◽

Marine Food Webs ◽

Common Framework ◽

Spatio Temporal ◽

Ecosystem Changes

The effects of marine ecosystem changes on ecosystem services are difficult to predict because of our limited understanding of marine food-webs, how they respond to changes in pressures, and how those changes then influence services. Biogeochemical ecosystem models do a good job of representing change in groups of organisms primarily influenced by spatio-temporal dynamics in physics and chemistry, such as phytoplankton and small zooplankton. For groups of organisms higher in the food-web, such as fish, mammals and birds, a variety of different modelling approaches are used. No particular approach attempts to model the entire system, each viewing the food-web from a different perspective. Links to services are rarely explicit. To allow us to respond appropriately to change we need to improve our understanding of, and ability to model, the marine ecosystem as a whole, and links between changes in the marine ecosystem and its ability to deliver services. The Marine Ecosystems Research Programme (www.marine-ecosystems.org.uk) provides mechanisms to bring together existing data, targeted new data, different models, and to link them to ecosystem services within a common framework. A key aim is to project effects of possible policy decisions on ecosystem services which are mediated by ecosystem processes.

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Spatial and temporal dynamics of Pacific capelin Mallotus catervarius in the Gulf of Alaska: implications for ecosystem-based fisheries management

Marine Ecology Progress Series ◽

10.3354/meps13211 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 637 ◽

pp. 117-140 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

DW McGowan ◽

ED Goldstein ◽

ML Arimitsu ◽

AL Deary ◽

O Ormseth ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Marine Ecosystem ◽

Gulf Of Alaska ◽

Data Series ◽

Limited Information ◽

Important Species ◽

Multiple Data ◽

Spatial And Temporal Dynamics ◽

Spawning Areas ◽

Spatio Temporal

Pacific capelin Mallotus catervarius are planktivorous small pelagic fish that serve an intermediate trophic role in marine food webs. Due to the lack of a directed fishery or monitoring of capelin in the Northeast Pacific, limited information is available on their distribution and abundance, and how spatio-temporal fluctuations in capelin density affect their availability as prey. To provide information on life history, spatial patterns, and population dynamics of capelin in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA), we modeled distributions of spawning habitat and larval dispersal, and synthesized spatially indexed data from multiple independent sources from 1996 to 2016. Potential capelin spawning areas were broadly distributed across the GOA. Models of larval drift show the GOA’s advective circulation patterns disperse capelin larvae over the continental shelf and upper slope, indicating potential connections between spawning areas and observed offshore distributions that are influenced by the location and timing of spawning. Spatial overlap in composite distributions of larval and age-1+ fish was used to identify core areas where capelin consistently occur and concentrate. Capelin primarily occupy shelf waters near the Kodiak Archipelago, and are patchily distributed across the GOA shelf and inshore waters. Interannual variations in abundance along with spatio-temporal differences in density indicate that the availability of capelin to predators and monitoring surveys is highly variable in the GOA. We demonstrate that the limitations of individual data series can be compensated for by integrating multiple data sources to monitor fluctuations in distributions and abundance trends of an ecologically important species across a large marine ecosystem.

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Trends and Evolution in the Concept of Marine Ecosystem Services: An Overview

Water ◽

10.3390/w13152060 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (15) ◽

pp. 2060

Author(s):

Elvira Buonocore ◽

Umberto Grande ◽

Pier Paolo Franzese ◽

Giovanni F. Russo

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Alternative Assessment ◽

Natural Capital ◽

Marine Ecosystem ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Marine Ecosystems ◽

Global Ocean ◽

Coastal Protection ◽

Policy Dialogue ◽

Marine Ecosystem Services

The biotic and abiotic assets of the marine environment form the “marine natural capital” embedded in the global ocean. Marine natural capital provides the flow of “marine ecosystem services” that are directly used or enjoyed by people providing benefits to human well-being. They include provisioning services (e.g., food), regulation and maintenance services (e.g., carbon sequestration and storage, and coastal protection), and cultural services (e.g., tourism and recreational benefits). In recent decades, human activities have increased the pressures on marine ecosystems, often leading to ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss and, in turn, affecting their ability to provide benefits to humans. Therefore, effective management strategies are crucial to the conservation of healthy and diverse marine ecosystems and to ensuring their long-term generation of goods and services. Biophysical, economic, and sociocultural assessments of marine ecosystem services are much needed to convey the importance of natural resources to managers and policy makers supporting the development and implementation of policies oriented for the sustainable management of marine resources. In addition, the accounting of marine ecosystem service values can be usefully complemented by their mapping to enable the identification of priority areas and management strategies and to facilitate science–policy dialogue. Given this premise, this study aims to review trends and evolution in the concept of marine ecosystem services. In particular, the global scientific literature on marine ecosystem services is explored by focusing on the following main aspects: the definition and classification of marine ecosystem services; their loss due to anthropogenic pressures, alternative assessment, and mapping approaches; and the inclusion of marine ecosystem services into policy and decision-making processes.

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Modelling and analysis of spatio-temporal dynamics of a marine ecosystem

Nonlinear Dynamics ◽

10.1007/s11071-015-2114-1 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 81 (4) ◽

pp. 1895-1906 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Kunal Chakraborty ◽

Vamsi Manthena

Keyword(s):

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Marine Ecosystem ◽

Spatio Temporal

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Role of jellyfish in the plankton ecosystem revealed using a global ocean biogeochemical model

Biogeosciences ◽

10.5194/bg-18-1291-2021 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (4) ◽

pp. 1291-1320

Author(s):

Rebecca M. Wright ◽

Corinne Le Quéré ◽

Erik Buitenhuis ◽

Sophie Pitois ◽

Mark J. Gibbons

Keyword(s):

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Marine Ecosystem ◽

Zooplankton Community ◽

Ocean Model ◽

Plankton Community ◽

Global Ocean ◽

Biogeochemical Model ◽

Ocean Biogeochemical Model ◽

Spatio Temporal ◽

Plankton Community Structure

Abstract. Jellyfish are increasingly recognised as important components of the marine ecosystem, yet their specific role is poorly defined compared to that of other zooplankton groups. This paper presents the first global ocean biogeochemical model that includes an explicit representation of jellyfish and uses the model to gain insight into the influence of jellyfish on the plankton community. The Plankton Type Ocean Model (PlankTOM11) model groups organisms into plankton functional types (PFTs). The jellyfish PFT is parameterised here based on our synthesis of observations on jellyfish growth, grazing, respiration and mortality rates as functions of temperature and jellyfish biomass. The distribution of jellyfish is unique compared to that of other PFTs in the model. The jellyfish global biomass of 0.13 PgC is within the observational range and comparable to the biomass of other zooplankton and phytoplankton PFTs. The introduction of jellyfish in the model has a large direct influence on the crustacean macrozooplankton PFT and influences indirectly the rest of the plankton ecosystem through trophic cascades. The zooplankton community in PlankTOM11 is highly sensitive to the jellyfish mortality rate, with jellyfish increasingly dominating the zooplankton community as its mortality diminishes. Overall, the results suggest that jellyfish play an important role in regulating global marine plankton ecosystems across plankton community structure, spatio-temporal dynamics and biomass, which is a role that has been generally neglected so far.

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Towards ecosystem-based management: identifying operational food-web indicators for marine ecosystems

ICES Journal of Marine Science ◽

10.1093/icesjms/fsw230 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 74 (7) ◽

pp. 2040-2052 ◽

Cited By ~ 33

Author(s):

Jamie C. Tam ◽

Jason S. Link ◽

Axel G. Rossberg ◽

Stuart I. Rogers ◽

Philip S. Levin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Food Web ◽

Marine Ecosystem ◽

Sustainable Use ◽

Evaluation Criteria ◽

Marine Ecosystems ◽

Reference Points ◽

Marine Ecology ◽

Quality Of Data ◽

Ecosystem Based Management ◽

Selection Of

Abstract Modern approaches to Ecosystem-Based Management and sustainable use of marine resources must account for the myriad of pressures (interspecies, human and environmental) affecting marine ecosystems. The network of feeding interactions between co-existing species and populations (food webs) are an important aspect of all marine ecosystems and biodiversity. Here we describe and discuss a process to evaluate the selection of operational food-web indicators for use in evaluating marine ecosystem status. This process brought together experts in food-web ecology, marine ecology, and resource management, to identify available indicators that can be used to inform marine management. Standard evaluation criteria (availability and quality of data, conceptual basis, communicability, relevancy to management) were implemented to identify practical food-web indicators ready for operational use and indicators that hold promise for future use in policy and management. The major attributes of the final suite of operational food-web indicators were structure and functioning. Indicators that represent resilience of the marine ecosystem were less developed. Over 60 potential food-web indicators were evaluated and the final selection of operational food-web indicators includes: the primary production required to sustain a fishery, the productivity of seabirds (or charismatic megafauna), zooplankton indicators, primary productivity, integrated trophic indicators, and the biomass of trophic guilds. More efforts should be made to develop thresholds-based reference points for achieving Good Environmental Status. There is also a need for international collaborations to develop indicators that will facilitate management in marine ecosystems used by multiple countries.

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Architecture of Marine Food Webs: to be or not be a ‘small-world’

10.1101/274415 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Tomás Ignacio Marina ◽

Leonardo A. Saravia ◽

Georgina Cordone ◽

Vanesa Salinas ◽

Santiago R. Doyle ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Food Web ◽

Food Webs ◽

Path Length ◽

Small World ◽

Marine Ecosystems ◽

Characteristic Path Length ◽

Structural Pattern ◽

Marine Food Webs ◽

Marine Habitats ◽

Marine Food

AbstractThe search for general properties in network structure has been a central issue for food web studies in recent years. One such property is the small-world topology that combines a high clustering and a small distance between nodes of the network. This property may increase food web resilience but make them more sensitive to the extinction of connected species. Food web theory has been developed principally from freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems, largely omitting marine habitats. If theory needs to be modified to accommodate observations from marine ecosystems, based on major differences in several topological characteristics is still on debate. Here we investigated if the small-world topology is a common structural pattern in marine food webs. We developed a novel, simple and statistically rigorous method to examine the largest set of complex marine food webs to date. More than half of the analyzed marine networks exhibited a similar or lower characteristic path length than the random expectation, whereas 39% of the webs presented a significantly higher clustering than its random counterpart. Our method proved that 5 out of 28 networks fulfilled both features of the small-world topology: short path length and high clustering. This work represents the first rigorous analysis of the small-world topology and its associated features in high-quality marine networks. We conclude that such topology is a structural pattern that is not maximized in marine food webs; thus it is probably not an effective model to study robustness, stability and feasibility of marine ecosystems.

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