1
|
Stock A, Murray CC, Gregr EJ, Steenbeek J, Woodburn E, Micheli F, Christensen V, Chan KMA. Exploring multiple stressor effects with Ecopath, Ecosim, and Ecospace: Research designs, modeling techniques, and future directions. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2023; 869:161719. [PMID: 36693571 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.161719] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2022] [Revised: 01/04/2023] [Accepted: 01/15/2023] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Understanding the cumulative effects of multiple stressors is a research priority in environmental science. Ecological models are a key component of tackling this challenge because they can simulate interactions between the components of an ecosystem. Here, we ask, how has the popular modeling platform Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) been used to model human impacts related to climate change, land and sea use, pollution, and invasive species? We conducted a literature review encompassing 166 studies covering stressors other than fishing mostly in aquatic ecosystems. The most modeled stressors were physical climate change (60 studies), species introductions (22), habitat loss (21), and eutrophication (20), using a range of modeling techniques. Despite this comprehensive coverage, we identified four gaps that must be filled to harness the potential of EwE for studying multiple stressor effects. First, only 12% of studies investigated three or more stressors, with most studies focusing on single stressors. Furthermore, many studies modeled only one of many pathways through which each stressor is known to affect ecosystems. Second, various methods have been applied to define environmental response functions representing the effects of single stressors on species groups. These functions can have a large effect on the simulated ecological changes, but best practices for deriving them are yet to emerge. Third, human dimensions of environmental change - except for fisheries - were rarely considered. Fourth, only 3% of studies used statistical research designs that allow attribution of simulated ecosystem changes to stressors' direct effects and interactions, such as factorial (computational) experiments. None made full use of the statistical possibilities that arise when simulations can be repeated many times with controlled changes to the inputs. We argue that all four gaps are feasibly filled by integrating ecological modeling with advances in other subfields of environmental science and in computational statistics.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- A Stock
- Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia, AERL Building, 429-2202 Main Mall, Vancouver V6T 1Z4, BC, Canada.
| | - C C Murray
- Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Institute of Ocean Sciences, 9860 West Saanich Road, Sidney, BC V8L 5T5, Canada
| | - E J Gregr
- Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia, AERL Building, 429-2202 Main Mall, Vancouver V6T 1Z4, BC, Canada; SciTech Environmental Consulting, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - J Steenbeek
- Ecopath International Initiative (EII) Research Association, Barcelona, Spain
| | - E Woodburn
- Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia, AERL Building, 429-2202 Main Mall, Vancouver V6T 1Z4, BC, Canada
| | - F Micheli
- Hopkins Marine Station, Oceans Department, Stanford University, Pacific Grove, CA 93950, USA; Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions, Pacific Grove, CA 93950, USA
| | - V Christensen
- Ecopath International Initiative (EII) Research Association, Barcelona, Spain; Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - K M A Chan
- Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia, AERL Building, 429-2202 Main Mall, Vancouver V6T 1Z4, BC, Canada; Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Wang D, Garcia H, Huang W, Tran DD, Jain AD, Yi DH, Gong Z, Jech JM, Godø OR, Makris NC, Ratilal P. Vast assembly of vocal marine mammals from diverse species on fish spawning ground. Nature 2016; 531:366-70. [PMID: 26934221 DOI: 10.1038/nature16960] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2015] [Accepted: 12/21/2015] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Observing marine mammal (MM) populations continuously in time and space over the immense ocean areas they inhabit is challenging but essential for gathering an unambiguous record of their distribution, as well as understanding their behaviour and interaction with prey species. Here we use passive ocean acoustic waveguide remote sensing (POAWRS) in an important North Atlantic feeding ground to instantaneously detect, localize and classify MM vocalizations from diverse species over an approximately 100,000 km(2) region. More than eight species of vocal MMs are found to spatially converge on fish spawning areas containing massive densely populated herring shoals at night-time and diffuse herring distributions during daytime. We find the vocal MMs divide the enormous fish prey field into species-specific foraging areas with varying degrees of spatial overlap, maintained for at least two weeks of the herring spawning period. The recorded vocalization rates are diel (24 h)-dependent for all MM species, with some significantly more vocal at night and others more vocal during the day. The four key baleen whale species of the region: fin, humpback, blue and minke have vocalization rate trends that are highly correlated to trends in fish shoaling density and to each other over the diel cycle. These results reveal the temporospatial dynamics of combined multi-species MM foraging activities in the vicinity of an extensive fish prey field that forms a massive ecological hotspot, and would be unattainable with conventional methodologies. Understanding MM behaviour and distributions is essential for management of marine ecosystems and for accessing anthropogenic impacts on these protected marine species.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Delin Wang
- Laboratory for Ocean Acoustics and Ecosystem Sensing, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
| | - Heriberto Garcia
- Laboratory for Ocean Acoustics and Ecosystem Sensing, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
| | - Wei Huang
- Laboratory for Ocean Acoustics and Ecosystem Sensing, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
| | - Duong D Tran
- Laboratory for Ocean Acoustics and Ecosystem Sensing, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
| | - Ankita D Jain
- Laboratory for Undersea Remote Sensing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | - Dong Hoon Yi
- Laboratory for Undersea Remote Sensing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | - Zheng Gong
- Laboratory for Ocean Acoustics and Ecosystem Sensing, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.,Laboratory for Undersea Remote Sensing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | - J Michael Jech
- Northeast Fisheries Science Center, 166 Water Street, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA
| | - Olav Rune Godø
- Institute of Marine Research, Post Office Box 1870, Nordnes, N-5817 Bergen, Norway
| | - Nicholas C Makris
- Laboratory for Undersea Remote Sensing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | - Purnima Ratilal
- Laboratory for Ocean Acoustics and Ecosystem Sensing, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
| |
Collapse
|