Linking fisheries research to oceanography and climate change research

世界各地的管理当局正在逐步转向以生态系统为基础的渔业管理。显然，作为这一举措的一部分，生态系统建模具有明确的贡献，需要给予明确的关注，以确保我们作为建模基础的科学基础是坚实的。这项拟议的活动旨在通过有针对性的支持性研究来帮助改善基础。目前大多数支持渔业生态系统方法的生态系统建模活动是基于生态系统与生态系统(Ecosim)方法和不列颠哥伦比亚大学渔业中心开发的软件系统。最近生态系统建模最重要的发现可能是，来自系统生产力(养分负荷或初级生产力)变化的信号可以在所有营养水平获得，生产力的变化可能会通过食物网放大，而不是像通常假设的那样受到抑制。虽然这一发现通过将海洋学与渔业管理以及生物多样性研究联系起来是重要的，但它也为至少两个重要的研究问题打开了大门，由于在渔业管理中使用生态系统建模的最新进展，现在才有可能考虑着手解决这两个问题：a.对于某些物种来说，是什么机制导致初级生产力的变化通过食物网放大？这是一种可以通过生理过程解释的一般特征吗？如果是这样的话，为什么它不适用于所有物种，这是不是食物网结构的特定特征的结果？b.注意到环境变化对被开发的食物网的上部有显著影响，气候变化可能如何影响来自海洋的生物多样性和未来的食物生产力？各种物种可能会受到怎样的影响，对太平洋西北部可能会产生什么后果？

Management authorities throughout the world are gradually moving toward ecosystem-based management of fisheries. It is clear that ecosystem modeling has a clear contribution to make as part of this move, and clear attention needs to be devoted to ensure that the scientific foundation on which we base the modeling is solid. This proposed activity aims to help improving the foundation through targeted, supportive research.A majority of the current ecosystem modeling activities in support of an ecosystem approach to fisheries are based on the Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) approach and software system developed at the Fisheries Centre of the University of British Columbia.The perhaps most important findings from recent ecosystem modeling are that signals from changes in system productivity (nutrient loading or primary productivity) can be picked up at all trophic levels and that variation in productivity may be amplified through the food web rather than dampened as usually assumed. While this finding is important through its linking of oceanography to fisheries management as well as to biodiversity research, it also opens for at least two important lines of research questions, both of which it is only now possible to consider embarking due to the recent progress in using ecosystem modeling for fisheries management:a. What are the mechanisms that for some species cause variation in primary production to be amplified through the food web? Is it a general feature that may be explained through physiological processes? If so, why does it not apply to all species, is this a consequence of specific characteristics of the food web structure?b. Noting that environmental variation has marked impact on the exploited, upper part of the food web, how may climate change impact biodiversity and future food productivity from the oceans? How are various species likely to be impacted, and what may the consequences be for the Pacific Northwest?