CAMEO: Collaborative Research: Patterns of Connectivity in Northwest Atlantic Fishery Ecosystems

智力价值：跨越生态系统边界的通量的重要性是海洋生态系统区别于陆地生态系统的一个特征。从这一观点来看，对海洋生态系统的任何比较分析都应处理生态系统之间的连通模式和程度，以达到最高的效用。在这里，研究人员将进行一系列分析，试图量化来自西北大西洋沿海陆架生态系统的10个海洋渔业生态系统之间连通性的来源、模式和后果。通过对空间嵌套在较大生态系统内的较小生态系统进行分层分析，他们希望确定生态过程中的尺度关系，这些关系表征了这些生态系统内关键物种的动态。这项工作旨在量化西北大西洋生态系统之间的连接模式和程度。具体地说，研究人员将对每个生态系统的经验数据进行统计分析，以量化其结构的单变量、分布和多变量描述符的模式。他们还将进行时间序列分析，以描述每个生态系统内不同分类群和类群反应的关系。他们将使用对高度研究的近岸生态系统进行的分析结果作为假设，以近海生态系统较稀少的数据进行检验。这些分析将描绘生态系统之间的功能连接模式。他们还将构建不同复杂性的动态模型，以了解前两个生态系统功能目标中所展示的连通性的主要后果。模型将包括生物量动态和捕食者-被捕食者-被捕食者耦合模拟，这些模拟将考虑从全球整个区域清除的影响和更具体的局部空间枯竭模式。广泛影响：各级机构正在努力制定渔业的生态系统管理办法(EAM)，以努力确保被开发海洋资源和生态系统的长期可持续性。生态系统综合评估的核心是综合生态系统评估，它提供了社会、法律和科学基础，以便在空间、时间和司法管辖的多个尺度上审查海洋生态系统，并协调多个部门对沿海生态系统资源的管理。海洋生态系统的开放性对IEAs和EAM是一项挑战，对西北大西洋沿岸架(NWAC)生态系统尤其如此。在这个开放的生态系统中，管理的关键是评估不同地区关键生物群之间跨越空间和时间的连通性。在这里，研究人员将分析一套相互关联的区域生态系统中一系列规模的生态系统结构和功能，以支持国际能源署的发展。

Intellectual Merit: The importance of fluxes across ecosystem boundaries is a characteristic of marine ecosystems that differentiates them from their terrestrial counterparts. From this viewpoint, any comparative analysis of marine ecosystems should address the patterns and degree of connectivity among ecosystems to be of highest utility. Here the investigators will conduct a suite of analyses that seek to quantify the sources, patterns and consequences of connectivity among 10 marine fishery ecosystems that together from the northwest Atlantic coastal shelf ecosystem. By conducting analyses in a hierarchical fashion with smaller ecosystems nested spatially within larger ecosystems they hope to identify scaling relationships in the ecological processes that characterize the dynamics of key species within these ecosystems. This work seeks to quantify the patterns and degree of connectivity among ecosystems in the Northwest Atlantic. Specifically, the investigators will conduct statistical analyses of empirical data from each ecosystem to quantify patterns in univariate, distribution and multivariate descriptors of their structure. They will also undertake time series analyses to describe relationships in the responses of different taxa and groups within each ecosystem. They will use the results of analyses conducted on the highly studied nearshore ecosystems as hypotheses to be tested on the somewhat sparser data of the offshore ecosystems. These analyses will delineate patterns of functional connectivity among ecosystems. They will also construct dynamic models of differing complexity to understand the principal consequences of the connectivity demonstrated in the first two objectives on ecosystem function. Models will include biomass dynamic and coupled predator-prey simulations that will consider the impacts of removals from the overall region globally and more specific patterns of localized spatial depletion.Broader Impacts: Agencies, at all levels, are seeking to develop ecosystem-approaches to management (EAM) of fisheries in efforts to ensure long-term sustainability of the exploited marine resources and ecosystems. Central to EAM are Integrated Ecosystem Assessments (IEAs), which provide the societal, legal, and scientific basis to examine marine ecosystems at multiple scales -spatially, temporally, and jurisdictionally - and to coordinate the management of coastal ecosystem resources across multiple sectors. The open nature of marine ecosystems is a challenge for IEAs and EAM and particularly so for the Northwest Atlantic Coastal Shelf (NWACS) ecosystem. Key to management in this open ecosystem is assessment of the connectivity among key biota across space and time in the different regions. Here, the investigators will analyze ecosystem structure and function at a range of scales in a suite of interconnected regional ecosystems to support IEA development.