Linking fisheries research to oceanography and climate change research

世界各地的管理当局正在逐步转向基于生态系统的渔业管理。很明显，生态系统建模作为这一举措的一部分可以做出明确的贡献，需要明确关注，以确保我们建模所依据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。当前支持渔业生态系统方法的大多数生态系统建模活动都基于Ecopath with Ecosim（EwE）不列颠哥伦比亚省大学渔业中心开发的方法和软件系统。从最近的生态系统模拟中可能最重要的发现是，系统生产力变化的信号（营养负荷或初级生产力），生产力的变化可能通过食物网被放大，而不是像通常假设的那样被抑制。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而具有重要意义，但它也为至少两个重要的研究问题开辟了道路，由于最近在使用生态系统建模进行渔业管理方面取得的进展，这两个问题现在才有可能考虑着手进行：对于某些物种来说，是什么机制导致初级生产的变化通过食物网被放大？这是一个可以通过生理过程来解释的一般特征吗？如果是这样，为什么它不适用于所有物种，这是食物网结构的特定特征的结果吗？B.注意到环境变化对被开发的食物网上层产生了显著影响，气候变化如何影响生物多样性和未来的海洋粮食生产力？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?