TY - JOUR
T1 - Database-driven models of the world's Large Marine Ecosystems
AU - Christensen, Villy
AU - Walters, Carl J.
AU - Ahrens, Robert
AU - Alder, Jacqueline
AU - Buszowski, Joe
AU - Christensen, Line Bang
AU - Cheung, William W.L.
AU - Dunne, John
AU - Froese, Rainer
AU - Karpouzi, Vasiliki
AU - Kaschner, Kristin
AU - Kearney, Kelly
AU - Lai, Sherman
AU - Lam, Vicki
AU - Palomares, Maria L.D.
AU - Peters-Mason, Aja
AU - Piroddi, Chiara
AU - Sarmiento, Jorge Louis
AU - Steenbeek, Jeroen
AU - Sumaila, Rashid
AU - Watson, Reg
AU - Zeller, Dirk
AU - Pauly, Daniel
N1 - Funding Information:
This activity was funded by the Global Environment Facility through the United Nations Environment Programme, and was part of the UNESCO/IOC activity “Promoting Ecosystem-based Approaches to Fisheries Conservation in LME's (Global activity), Component 2.a” (UNESCO Contract Number 4500039066). A more detailed version of this contribution was published as IOC Tech. Rep. 80. The activity was made possible through the activities and support of the Sea Around Us project, initiated and funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, Philadelphia. We also thank the Lenfest Oceans Program for funding the redevelopment of the Ecopath with Ecosim software, a necessary requirement for the present activity. We further thank Dr Kenneth Sherman, NOAA, for defining the project scope through many interesting discussions, seeing it through the GEF funding process, as well as for his sustained support of the research and capacity building that this activity has resulted in. Finally, we thank two anonymous reviewers for useful edits and suggestions.
PY - 2009/9/10
Y1 - 2009/9/10
N2 - We present a new methodology for database-driven ecosystem model generation and apply the methodology to the world's 66 currently defined Large Marine Ecosystems. The method relies on a large number of spatial and temporal databases, including FishBase, SeaLifeBase, as well as several other databases developed notably as part of the Sea Around Us project. The models are formulated using the freely available Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) modeling approach and software. We tune the models by fitting to available time series data, but recognize that the models represent only a first-generation of database-driven ecosystem models. We use the models to obtain a first estimate of fish biomass in the world's LMEs. The biggest hurdles at present to further model development and validation are insufficient time series trend information, and data on spatial fishing effort.
AB - We present a new methodology for database-driven ecosystem model generation and apply the methodology to the world's 66 currently defined Large Marine Ecosystems. The method relies on a large number of spatial and temporal databases, including FishBase, SeaLifeBase, as well as several other databases developed notably as part of the Sea Around Us project. The models are formulated using the freely available Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) modeling approach and software. We tune the models by fitting to available time series data, but recognize that the models represent only a first-generation of database-driven ecosystem models. We use the models to obtain a first estimate of fish biomass in the world's LMEs. The biggest hurdles at present to further model development and validation are insufficient time series trend information, and data on spatial fishing effort.
KW - Ecopath with Ecosim
KW - Ecosystem model
KW - Global modeling
KW - LME
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=67649849667&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2009.04.041
DO - 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2009.04.041
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:67649849667
SN - 0304-3800
VL - 220
SP - 1984
EP - 1996
JO - Ecological Modelling
JF - Ecological Modelling
IS - 17
ER -