Patterns of Connectivity in Northwest Atlantic Ecosystems
Principal Investigators: Thomas Miller (Maryland), Jason Link (NOAA), Jeremy Collie (URI), Michael Frisk (Stony Brook), Robert Latour (VIMS), Howard Townshend (NOAA), Michael Wilberg (Maryland)
Collaborator: Alida Bundy (Canada DFO)
Fishery ecosystems along the northwest Atlantic coastal shelf that will be the focus of study. Coastal ecosystems were defined by the 25m depth contour. Nearshore (red) and estuarine (yellow) ecosystems were defined according to shoreline features.
Short Summary
The overall goal of our research is to understand the patterns and consequences of spatial and temporal connectivity on ecosystem structure, function and resilience. We will approach this goal by focusing our work on analyzing the properties of 10 different ecosystems that present a nested hierarchy of organization. For example are the ecosystem properties of the Chesapeake Bay similar to those of the coastal mid-Atlantic region, and are these both similar to the combined estuarine/coastal ocean ecosystem. These analyses will lead to insights about the consequences of adopting different spatial scales for ecosystem approaches to management.
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Project Summary
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 we propose 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 our analyses in a hierarchical fashion with smaller ecosystems nested spatially within larger ecosystems we 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, we will conduct statistical analyses of empirical data from each ecosystem to quantify patterns in univariate, distribution and multivariate descriptors of their structure. We will also undertake time series analyses to describe relationships in the responses of different taxa and groups within each ecosystem. We 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. We will also construct dynamic models of differing complexity to understand the principal consequences of the connectivity we demonstrate 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.
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 NOAA’s 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 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, we propose to analyze ecosystem structure and function at a range of scales in a suite of interconnected regional ecosystems to support IEA development.