Edited by Will J.F. Le Quesne, Francisco Arreguín-Sánchez and Sheila J.J. Heymans.

DIRECTOR'S FOREWORD

Once again a Fisheries Centre Research Report was produced which features an international cast of authors, and documenting a number of ecosystem models constructed using the Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) suite of software.

This report, however, also very nicely illustrates the increased sophistication of the users of this software, which parallels the improvements of EwE. Thus, we have here a number of models which emphasize the spatial dimension of EwE, i.e., the use of its Ecospace module. While technically not difficult to use, this module implies familiarity with the spatial dimension of an ecosystem. This is a dimension that all ecosystem modelers should be expected to master, though it may not be apparent to casual users of Ecopath, used for describing food webs, and Ecosim, used to simulate how they may change through time.

This report also illustrates another aspect of ecosystem modeling based on EwE, i.e., that numerous initiatives centered on this modeling approach are emerging outside of UBC's Fisheries Centre. In this case, the initiative was the INCOFISH Project (see www.incofish.org), funded by the European Commission, and which gathered a vast number of international collaborators, only some of whom are associated with the Fisheries Centre. Still, our Villy Christensen interacted with most of the authors of contributions included herein, one of the reasons for their quality.

Finally, I want to congratulate the editors and the authors of the contributions in this report for the enormous amount of contextualized ecological data that they are herewith making available to colleagues, and thus advancing ecosystem modeling everywhere.

Daniel Pauly
Director, Fisheries Centre

PREFACE

The INCOFISH project (“Integrating multiple demands on coastal zones with emphasis on fisheries and aquatic ecosystems”, European Commission contract 003739) was developed to examine integrated coastal zone management with explicit recognition of ecological, economic and social interactions due to the growing need for ecosystem-based management. A significant component of the overall INCOFISH project is based upon analysis of the ecosystem effects of management with the Ecopath modelling framework.

The INCOFISH project is a global study. Models developed within this project include ecosystems from all five major continents. Specifically, the models include the East China Sea, Gulf of California, Humboldt Current, Northern Benguela, Gulf of Mexico, North Adriatic Sea, West Coast of Baja California, and Senegambian coasts.

The Ecopath modelling framework (www.ecopath.org) includes Ecopath, Ecosim and Ecospace modules. Ecopath develops a static mass balanced network of interactions between components that make up an ecosystem. Ecosim builds upon this to allow time dynamic simulation of ecosystem interactions. Ecosim can incorporate environmental drivers and calibration to independent time series. Ecospace then builds on Ecosim to allow the spatio-temporal analysis of the ecosystem. It includes essential habitats and dispersion for functional groups, and incorporates socio-economic data to attempt to provide realistic simulations of spatial fishery interactions. The temporal (Ecosim) and spatial (Ecospace) components can be used as policy exploration tools.

Critical to the successful use of the Ecopath suite is detailed and accurate parameterization of the Ecopath, Ecosim and Ecospace models for the study region selected. It is essential to document the development procedure to allow critical analysis of any studies subsequently based upon these models.

This report provides detailed descriptions of the Ecopath, Ecosim and Ecospace models developed within the INCOFISH project. Some reports describe new and previously undescribed Ecopath models, while others build on previously described Ecopath models and therefore include mainly Ecosim and/or Ecospace components. We acknowledge the efforts of the authors contributing to this report.

The Editors

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