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Is fisheries production within Large Marine Ecosystems determined by bottom-up or top-down forcing?
Citation
Mcowen, CJ and Cheung, WWL and Rykaczewski, RR and Watson, RA and Wood, LJ, Is fisheries production within Large Marine Ecosystems determined by bottom-up or top-down forcing?, Fish and Fisheries, 16, (4) pp. 623-632. ISSN 1467-2960 (2015) [Refereed Article]
Copyright Statement
Copyright 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Abstract
Understanding the mechanisms driving fisheries production is essential if we are to
accurately predict changes under climate change and exploit fish stocks in a sustainable
manner. Traditionally, studies have sought to distinguish between the two
most prominent drivers, ‘bottom-up’ (resource driven) and ‘top-down’ (consumer
driven); however, this dichotomy is increasingly proving to be artificial as the relative
importance of each mechanism has been shown to vary through space and
time. Nevertheless, the reason why one predominates over another within a region
remains largely unknown. To address this gap in understanding, we identified the
dominant driver of commercial landings within 47 ecosystems, encompassing a
wide range of biogeochemical conditions and fishing practices to elucidate general
patterns. We show that bottom-up and top-down effects vary consistently with past
fishing pressure and oceanographic conditions; bottom-up control predominates
within productive, overfished regions and top-down in relatively unproductive and
under-exploited areas. We attribute these findings to differences in the species composition
and oceanographic properties of regions, together with variation in fishing
practices and (indicative) management effectiveness. Collectively, our analyses suggest
that despite the complexity of ecological systems, it is possible to elucidate a
number of generalities. Such knowledge could be used to increase the parsimony of
ecosystem models and to move a step forward in predicting how the global ocean,
particularly fisheries productivity, will respond to climate change.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | bottom-up, climate forcing, fisheries production, fishing effort, Large Marine Ecosystem, top-down |
Research Division: | Agricultural, Veterinary and Food Sciences |
Research Group: | Fisheries sciences |
Research Field: | Aquaculture and fisheries stock assessment |
Objective Division: | Environmental Policy, Climate Change and Natural Hazards |
Objective Group: | Adaptation to climate change |
Objective Field: | Social impacts of climate change and variability |
UTAS Author: | Watson, RA (Professor Reginald Watson) |
ID Code: | 104806 |
Year Published: | 2015 |
Funding Support: | Australian Research Council (DP140101377) |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 17 |
Deposited By: | IMAS Research and Education Centre |
Deposited On: | 2015-11-20 |
Last Modified: | 2017-11-04 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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