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“Meso-Marine Ecosystems”: ManagementUnits for the North Pacific?
W. Sydeman1, S. Batten2, D. Hyrenbach 1, M. Henry1,
C. Rintoul1, D. Welch3, K. Morgan4
1PRBO Conservation Science, Petaluma, CA, U.S.A.
2 SAHFOS, Plymouth, U.K.3Kintama Research, Nanaimo, B.C., Canada
4Canadian Wildlife Service, Sidney, B.C., Canada
Macroecology as a Cornerstone forEcosystem-based Management
• EBM requires identification of appropriate areas for management and human (stakeholder) involvement
• Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) have been suggested as appropriate for EBM, but may not reflect the extent of ecosystems (too large/too small? ecotones/edges?) or the scales of significant ecosystem and human interactions
• Therefore, macroecological investigations within and across LME on community structure, biodiversity, and scale-dependent ecological interactions (temporal and spatial) are required to define eco-regions for management
HypothesisTop predator (marine bird) and plankton
“communities” may be used to delineate North Pacific eco-regions
• Why? Indicators of habitats on multiple scales (water masses to “hotspots”, persistent and ephemeral ecosystem structures (e.g., fronts/eddies)• Indicators of temporal environmental variability (e.g., ENSO, regime shifts, climate change), and effects on food webs
…a slight digression…
The Atlantic Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) Project
Long-term ocean ecosystem monitoring (initiated in ~1930 by SAHFOS)
Marine ecology, climate change, fisheries management, biogeography, etc.
A CPR is a simple, rugged, mechanical device, towed behind merchant ships, that filters plankton
from the seawater
Samples in North Atlantic database (to 2005);imagine the same thing for the North Pacific
Beaugrand et al. 2003 Nature 426, 661-664.
Fisheries Forecasting Application, North Sea
The Pacific CPR Survey (2000 - ?)
-220 -200 -180 -160 -140 -120
40
50
60
Both North – South and East – West Transects
Batten, S.D., D.Welch and D. Mackas, PIs
The East – West Transect , 7500 km
Integrated Pacific CPR – Marine Bird andMammal Survey (E-W transect only)
Motivation: study upper- and lower trophic levels simultaneously 4+ years (June 02 – present)
12 integrated predator/plankton surveys (166 sea days; ~23,000 km, database available, NPRB)
Batten, S.D., et al. 2006. Characterising Meso-Marine Ecosystems (MME) in the
North Pacific.
Deep Sea Research II 53:270-290
1. plankton and seabird “ecoregions” match in space (spring 02)
2. plankton and seabird biomass positively correlated 3. ecoregions explained by physical environment 4. 10 “MMEs” (potential management regions) identified
140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210 220 230 240
40
50
60
June 2002
Question for today:
Are plankton/seabird MMEs persistent between seasons and years?
Plankton: 5 years, Summer, Presence /Absence…
Seabirds: 4 years, Spring-Summer-Fall; Relative density of 23 “common” species
Hierarchical Clustering
Methods
Plankton, All Years (dots replaced with
lines)
140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210 220 230 240
40
50
60
NOTE: a cluster color from one year to the next does not represent a particular community – colors show eco-regions not specific
“communities” between years
12
34/5
6
7/8/9?
10
Ben Saenz
The Birds…
9 ecoregions
8 ecoregions
1. Season: little persistence in ecoregions
2. Yearly: moderate persistence; most ecoregions represented annually, with less variation in frequency
3. More variation across seasons than years
Spring
Bubble size proportional to frequency
Seabird Community Structure Through Time
Summary and Conclusions(1) Plankton, seabird communities reveal persistent eco-regions in GOA,
central Bering, greater heterogeneity in West
• coastal B.C., Gulf of Alaska “east”, Gulf of Alaska “west”) – 3 eco-regions (persistent)
• Unimak Pass Area – 1 or 2 ecoregions (ecotone)
• Central Bering Sea – 1 ecoregion (persistent)
• coastal Japan; Oyashio/western subarctic gyre and western Bering Sea - 2-4 ecoregions (not persistent) Why? Diversity? Greater response to climate?
• 7 – 10 eco-regions along this E-W transect
(2) That being said, area boundaries unclear – continuum in community structure, messy (especially highly-mobile birds)
(3) Integrated CPR Survey ideal for determining eco-regions and appropriate spatial units for management; however, future of survey is uncertain……
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