Fisheries Productivity

Dynamic Productivity of Fisheries Ecosystems

Quantifying relationships between ocean habitat features and fisheries productivity is one way to advance ecosystem approaches within fisheries ecology. This project tests the ability of a spatial habitat model to predict areas of differing fisheries productivity, species’ life history traits, and fish species numbers around Newfoundland and Labrador. Model predictions are made by incorporating spatially resolved chemical, biological, geological, and physical oceanographic data. Initial results provide support for the model’s predictions of both areas of apparent high and low fisheries productivity and species’ differential responses to exploitation within those areas. This collaboration with DFO Science (Newfoundland, Maritimes and Pacific regions) and National Resources Canada grew out of the ICES Working Group on the Northwest Atlantic Regional Sea.

Regime shifts in fisheries ecosystems

The term ‘regime shift’ has been defined to describe large, abrupt and persistent changes in the structure and functioning complex systems—including the ecosystems that support fisheries. Whether and when such concepts may apply to the fisheries ecosystems of Newfoundland and Labrador is a question increasingly being asked. Using spatial investigations and time series analyses, we are examining these questions based on existing and newly collected data, with the goal of providing insights into the structure, functioning and sometimes unanticipated dynamics of populations and ecosystems on which fisheries.

The video shows capelin spawning in Trinity Bay, NL. As predators of plankton and prey to fish, birds and mammals, capelin are a key species in Newfoundland and Labrador marine ecosystems.

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