Using a fisheries ecosystem model with a water quality model to explore trophic and habitat impacts on a fisheries stock: A case study of the blue crab population in the Chesapeake Bay

Hongguang Ma, Howard Townsend, Xinsheng Zhang, Maddy Sigrist and Villy Christensen

Ecological Modelling, 2010, vol. 221, issue 7, 997-1004

Abstract: Recent calls for the development of ecosystem-based fisheries management compel the development of resource management tools and linkages between existing fisheries management tools and other resource tools to enable assessment and management of multiple impacts on fisheries resources. In this paper, we describe the use of the Chesapeake Bay Fisheries Ecosystem Model (CBFEM), developed using the Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) software, and the Chesapeake Bay Water Quality Model (WQM) to demonstrate how linkages between available modeling tools can be used to inform ecosystem-based natural resource management. The CBFEM was developed to provide strategic ecosystem information in support of fisheries management. The WQM was developed to assess impacts on water quality. The CBFEM was indirectly coupled with the WQM to assess the effects of water quality and submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) on blue crabs. The output from two WQM scenarios (1985–1994), a baseline scenario representing actual nutrient inputs and another with reduced inputs based on a tributary management strategy, was incorporated into the CBFEM. The results suggested that blue crab biomass could be enhanced under management strategies (reduced nutrient input) when the effective search rate of blue crab young-of-the-year's (YOY's) predators or the vulnerability of blue crab YOY to its predators was adjusted by SAV. Such model linkages are important for incorporating physical and biological components of ecosystems in order to explore ecosystem-based fisheries management options.

Keywords: Fisheries ecosystem model; Ecopath with Ecosim; Blue crab; Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV); Habitat; Water quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380009000787
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:221:y:2010:i:7:p:997-1004

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2009.01.026

Access Statistics for this article

Ecological Modelling is currently edited by Brian D. Fath

More articles in Ecological Modelling from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().