Citizen Science, the involvement of non-scientists of all ages in the scientific process with the... more Citizen Science, the involvement of non-scientists of all ages in the scientific process with the potential to educate, inspire, and empower citizens, is increasingly applied in marine research. It is engaging civil society and other stakeholders in decision-making processes when addressing societal challenges. The recent Ocean Literacy movement particularly encourages wider awareness about the ocean's influence on us, and our influence on the ocean. It is believed that improved Ocean Literacy and greater collaboration and engagement can inspire citizens to modify their perceptions and to change their behaviour to be more environmentally friendly. This wider participation of civil society in research is also a way of empowering citizens to be more engaged in decision- and policy-making at all levels from local to international. Participation in relevant Citizen Science initiatives can also be a direct way for society to engage with and support the achievement of the Sustainable ...
dows 95/98/NT, 16 MByte main memory recommended). The ECOTOX database on CD-ROM is the follow-up ... more dows 95/98/NT, 16 MByte main memory recommended). The ECOTOX database on CD-ROM is the follow-up to the 'Handbook of Ecological Parameters and Ecotoxicology', published by Elsevier in 1991. The CD is an entirely revised version of the tables found in this handbook. It is a fully searchable electronic database. Data was extracted from comprehensive reviews of scientific journals published between 1975 and 1998. Abstracts of the related publications are also stored in the database. The main parts of the CD-ROM are extensive tables with ecological parameters. It is structured into 7 chapters, entitled: 'Composition and Ecological Parameters of Living Organisms', 'The Ecosphere and Chemical Compounds', 'Effects of Chemical Compounds', 'Chemical Compound Concentrations and The Living Organism', 'Modeling Equations for Environmental Processes', 'Processes in the Environment', and 'Ecotoxicological Effects of Pesticides'.
We estimate the biomass of high-trophic level ¢shes in the North Atlantic at a spatial scale of 0... more We estimate the biomass of high-trophic level ¢shes in the North Atlantic at a spatial scale of 0.58 latitude by 0.58 longitude based on 23 spatialized ecosystem models, each constructed to represent a given year or short period from1880 to1998.We extract over 7800 data points that describe the abundance of high-trophic level ¢shes as a function of year, primary production, depth, temperature, latitude, ice cover and catch composition. We then use a multiple linear regression to predict the spatial abundance for all North Atlantic spatial cells for 1900 and for each year from 1950 to 1999. The results indicate that the biomass of high-trophic level ¢shes has declined by two-thirds during the last 50-year period, and with a factor of nine over the century. Catches of hightrophic level ¢shes increased from 2.4 to 4.7 million tonnes annually in the late 1960s, and subsequently declined to below 2 million tonnes annually in the late 1990s. The ¢shing intensity for high-trophic level ¢shes tripled during the ¢rst half of the time period and remained high during the last half of the time period. Comparing the ¢shing intensity to similar measures from 35 assessments of high-trophic level ¢sh populations from the North Atlantic, we conclude that the trends in the two data series are similar. Our results raise serious concern for the future of the North Atlantic as a diverse, healthy ecosystem; we may soon be left with only low-trophic level species in the sea.
The ocean is inextricably linked with the way we live. The EU-funded Horizon 2020 Project SOPHIE ... more The ocean is inextricably linked with the way we live. The EU-funded Horizon 2020 Project SOPHIE (Seas, Oceans and Public Health in Europe; https://sophie2020.eu/) is establishing the foundations for the future of Oceans and Human Health research in Europe through review, diverse community input, and discussion of strategy, to produce a strategic research agenda for Europe. SOPHIE is funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, grant agreement No. 774567. The meta-discipline of Oceans and Human Health (OHH) spans expertise in the marine, public health and medical fields, and social science, and explores the complex interactions between Ocean Health and Human Health. Key aspects for this field of research is ocean observation, and building the evidence base of data to start drawing concrete links between the impacts of the ocean on human health, and our impacts on ocean health. Only through better understanding of these complex linkages can both ...
The EurOCEAN 2019 conference took place on 11-12 June 2019 and was hosted by the Intergovernmenta... more The EurOCEAN 2019 conference took place on 11-12 June 2019 and was hosted by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France. The conference discussed the contribution of European marine science to the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), the Ocean Decade, and is recognised as a contribution to its preparatory phase. The conference highlighted the contribution of marine science to ongoing and future initiatives supported by the European Union Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation, including Horizon 2020 (2014-2020) and the forthcoming Horizon Europe (2021-2027). The Conference was co-organised by European Marine Board, the European Commission and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO. This document is the report of the conference. Possible solutions exist to the challenges the ocean face. However, these need to be aligned, implemented and enforced via holisti...
An important challenge for conserving and managing marine ecosystems is to advance our understand... more An important challenge for conserving and managing marine ecosystems is to advance our understanding of how multiple human stressors, environmental factors and marine resources interact and influence each other. The ecosystems of the Israeli Mediterranean coast have undergone significant ecological changes in recent decades caused primarily by the introduction of invasive species through the Suez Canal, intense fishing activities and the effects of climate change. An Ecopath model representing the continental shelf of the Israeli Mediterranean coast was calibrated and fitted to the available time series from early 1990's to 2010 using the Ecosim temporal dynamic modeling approach. The model was first used to explore the historical dynamics of the ecosystem considering the effect of invasive species, fishing activities and climate change (through changes in temperature and salinity) as the main ecosystem drivers. Secondly, different scenarios from early 1990's to 2010 were developed to evaluate historical cumulative effects of the different drivers. Historical model predictions satisfactorily matched available observed data, especially regarding the invasive groups. However, lack of data from the pelagic environment limited our ability to compare model output with historical observations. Overall, results showed an increasing proportion of invasive species in biomass and catch over time, with important effects on the food-web. Results also highlighted the important role that fishing activities and climate change are playing in the ecosystem through overexploitation and displacements of native groups, respectively. Results of the hypothetical scenarios highlighted the cumulative impacts of the stressors, suggesting synergistic effects in several cases between the impacts of invasive species, fishing and climate change.
Trophic level (TL)-based indicators have been widely used to examine fishing impacts in aquatic e... more Trophic level (TL)-based indicators have been widely used to examine fishing impacts in aquatic ecosystems and the induced biodiversity changes. However, much debate has ensued regarding discrepancies and challenges arising from the use of landings data from commercial fisheries to calculate TL indicators. Subsequent studies have started to examine survey-based and model-based indicators. In this paper, we undertake an extensive evaluation of a variety of TL indicators across 9 well-studied marine ecosystems by making use of model-as well as surveyand catch-based TL indicators. Using detailed regional information and data on fishing history, fishing intensity, and environmental conditions, we evaluate how well TL indicators are capturing fishing effects at the community level of marine ecosystems. Our results highlight that the differences observed between TL indicator values and trends is dependent on the data source and the TL cut-off point used in the calculations and is not attributable to an intrinsic problem with TLbased indicators. All 3 data sources provide useful information about the structural changes in the ecosystem as a result of fishing, but our results indicate that only model-based indicators represent fishing impacts at the whole ecosystem level.
Shin, Y-J., Bundy, A., Shannon, L. J., Simier, M., Coll, M., Fulton, E. A., Link, J. S., Jouffre,... more Shin, Y-J., Bundy, A., Shannon, L. J., Simier, M., Coll, M., Fulton, E. A., Link, J. S., Jouffre, D., Ojaveer, H., Mackinson, S., Heymans, J. J., and Raid, T. 2010. Can simple be useful and reliable? Using ecological indicators to represent and compare the states of marine ecosystems. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 67: 717–731. Within the IndiSeas WG, the evaluation of exploited marine ecosystems has several steps, from simple binary categorization of ecosystems to a more-complex attempt to rank them and to evaluate their status using decision-tree analyses. With the intention of communicating scientific knowledge to the public and stakeholders, focus is on evaluating and comparing the status of exploited marine ecosystems using a set of six ecological indicators and a simple and transparent graphic representation of ecosystem state (pie charts). A question that arose was whether it was acceptable to compare different types of marine ecosystems using a generic set of indicators. ...
Shin, Y-J., and Shannon, L. J. 2010. Using indicators for evaluating, comparing and communicating... more Shin, Y-J., and Shannon, L. J. 2010. Using indicators for evaluating, comparing and communicating the ecological status of exploited marine ecosystems. 1. The IndiSeas project. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 67: 686–691. One of the challenges faced by the scientific community grappling with the ecosystem approach to fisheries is to propose a generic set of synthetic ecological indicators, which would accurately reflect the effects of fisheries on marine ecosystems, and could support sound communication and management practices. The IndiSeas Working Group was established in 2005 under the auspices of the Eur-Oceans Network of Excellence to develop methods to provide indicators-based assessments of the status of exploited marine ecosystems in a comparative framework. Here, we present the two main outputs of the first phase of the project: a suite of papers documenting a combination of indicator-based methods and results comparing the ecological status of the world's exploited m...
. Which forcing factors fit? Using ecosystem models to investigate the relative influence of fish... more . Which forcing factors fit? Using ecosystem models to investigate the relative influence of fishing and changes in primary productivity on the dynamics of marine ecosystems.
Please note that this is an author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication following ... more Please note that this is an author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available on the publisher Web site.
Identifying existing initiatives in foresight in ocean observation, emerging strategies and roadm... more Identifying existing initiatives in foresight in ocean observation, emerging strategies and roadmaps.
There is a rich history in predicting ecological interactions in nature going back to the seminal... more There is a rich history in predicting ecological interactions in nature going back to the seminal work of Robert May. Historically, the use of models in ecological decision making has been centered on tools that require less data and are easier to communicate into policy. However, the explosion in the availability of ecological data, as well as the ready access to computer power, has opened the door to more detailed computation tools. This in turn has created a suite of questions about how and how much model-based projections can influence decision making in management of ecological resources. Here we address some of these issues particularly those created by model complexity, data quality and availability, and model acceptance by policy makers. Our goal is to use specific examples to critically examine these issues for both gaps and opportunities in how models can be used to inform decision making at the level of ecosystems and in the currency of ecosystem services to people.
Citizen Science, the involvement of non-scientists of all ages in the scientific process with the... more Citizen Science, the involvement of non-scientists of all ages in the scientific process with the potential to educate, inspire, and empower citizens, is increasingly applied in marine research. It is engaging civil society and other stakeholders in decision-making processes when addressing societal challenges. The recent Ocean Literacy movement particularly encourages wider awareness about the ocean's influence on us, and our influence on the ocean. It is believed that improved Ocean Literacy and greater collaboration and engagement can inspire citizens to modify their perceptions and to change their behaviour to be more environmentally friendly. This wider participation of civil society in research is also a way of empowering citizens to be more engaged in decision- and policy-making at all levels from local to international. Participation in relevant Citizen Science initiatives can also be a direct way for society to engage with and support the achievement of the Sustainable ...
dows 95/98/NT, 16 MByte main memory recommended). The ECOTOX database on CD-ROM is the follow-up ... more dows 95/98/NT, 16 MByte main memory recommended). The ECOTOX database on CD-ROM is the follow-up to the 'Handbook of Ecological Parameters and Ecotoxicology', published by Elsevier in 1991. The CD is an entirely revised version of the tables found in this handbook. It is a fully searchable electronic database. Data was extracted from comprehensive reviews of scientific journals published between 1975 and 1998. Abstracts of the related publications are also stored in the database. The main parts of the CD-ROM are extensive tables with ecological parameters. It is structured into 7 chapters, entitled: 'Composition and Ecological Parameters of Living Organisms', 'The Ecosphere and Chemical Compounds', 'Effects of Chemical Compounds', 'Chemical Compound Concentrations and The Living Organism', 'Modeling Equations for Environmental Processes', 'Processes in the Environment', and 'Ecotoxicological Effects of Pesticides'.
We estimate the biomass of high-trophic level ¢shes in the North Atlantic at a spatial scale of 0... more We estimate the biomass of high-trophic level ¢shes in the North Atlantic at a spatial scale of 0.58 latitude by 0.58 longitude based on 23 spatialized ecosystem models, each constructed to represent a given year or short period from1880 to1998.We extract over 7800 data points that describe the abundance of high-trophic level ¢shes as a function of year, primary production, depth, temperature, latitude, ice cover and catch composition. We then use a multiple linear regression to predict the spatial abundance for all North Atlantic spatial cells for 1900 and for each year from 1950 to 1999. The results indicate that the biomass of high-trophic level ¢shes has declined by two-thirds during the last 50-year period, and with a factor of nine over the century. Catches of hightrophic level ¢shes increased from 2.4 to 4.7 million tonnes annually in the late 1960s, and subsequently declined to below 2 million tonnes annually in the late 1990s. The ¢shing intensity for high-trophic level ¢shes tripled during the ¢rst half of the time period and remained high during the last half of the time period. Comparing the ¢shing intensity to similar measures from 35 assessments of high-trophic level ¢sh populations from the North Atlantic, we conclude that the trends in the two data series are similar. Our results raise serious concern for the future of the North Atlantic as a diverse, healthy ecosystem; we may soon be left with only low-trophic level species in the sea.
The ocean is inextricably linked with the way we live. The EU-funded Horizon 2020 Project SOPHIE ... more The ocean is inextricably linked with the way we live. The EU-funded Horizon 2020 Project SOPHIE (Seas, Oceans and Public Health in Europe; https://sophie2020.eu/) is establishing the foundations for the future of Oceans and Human Health research in Europe through review, diverse community input, and discussion of strategy, to produce a strategic research agenda for Europe. SOPHIE is funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, grant agreement No. 774567. The meta-discipline of Oceans and Human Health (OHH) spans expertise in the marine, public health and medical fields, and social science, and explores the complex interactions between Ocean Health and Human Health. Key aspects for this field of research is ocean observation, and building the evidence base of data to start drawing concrete links between the impacts of the ocean on human health, and our impacts on ocean health. Only through better understanding of these complex linkages can both ...
The EurOCEAN 2019 conference took place on 11-12 June 2019 and was hosted by the Intergovernmenta... more The EurOCEAN 2019 conference took place on 11-12 June 2019 and was hosted by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France. The conference discussed the contribution of European marine science to the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), the Ocean Decade, and is recognised as a contribution to its preparatory phase. The conference highlighted the contribution of marine science to ongoing and future initiatives supported by the European Union Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation, including Horizon 2020 (2014-2020) and the forthcoming Horizon Europe (2021-2027). The Conference was co-organised by European Marine Board, the European Commission and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO. This document is the report of the conference. Possible solutions exist to the challenges the ocean face. However, these need to be aligned, implemented and enforced via holisti...
An important challenge for conserving and managing marine ecosystems is to advance our understand... more An important challenge for conserving and managing marine ecosystems is to advance our understanding of how multiple human stressors, environmental factors and marine resources interact and influence each other. The ecosystems of the Israeli Mediterranean coast have undergone significant ecological changes in recent decades caused primarily by the introduction of invasive species through the Suez Canal, intense fishing activities and the effects of climate change. An Ecopath model representing the continental shelf of the Israeli Mediterranean coast was calibrated and fitted to the available time series from early 1990's to 2010 using the Ecosim temporal dynamic modeling approach. The model was first used to explore the historical dynamics of the ecosystem considering the effect of invasive species, fishing activities and climate change (through changes in temperature and salinity) as the main ecosystem drivers. Secondly, different scenarios from early 1990's to 2010 were developed to evaluate historical cumulative effects of the different drivers. Historical model predictions satisfactorily matched available observed data, especially regarding the invasive groups. However, lack of data from the pelagic environment limited our ability to compare model output with historical observations. Overall, results showed an increasing proportion of invasive species in biomass and catch over time, with important effects on the food-web. Results also highlighted the important role that fishing activities and climate change are playing in the ecosystem through overexploitation and displacements of native groups, respectively. Results of the hypothetical scenarios highlighted the cumulative impacts of the stressors, suggesting synergistic effects in several cases between the impacts of invasive species, fishing and climate change.
Trophic level (TL)-based indicators have been widely used to examine fishing impacts in aquatic e... more Trophic level (TL)-based indicators have been widely used to examine fishing impacts in aquatic ecosystems and the induced biodiversity changes. However, much debate has ensued regarding discrepancies and challenges arising from the use of landings data from commercial fisheries to calculate TL indicators. Subsequent studies have started to examine survey-based and model-based indicators. In this paper, we undertake an extensive evaluation of a variety of TL indicators across 9 well-studied marine ecosystems by making use of model-as well as surveyand catch-based TL indicators. Using detailed regional information and data on fishing history, fishing intensity, and environmental conditions, we evaluate how well TL indicators are capturing fishing effects at the community level of marine ecosystems. Our results highlight that the differences observed between TL indicator values and trends is dependent on the data source and the TL cut-off point used in the calculations and is not attributable to an intrinsic problem with TLbased indicators. All 3 data sources provide useful information about the structural changes in the ecosystem as a result of fishing, but our results indicate that only model-based indicators represent fishing impacts at the whole ecosystem level.
Shin, Y-J., Bundy, A., Shannon, L. J., Simier, M., Coll, M., Fulton, E. A., Link, J. S., Jouffre,... more Shin, Y-J., Bundy, A., Shannon, L. J., Simier, M., Coll, M., Fulton, E. A., Link, J. S., Jouffre, D., Ojaveer, H., Mackinson, S., Heymans, J. J., and Raid, T. 2010. Can simple be useful and reliable? Using ecological indicators to represent and compare the states of marine ecosystems. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 67: 717–731. Within the IndiSeas WG, the evaluation of exploited marine ecosystems has several steps, from simple binary categorization of ecosystems to a more-complex attempt to rank them and to evaluate their status using decision-tree analyses. With the intention of communicating scientific knowledge to the public and stakeholders, focus is on evaluating and comparing the status of exploited marine ecosystems using a set of six ecological indicators and a simple and transparent graphic representation of ecosystem state (pie charts). A question that arose was whether it was acceptable to compare different types of marine ecosystems using a generic set of indicators. ...
Shin, Y-J., and Shannon, L. J. 2010. Using indicators for evaluating, comparing and communicating... more Shin, Y-J., and Shannon, L. J. 2010. Using indicators for evaluating, comparing and communicating the ecological status of exploited marine ecosystems. 1. The IndiSeas project. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 67: 686–691. One of the challenges faced by the scientific community grappling with the ecosystem approach to fisheries is to propose a generic set of synthetic ecological indicators, which would accurately reflect the effects of fisheries on marine ecosystems, and could support sound communication and management practices. The IndiSeas Working Group was established in 2005 under the auspices of the Eur-Oceans Network of Excellence to develop methods to provide indicators-based assessments of the status of exploited marine ecosystems in a comparative framework. Here, we present the two main outputs of the first phase of the project: a suite of papers documenting a combination of indicator-based methods and results comparing the ecological status of the world's exploited m...
. Which forcing factors fit? Using ecosystem models to investigate the relative influence of fish... more . Which forcing factors fit? Using ecosystem models to investigate the relative influence of fishing and changes in primary productivity on the dynamics of marine ecosystems.
Please note that this is an author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication following ... more Please note that this is an author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available on the publisher Web site.
Identifying existing initiatives in foresight in ocean observation, emerging strategies and roadm... more Identifying existing initiatives in foresight in ocean observation, emerging strategies and roadmaps.
There is a rich history in predicting ecological interactions in nature going back to the seminal... more There is a rich history in predicting ecological interactions in nature going back to the seminal work of Robert May. Historically, the use of models in ecological decision making has been centered on tools that require less data and are easier to communicate into policy. However, the explosion in the availability of ecological data, as well as the ready access to computer power, has opened the door to more detailed computation tools. This in turn has created a suite of questions about how and how much model-based projections can influence decision making in management of ecological resources. Here we address some of these issues particularly those created by model complexity, data quality and availability, and model acceptance by policy makers. Our goal is to use specific examples to critically examine these issues for both gaps and opportunities in how models can be used to inform decision making at the level of ecosystems and in the currency of ecosystem services to people.
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