An overview of the marine food web in Icelandic waters using Ecopath with Ecosim

TL;DR

This study constructs and evaluates an Ecopath with Ecosim model of the Icelandic marine ecosystem from 1984 to 2013, revealing top-down control in harvested species and providing a tool for policy impact analysis.

Contribution

It presents a comprehensive Ecopath with Ecosim model of Icelandic waters, incorporating biomass, landings, and temperature data to analyze ecosystem interactions and fishing impacts.

Findings

Most groups exhibit top-down control over prey.

Model accurately simulates biomass and landings.

Model can inform future fishing policies.

Abstract

Fishing activities have broad impacts that affect, although not exclusively, the targeted stocks. These impacts affect predators and prey of the harvested species, as well as the whole ecosystem it inhabits. Ecosystem models can be used to study the interactions that occur within a system, including those between different organisms and those between fisheries and targeted species. Trophic web models like Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) can handle fishing fleets as a top predator, with top-down impact on harvested organisms. The aim of this study was to better understand the Icelandic marine ecosystem and the interactions within. This was done by constructing an EwE model of Icelandic waters. The model was run from 1984 to 2013 and was fitted to time series of biomass estimates, landings data and mean annual temperature. The final model was chosen by selecting the model with the lowest Akaike information criterion. A skill assessment was performed using the Pearson's correlation coefficient, the coefficient of determination, the modelling efficiency and the reliability index to evaluate the model performance. The model performed satisfactorily when simulating previously estimated biomass and known landings. Most of the groups with time series were estimated to have top-down control over their prey. These are harvested species with direct and/or indirect links to lower trophic levels and future fishing policies should take this into account. This model could be used as a tool to investigate how such policies could impact the marine ecosystem in Icelandic waters.