Ecosystem models of Lake Victoria (East Africa): Can Ecopath with Ecosim and Atlantis predict similar policy outcomes?

Natugonza, Vianny; Ainsworth, Cameron H.; Sturludóttir, Erla; Musinguzi, Laban; Ogutu‐Ohwayo, R.; Tómasson, Tumi; Nyamweya, Chrisphine S.; Stefansson, Gunnar

doi:10.1016/j.jglr.2019.09.018

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 52 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Similar studies that have been done in this field can be mentioned as Tajzadeh‐Namin et al (2020) in the northern Sea of Oman, Behera et al (2020) in the Chilika Lagoon, Adebola and Mutsert (2019) in the inshore waters of Nigeria, Li et al (2019) in Zhushanhu's rehabilitated ecosystem of Tai Lake, Natugonza et al (2019) in the Victoria Lake ecosystem (East Africa), Hakimelahi (2018) in the Persian Gulf, Dutta et al (2017) on the north shores of the Bay of Bengal in India, Razinkovas‐Baziukas et al (2017) in the Baltic Sea, Navarro et al (2017) in the northern Mediterranean, Behzadi (2016) in the Persian Gulf; Reinaldo et al (2016) in the San‐Matias Bay; Taghavi Motlagh et al (2015) in the Persian Gulf waters (Hormozgan, Bushehr, and Khuzestan); Webber et al (2015) in Foul and Folly Bays, Jamaica; and Taghavi Motlagh et al (2013) in the Persian Gulf (Hormozgan province).…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 59%

“…While such ecosystem models respond to a wide range of ecological, biological, and economic questions, they provide a holistic approach to the effects of human activities, including fisheries, on marine ecosystems (Michailidis et al, 2019). The key advantage of using such models in management programs is that they allow the users to evaluate the effects of human activities on the ecosystem in time and space as well as predict the indirect effects of management on the environment (Natugonza et al, 2019). Other advantages of these tools include estimating the dynamics and interactions of commercial and non‐commercial species, quantitative evaluation, and estimation of recent changes in trophic levels in food webs of aquatic ecosystems, and consequently, a better understanding of ecosystem structure and function, as well as the protection and management of sustainable use of the sea (Coll & Steenbeek, 2017; Stablera et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Trophic structure using ecological relationships between five dominant commercial fish in Kolahi to Dargahan

et al. 2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of frequent species population fluctuations and the impact of different rates of exploitation on other ecological links in the food web. The mass-balanced Ecopath model represents the trophic interactions among the 31 defined functional groups in the Kolahi to Dargahan area, with five main species, including Trichiurus lepturus, Saurida tumbil, Nemipterus japonicus, Sillago sihama, and Cynoglossus arel (from April 2018 to April 2019). To investigate the effects of fishing and environmental disturbances, the Ecopath modeling approach combines software for analyzing ecosystem trophic-level balances with population dynamic models. In the past 5 years, Hormozgan province has caught more than 45% of the benthic fish caught off the northern coasts of the Persian Gulf. From Kolahi to Dargahan, one of the most important fishing grounds in this province's southeast is located. Food web models are used to represent a marine system's current state, assess stock levels, and predict change over time. Over a year, the first five dominant fish in the study area, S. tumbil, S. sihama, C. arel, N. japonicus, and T. lepturus, were biometrically measured, and their population dynamics parameters as well as feeding ecology indices were analyzed. According to the trophic-level index results, the five most common species studied in this study belonged to the third (N. Japonicas, S. sihama, and C. arel) and fourth (T. lepturus, and S. tumbil) trophic levels. The key species with the greatest impact on other groups of studied species were identified as S. tumbil and T. lepturus, respectively. The estimated ecosystem indicators were the system operational power (75846.797), the primary production/respiration ratio (0.034), the connectance index (0.159), and the system omnivory index (0.253). A pedigree index (PI) of 0.38 was estimated for the present model. Overexploitation of T. lepturus could disrupt the aquatic food web and adversely affect the long-term sustainable use of aquatic resources, according to data. As a result, ecosystem-based fisheries management should be implemented to find a more appropriate solution to sustainable exploitation in the studied habitat, an important fishing area in the Persian Gulf's north.

show abstract

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 59%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Trophic structure using ecological relationships between five dominant commercial fish in Kolahi to Dargahan

et al. 2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This can lead to uncertainty in parameter estimates (13) and prompt some modelers to use "default" values (32). Given that model outcomes can be greatly altered, with multiplicative effects, by erroneous parameter estimates (33,34), models must be finely tuned to their specific system. EwE includes mechanisms to improve parameter estimates against data from the fisheries in question, but this further delimits investigations to specific systems studied and less toward understanding more universal underlying mechanisms driving the bio-economic feedback loop.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating economic dynamics into ecological networks: The case of fishery sustainability

Glaum

Cocco²,

Valdovinos

2020

Sci. Adv.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding anthropogenic impacts on ecosystems requires investigating feedback processes between ecological and economic dynamics. While network ecology has advanced our understanding of large-scale communities, it has not robustly coupled economic drivers of anthropogenic impact to ecological outcomes. Leveraging allometric trophic network models, we study such integrated economic-ecological dynamics in the case of fishery sustainability. We incorporate economic drivers of fishing effort into food-web network models, evaluating the dynamics of thousands of single-species fisheries across hundreds of simulated food webs under fixed-effort and open-access management strategies. Analyzing simulation results reveals that harvesting species with high population biomass can initially support fishery persistence but threatens long-term economic and ecological sustainability by indirectly inducing extinction cascades in non-harvested species. This dynamic is exacerbated in open-access fisheries where profit-driven growth in fishing effort increases perturbation strength. Our results demonstrate how network theory provides necessary ecological context when considering the sustainability of economically dynamic fishing effort.

show abstract

“…Victoria (Matsuishi et al, 2001;Natugonza et al, 2019;Natugonza et al, 2016), Lake Ayamé (Traore et al, 2008), Lake Koka (Tesfaye & Wolff, 2018) and Lake Kivu (Villanueva, Isumbisho, et al, 2008;. General characteristics of tropical reservoirs often differ remarkably, due to their highly dynamic nature, with water levels and biological productivity largely depending on the inflowing water.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative assessment of food web structure and fisheries productivity of three reservoirs in Ghana

Abobi

Kluger

Wolff

2021

Fisheries Management Eco

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Three Ghanaian reservoirs (Tono, Bontanga and Golinga) were compared through a food web modelling approach (Ecopath with Ecosim) to assess production characteristics and food web structures. The lakes differ in size and morphology, generating specific conditions for fish growth and production. While the two top fishery target species were Sarotherodon galilaeus (L.) and Oreochromis niloticus (L.) in all reservoirs, the mean trophic level of the catch was lowest in the largest and deepest reservoir (Tono) due to higher trophic level species occupying less accessible deep "refuge" habitats. The smallest lake had the highest fish production under optimal conditions of water supply (17.1 compared with 15.5 and 10.1 t/km 2 /year for lakes Bontanga and Tono), but it appears to be most vulnerable under conditions of drought. For the planning and construction of adequately sized reservoirs used for fishery and irrigation purposes, the water budget (ratio of inflow and evaporation) needs to be estimated.

show abstract

Ecosystem models of Lake Victoria (East Africa): Can Ecopath with Ecosim and Atlantis predict similar policy outcomes?

Cited by 13 publications

References 52 publications

Trophic structure using ecological relationships between five dominant commercial fish in Kolahi to Dargahan

Trophic structure using ecological relationships between five dominant commercial fish in Kolahi to Dargahan

Integrating economic dynamics into ecological networks: The case of fishery sustainability

Comparative assessment of food web structure and fisheries productivity of three reservoirs in Ghana

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About