2011 FUTURE workshop

Indicators of Status and Change within North Pacific Marine Ecosystems: A FUTURE Workshop

Timing: April 26–28, 2011

Location: East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A.
This workshop will be held in the Asia Room at the East-West Center (EWC) on the University of Hawaii campus, bus transportation between the Ala Moana Hotel and the venue will be provided.

Conveners: Thomas Therriault (AICE-AP; Canada), Jacquelynne King (COVE-AP; Canada) and Sachihiko Itoh (Japan)

Workshop Description
Ecosystems are affected by a number of natural stressors and, more recently, an increased number of anthropogenic ones. Ultimately, these stressors result in changes to ecosystem structure and function, which in turn can affect their overall productivity and the societies that depend on them. Metrics of ecosystem status are required to measure impacts of stressors and monitor change. Ecosystem indicators also could be used to identify systems that are resilient or vulnerable to stressors.

One of the themes of the PICES FUTURE Science Plan focuses on ecosystem resiliency and vulnerability to stressors and how these attributes might change in the in the future. In order to ensure scientists have the ability to detect ecosystem-level changes in a consistent and standardized way, common metrics must be developed. Further, in an attempt to understand the amount of inherent variability in marine ecosystems, these metrics also need to incorporate measures of uncertainty that can be conveyed to end users, including managers and policy makers.

The goals of this workshop will be to identify:
1) means of determining ecosystem resilience or vulnerability;
2) ecosystem-level indicators of status and change, including but not limited to fisheries-based indicators;
3) methods to characterize uncertainty in these indicators;
4) common ecosystem indicators to be used for regional comparisons by the PICES’ community.

Please review the FUTURE Science Plan prior to this workshop (FUTURE). It outlines the key research questions (on pages 3-4) that underlie the objectives of this workshop.

List of participants

Abstracts

Discussion Elements

Presentations

Day 1: Ecosystem-level Indicators and Assessments

Invited Speaker: Dr. Marta Coll Mónton, Institute of Marine Science, Barcelona, Spain
The IndiSeas experience to evaluate and communicate the ecological status of exploited marine ecosystems using data-based indicators, and additions from food-web modeling exercises ( pdf, 3.2 Mb )

Phillip Levin
A framework for selection of ecosystem indicators for the California Current and Puget Sound Integrated Ecosystem Assessments ( pdf, 1.5 Mb )

Thomas Kline
Natural Stable Isotope Abundance as an Indicator of Status and Change within North Pacific Marine Ecosystems ( pdf, 1.8 Mb )

Hiroaki Saito
Temporal Succession of Ecosystem Structure in the Kuroshio Extension Region: Are Gelatinous Zooplankton Species Indicators of Ecosystem Status? ( pdf, 1 Mb )

Begoña Santos
Marine Ecosystem Indicators in Europe 1 – The Marine Strategy Framework Directive and ICES ( pdf, 0.4 Mb )

Invited Speaker: Dr. Jake Rice , Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Ottawa
Performance Testing of Indicators: From Telling Stories to Informing Decisions ( pdf, 0.5 Mb )

Takafumi Yoshida
New Marine Environmental Assessment Method for Toyama Bay, Japan ( pdf, 1.3 Mb )

Stephani Zador
A recent indicator-based assessment of the eastern Bering Sea ( pdf, 0.7 Mb )

Day 2: Ecosystem Resilience & Indicator Uncertainty

Ecosystem Resilience

Invited Speaker: Dr. Beth Fulton, CSIRO, Hobart, Australia
Resilience - do we know enough to say we're monitoring it? ( pdf, 2.1 Mb )

Indicator Uncertainty

Invited Speaker: Dr. Sarah Gaichas, Alaska Fishery Science Center, Seattle, USA
Uncertainty in ecosystem indicators: known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns ( pdf, 2.2 Mb )

Mark Dickey-Collas
Marine Ecosystem Indicators in Europe 2 – Investigating reference levels to define good environmental status

Isaac Kaplan
Performance Testing of Ecosystem Indicators at Multiple Spatial Scales for the California Current ( pdf, 1.1 Mb )

Sinjae Yoo
Ecosystem status assessment in Korea ( pdf, 1.2 Mb )

Jay Peterson
Indicators of Ocean Conditions in the Northern California Current ( pdf, 0.8 Mb )

Summary Report of Workshop (doc, pdf, < 1 Mb)