“Meso-Marine Ecosystems”: ManagementUnits for the North Pacific?

W. Sydeman1, S. Batten2, D. Hyrenbach 1, M. Henry1,

C. Rintoul1, D. Welch3, K. Morgan4

1PRBO Conservation Science, Petaluma, CA, U.S.A.

2 SAHFOS, Plymouth, U.K.3Kintama Research, Nanaimo, B.C., Canada

4Canadian Wildlife Service, Sidney, B.C., Canada

Macroecology as a Cornerstone forEcosystem-based Management

• EBM requires identification of appropriate areas for management and human (stakeholder) involvement

• Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) have been suggested as appropriate for EBM, but may not reflect the extent of ecosystems (too large/too small? ecotones/edges?) or the scales of significant ecosystem and human interactions

• Therefore, macroecological investigations within and across LME on community structure, biodiversity, and scale-dependent ecological interactions (temporal and spatial) are required to define eco-regions for management

HypothesisTop predator (marine bird) and plankton

“communities” may be used to delineate North Pacific eco-regions

• Why? Indicators of habitats on multiple scales (water masses to “hotspots”, persistent and ephemeral ecosystem structures (e.g., fronts/eddies)• Indicators of temporal environmental variability (e.g., ENSO, regime shifts, climate change), and effects on food webs

…a slight digression…

The Atlantic Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) Project

Long-term ocean ecosystem monitoring (initiated in ~1930 by SAHFOS)

Marine ecology, climate change, fisheries management, biogeography, etc.

A CPR is a simple, rugged, mechanical device, towed behind merchant ships, that filters plankton

from the seawater

Samples in North Atlantic database (to 2005);imagine the same thing for the North Pacific

Beaugrand et al. 2003 Nature 426, 661-664.

Fisheries Forecasting Application, North Sea

The Pacific CPR Survey (2000 - ?)

-220 -200 -180 -160 -140 -120

40

50

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Both North – South and East – West Transects

Batten, S.D., D.Welch and D. Mackas, PIs

The East – West Transect , 7500 km

Integrated Pacific CPR – Marine Bird andMammal Survey (E-W transect only)

Motivation: study upper- and lower trophic levels simultaneously 4+ years (June 02 – present)

12 integrated predator/plankton surveys (166 sea days; ~23,000 km, database available, NPRB)

Batten, S.D., et al. 2006. Characterising Meso-Marine Ecosystems (MME) in the

North Pacific.

Deep Sea Research II 53:270-290

1. plankton and seabird “ecoregions” match in space (spring 02)

2. plankton and seabird biomass positively correlated 3. ecoregions explained by physical environment 4. 10 “MMEs” (potential management regions) identified

140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210 220 230 240

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June 2002

Question for today:

Are plankton/seabird MMEs persistent between seasons and years?

Plankton: 5 years, Summer, Presence /Absence…

Seabirds: 4 years, Spring-Summer-Fall; Relative density of 23 “common” species

Hierarchical Clustering

Methods

Plankton, All Years (dots replaced with

lines)

140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210 220 230 240

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50

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NOTE: a cluster color from one year to the next does not represent a particular community – colors show eco-regions not specific

“communities” between years

12

34/5

6

7/8/9?

10

Ben Saenz

The Birds…

9 ecoregions

8 ecoregions

1. Season: little persistence in ecoregions

2. Yearly: moderate persistence; most ecoregions represented annually, with less variation in frequency

3. More variation across seasons than years

Spring

Bubble size proportional to frequency

Seabird Community Structure Through Time

Summary and Conclusions(1) Plankton, seabird communities reveal persistent eco-regions in GOA,

central Bering, greater heterogeneity in West

• coastal B.C., Gulf of Alaska “east”, Gulf of Alaska “west”) – 3 eco-regions (persistent)

• Unimak Pass Area – 1 or 2 ecoregions (ecotone)

• Central Bering Sea – 1 ecoregion (persistent)

• coastal Japan; Oyashio/western subarctic gyre and western Bering Sea - 2-4 ecoregions (not persistent) Why? Diversity? Greater response to climate?

• 7 – 10 eco-regions along this E-W transect

(2) That being said, area boundaries unclear – continuum in community structure, messy (especially highly-mobile birds)

(3) Integrated CPR Survey ideal for determining eco-regions and appropriate spatial units for management; however, future of survey is uncertain……