Bridging the gap from ocean models to population dynamics of large marine predators: A model of mid-trophic functional groups

By P. Lehodey, Raghu Murtugudde, I. Senina. 2010

163 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The modeling of mid-trophic organisms of the pelagic ecosystem is a critical step in linking the coupled physical–biogeochemical models to population dynamics of large pelagic predators. Here, we provide an example of a modeling approach with definitions of several pelagic mid-trophic functional groups. This application includes six different groups characterized by their vertical behavior, i.e., occurrence of diel migration between epipelagic, mesopelagic and bathypelagic layers. Parameterization of the dynamics of these components is based on a temperature-linked time development relationship. Estimated parameters of this relationship are close to those predicted by a model based on a theoretical description of the allocation of metabolic energy at the cellular level, and that predicts a species metabolic rate in terms of its body mass and temperature. Then, a simple energy transfer from primary production is used, justified by the existence of constant slopes in log–log biomass size spectrum relationships. Recruitment, ageing, mortality and passive transport with horizontal currents, taking into account vertical behavior of organisms, are modeled by a system of advection–diffusion-reaction equations. Temperature and currents averaged in each vertical layer are provided independently by an Ocean General Circulation Model and used to drive the mid-trophic level (MTL) model. Simulation outputs are presented for the tropical Pacific Ocean to illustrate how different temperature and oceanic circulation conditions result in spatial and temporal lags between regions of high primary production and regions of aggregation of mid-trophic biomass. Predicted biomasses are compared against available data. Data requirements to evaluate outputs of these types of models are discussed, as well as the prospects that they offer both for ecosystem models of lower and upper trophic levels.

Subfields: Ecology, Global and Planetary Change

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/223d9337facb4e34f648b1ad78b7587d3ecdcc2d

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In Ecology

1. I. Senina
2. S. Nicol
3. B. Calmettes
4. J. Hampton
5. P. Lehodey
6. A. Lorrain
7. J. Llopiz
8. J. Young

In Global and Planetary Change

1. I. Senina
2. S. Nicol
3. B. Calmettes
4. J. Hampton
5. P. Lehodey
6. J. Llopiz
7. J. Young
8. C. Choy

Citations in the corpus

• The trophodynamics of marine top predators: Current knowledge, recent advances and challenges (2015, background): “…has increasingly been highlighted, either through closer examinations of primary or secondary producers (e.g. Griffiths et al., 2013; Kloser et al., 2009; Miller et al., 2010; Polovina et al., 2011; Polovina and Woodworth, 2012) or through explicit calls from modellers (Lehodey et al., 2010).”
• Modelling the impact of climate change on Pacific skipjack tuna population and fisheries (2013, methodology): “The mid-trophic level model (Lehodey et al. 2010a) describes vertical and horizontal dynamics of prey groups.”
• Developing integrated models of Southern Ocean food webs: Including ecological complexity, accounting for uncertainty and the importance of scale (2012, unknown): “This type of linked model structure will implicitly include interaction effects that encompass a wide range of scales (e.g. Lehodey et al., 2008, 2010).”