Overfishing and regime shifts in minimal food web models

Á. Móréh; F. Jordán; A. Szilágyi; I. Scheuring

doi:10.1556/comec.10.2009.2.14

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Community Ecology

Volume/Issue:: Volume 10: Issue 2

Overfishing and regime shifts in minimal food web models

Authors:

Á. Móréh

Á. Móréh Eötvös University Department of Plant Taxonomy and Ecology Pázmány P. s. 1/c 1117 Budapest Hungary

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F. Jordán

F. Jordán

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A. Szilágyi

A. Szilágyi Eötvös University Department of Plant Taxonomy and Ecology Pázmány P. s. 1/c 1117 Budapest Hungary

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I. Scheuring

I. Scheuring Eötvös University and HAS Department of Plant Taxonomy and Ecology, Research Group of Theoretical Biology and Ecology Pázmány P. s. 1/c 1117 Budapest Hungary

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Pages:: 236–243

Online Publication Date:: 21 Dec 2009

Publication Date:: 01 Dec 2009

Article Category:: Journal Article

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1556/comec.10.2009.2.14

Keywords:: Food web; Overfishing; Regime shift; Small pelagics; Species replacement

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There is increasing evidence that regime shifts occur at several scales in ecosystems (from the spatiotemporal alternation of two species to large-scale, ecosystem-level rearrangements). Yet, the theoretical background for understanding these changes is far from clear. Since fishing down in marine ecosystems is well-documented trend, and its top-down cascading effects in food webs have been richly documented, it is a current question whether overfishing, in general, can also influence regime shifts at lower levels. We model simple marine ecosystems by dynamical food webs and investigate the probability of regime shifts emerging among primary consumers. We considered cases where only one of the primary consumers is persistent in the stationary state. By perturbing the death rates in the food web, we studied the circumstances when the previously persistent primary producer is indirectly changed by the previously non-persistent one. Whether and how regime shifts (e.g., change in primary consumers) can occur depends on (1) food web topology (presence of top-predator and alternative producer), (2) the relative strength of perturbation of primary consumers’ death rates, and (3) the dynamical parameters of the recovering consumer. We found that overfishing, food web topology and dynamical parameters together determine the probability of regime shifts. Thus, integrative and complex models are needed in multispecies fisheries.

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Community Ecology An Interdisciplinary Journal Reporting Progress in Community and Population Studies

Print ISSN:: 1585-8553

Online ISSN:: 1588-2756

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Community Ecology
Language	English
Size	A4
Year of Foundation	2000
Volumes per Year	1
Issues per Year	3
Founder	Akadémiai Kiadó
Founder's Address	H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245
Publisher	Akadémiai Kiadó Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Publisher's Address	H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245. CH-6330 Cham, Switzerland Gewerbestrasse 11.
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ISSN	1585-8553 (Print)
ISSN	1588-2756 (Online)