Comparison of Marine Ecosystems of NORWAY and the US II (MENU II)

Marine ecosystems the world over are experiencing increasing natural and anthropogenic forcing that may cause substantial change to the structure and function of these ecosystems. Society has recognized that living marine resources require management in a broader ecosystem context. This proposal follows on from the successful completion of the first MENU project, a joint undertaking between Norway and the US financed by the RCN. It conducted marine ecosystem comparisons based primarily on observational da ta for the eastern Bering Sea, the Gulf of Alaska, the Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank and the Norwegian and Barents seas. In MENU II, we plan to extend these comparative studies by using several different ecosystem models and expand the geographic coverage to include the Northern California Current, Southern New England, and the Middle Atlantic Bight in the US and the North Sea off Norway. We will apply four different modeling approaches and compare the structure and functioning of the ecosystems in this mann er. These approaches include ECOPATH, Multispecies production models, biophysical models and the ATLANTIS end-to-end system model. For the two former models there will be very little developments needed, but the ATLANTIS model has not been set up for Norw egian waters, and developing an ATLANTIS model for the Barents Sea will be a major part of the project. Ecosystem indicators are measures metrics that provide information on trends in important characteristics of the system. We will use indicators 1) for comparing models and ecosystems, 2) in assessment of ecosystem status, and 3) as a means to monitor model performance against observations. Indicators will therefore be the key metric for comparison between ecosystems as well as a link between the models and ecosystem management, and thus a core element of the proposal.