Towards predictive models for coastal marine ecosystems

Abstract

Examines 1) fish population biology and ecosystem properties, paying attention to the Peruvian upwelling system, the North Pacific, the North Atlantic, and recruitment variability; 2) theories of marine food webs, in terms of trophic dynamics, planktonic and benthic systems, terrestrial ecosystems and coastal macrophyte systems, and allometry as a general principle, with a practical example taken from the southern African coast; 3) moving between levels of organization, with reference to kelp bed and saltmarsh ecosystems; and 4) radical reassessment of predictive modelling, looking at the capacity for self-organization, and the English Channel ecosystem, kelp-sea urchin systems, and the Scotian Shelf ground fishery. -P.J.Jarvis