Effects of harvest and climate change on polar marine ecosystems : case studies from the Antarctic Peninsula and Hudson Bay ...
This thesis applies food web modelling to increase our understanding of how the interaction of climate change and exploitation have historically altered, and continue to alter, marine polar ecosystems. Understanding stressors responsible for ecosystem level changes is important not only to the peopl...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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University of British Columbia
2012
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| Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0105170 https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0105170 |
| Summary: | This thesis applies food web modelling to increase our understanding of how the interaction of climate change and exploitation have historically altered, and continue to alter, marine polar ecosystems. Understanding stressors responsible for ecosystem level changes is important not only to the people and industries reliant on the resources, but for managers to make future decisions on resource uses. The first two chapters develop models of Hudson Bay (Arctic) and Antarctic Peninsula (Antarctic) marine ecosystems, focused on re-creating changes in the past 30 years. Both ecosystems have undergone changes due to environmental factors, which are incorporated into the models. While the Hudson Bay model exhibits a shift from benthic to pelagic species, the Antarctic Peninsula model is identified to have more uniform declines across all species, as the main trophic link in the ecosystem, Antarctic krill declines. Model simulations are continued in the next two chapters, whereby future environmental changes are ... |
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