Atlantis Ecosystem Model Summit: Report from a workshop

Abstract

Ecosystem models can be used to understand the cumulative impacts of human pressures and environmental drivers on ecosystem structure and dynamics. Predictive modeling can show how management can influence those dynamics and structures and the ecosystem services these systems provide. Many nations and intergovernmental organizations are advocating for ecosystem-based management, often with a specific emphasis to evaluate various future management strategies. Atlantis is an end-to-end ecosystem model that is well suited for this task and has so far been developed for more than 30 diverse marine ecosystems worldwide. To provide a better understanding of the current modeling work, elicit wider interest, and foster collaboration within the Atlantis community, the first international Atlantis Summit was convened in December 2015. The main outcomes from this workshop included a clearer framework and infrastructure for model development and collaboration; the opportunity to perform common scenarios with a range of Atlantis models to analyze ecosystem Highlights ► First International Atlantis Ecosystem Modeling Workshop convened in December 2015. ► It provided an overview of current Atlantis modeling work and fostered collaboration. ► Atlantis applications have matured as have ecosystem models for use in marine EBM.

Ocean Futures Under Ocean Acidification, Marine Protection, and Changing Fishing Pressures Explored Using a Worldwide Suite of Ecosystem Models

“…With various levels of complexity, these models provide a useful platform for exploring the effects of management options (Kaplan et al, 2012;Fulton et al, 2014). Atlantis (Fulton et al, 2004a(Fulton et al, , 2011, a three-dimensional, spatially-explicit end-toend ecosystem model, has seen worldwide application (currently 30 extant models, Weijerman et al, 2016b) since its development in the early 2000s (Fulton et al, 2011). Atlantis modeling does not attempt to find a single "optimal" management strategy, since there are often conflicting goals between conservation and extraction, but can quantitatively evaluate the socio-ecological tradeoffs of alternative management scenarios, functioning as an important decision-support tool.…”

“…Previous modeling case studies (Kaplan et al, 2012;Fulton et al, 2014), supported by field studies (Leslie et al, 2015), illustrate that no "silver bullet" EBM solution exists and that as humans continue to place increasing demands on the ocean we must expect tradeoffs among objectives (Link, 2010). At a strategic decision making level (i.e., 10+ year planning horizon that is of particular importance for sectoral EBM), case studies ranging from the USA West Coast to Antarctica (Kaplan et al, 2012;Weijerman et al, 2016b;Holsman et al, 2017;Longo et al, 2017), together with discussions of the main drivers influencing future state of the extant Atlantis ecosystem models, suggest that tradeoffs are particularly evident for the three following sets of scenarios in fisheries management:…”

Improving the spatial allocation of marine mammal and sea turtle biomasses in spatially explicit ecosystem models

“…The trophodynamic Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) with Ecospace approach (Walters et al 1999, Coll et al 2015, Colléter et al 2015 and the biogeochemical-based end-to-end Atlantis approach (Fulton et al 2011, Weijerman et al 2016 are among the most frequently used ecosystem modeling platforms. Both EwE with Ecospace and Atlantis represent all marine organisms, from bacteria and primary producers to apex predators.…”

Atlantis: A spatially explicit end‐to‐end marine ecosystem model with dynamically integrated physics, ecology and socio‐economic modules

“…Figure shows a map of the locations of existing models and their applications are summarized in the Table S1 of the User Guide (Supplement 1). A review of Atlantis applications is available in Fulton et al () and Weijerman et al (). An example list of findings from various applications is given in the Table S2 of the User Guide and the latest information on existing applications is available on https://research.csiro.au/atlantis/ and via the Atlantis Ecosystem Model google group (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/atlantis-ecosystem-model).…”