Measuring sensitivity of two OSPAR indicators for a coastal food web model under offshore wind farm construction

Abstract

A combination of modelling tools was applied to simulate the impacts of the future Courseulles-sur-mer offshore wind farm construction (OWF) (Bay of Seine, English Channel) on the ecosystem structure and functioning. To do so, food-web models of the ecosystem under three scenarios were constructed to investigate the effect of added substrate (reef effect), fishing restriction (reserve effect), and their combined effect caused by the OWF. Further, Ecological Network Analysis indices and Mean Trophic Level (MTL) were derived to investigate their suitability for detecting changes in the ecosystem state. Our analyses suggest changes in the ecosystem structure and functioning after the OWF construction, the ecosystem maturity was predicted to increase, but no alterations in its overall resilience capacity.

The Merits of Loop Analysis for the Qualitative Modeling of Social-Ecological Systems in Presence of Offshore Wind Farms

“…The exploitation modifies the habitat and consequently engenders food webs with new characteristics, e.g., due to the reef effect (Raoux et al, 2017). During operation, the closure to fisheries in the surrounding of the OWF may mimic a marine protected area and, due to spillover mechanisms, generate a reserve effect (Raoux et al, 2019;Halouani et al, 2020).…”

Offshore Wind Development in the Northeast US Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem: Ecological, Human, and Fishery Management Dimensions

“…As an operational approach to ecosystem-based management, Integrated Ecosystem Assessment is a multi-step process that permits the evaluation of cross-sector trade-offs (Samhouri, et al, 2014; Figure 3). Approaches to including wind facility development into an Integrated Ecosystem Assessment framework in the United States would benefit from examining previous efforts at wind facilities elsewhere to link functional diversity with ecosystem services (Causon and Gill, 2018), to identify ecosystem indicators (Raoux et al, 2019), and to develop ecosystem simulation models (e.g., Pezy et al, 2018).…”

A spatial food web model to investigate potential spillover effects of a fishery closure in an offshore wind farm

“…Motivated by the urgent need to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) development has grown considerably in the last decade (Raoux et al, 2017(Raoux et al, , 2019. Of these technologies, Offshore Wind Farm (OWF) is a mature technology that has seen consistent growth in capacity and it is by far the most technically advanced of all MRE (Wilding et al, 2017).…”

“…Such trophic web models have been applied to provide global system indicators reflecting the structure and functioning of ecosystems. In addition, they can provide information on the overall ecosystem status and could be used as a baseline for EBM decisions (Raoux et al, 2019(Raoux et al, , 2017.…”

“…ENA indices were calculated under two scenarios ("before" and "after") corresponding to the current state and the operational phase of the OWF to analyze food web properties. One of the main results was that total ecosystem activity, recycling and ecosystem maturity increased after the construction of OWF (Raoux et al 2017(Raoux et al , 2019.…”