Spatial modelling of trophic interactions and fisheries impacts in coastal ecosystems: A case study of Sakumo Lagoon, Ghana
A trophic model of a small West African coastal lagoon (Sakumo Lagoon, near Tema, Ghana), consisting of 14 interacting functional groups, was constructed using the Ecopath approach and software, based on field data gathered in the early 1970s, and reflecting an early stage in the development of this now much-modified ecosystem. This trophic model, after some test runs with Ecosim, was used as a basis for an application of the ‘Ecospace’ routine of Ecopath, recently developed by Carl Walters, Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia. This generates plots of the relative biomasses of functional groups onto a grid map while accounting for their trophic interactions, their movements towards preferred habitats and the distribution of fishing effort. This example illustrates an approach that may be widely used to represent and analyse the coastal and marine ecosystems of the Gulf of Guinea and other areas where ‘ecosystem-based management’ is required, while data are sparse.
Read full paper https://doi.org/10.1016/S1570-0461(02)80043-X