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XIII Reunión del Foro Científico sobre la pesca española en el Mediterráneo, 20-21 de septiembre de 2022, La Ràpita.-- 6 pages, 2 figures, El mar Mediterráneo contiene entre el 7 y el 10 % de la biodiversidad marina del planeta y sostiene una actividad pesquera importante tanto a nivel social como económico. [...]

31 figures, 6 tables, The advancement of ecosystem-based management of aquatic ecosystems should no longer be limited by a lack of tools. However, a lack of comprehensive understanding of the capabilities of existing tools can form a barrier for uptake. With this chapter, we strive to more fully describe one of these tools, the spatial-temporal ecosystem model Ecospace, which is part of the Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) ecosystem modeling approach and software. Changes and developments in Ecospace have been faster than documented in recent years. Many features of Ecospace, including the most recent that have not been described before, are detailed in this chapter. The applications highlighted showcase the multitude of uses of the spatial application of EwE, which, especially due to expansion of the capabilities to incorporate the effects of environmental change, has facilitated its use outside of fisheries management to protection of biodiversity, ecosystem restoration and environmental impact assessment. New applications of Ecospace can truly contribute to advance modeling of cumulative impacts and management alternatives in marine ecosystems, and can be of interest to inform sectoral and intersectoral policy, KdM acknowledges the funding provided through her early-career research fellowship of the National Academies of Sciences’ Gulf Research Program. MC and JS wish to acknowledge funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 817578 (TRIATLAS project) and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation grant agreement N° PID2020-118097RB-I00 (ProOceans). JS, JJH and VC acknowledge funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101000302 (EcoScope) and MC from No 869300 (FutureMares project). VC also acknowledge support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Discovery Grant RGPIN-2019-04901, With the institutional support of the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S)

VIII International Symposium on Marine Sciences, 6-8 July 2022, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, España, Marine species are widely threatened by anthropogenic activities, including fishing and human-induced climate change. However, geographically broad and spatiallyexplicit assessments of the simultaneous impacts of these major threats at regional scales are mostly lacking due to the practical challenges of surveying vast geographical areas and obtaining adequately resolved data. Yet, these assessments are key for identifying highly and cumulatively impacted areas and species that should be prioritized for conservation through knowledge-based management strategies. Here, we analysed a 26-year (1993-2018) time series of highly-resolved remotely sensed environmental data to evaluate changes in optimal habitat availability (i.e., extent of marine areas encompassing optimal environmental conditions) for 15 species of small, medium and large pelagic fish inhabiting the Mediterranean Sea Large Marine Ecosystem. We then combined spatial and temporal data on fishing pressure and changes in optimal habitats to identify areas of high risk of cumulative impacts. Overall, results showed how most of the Mediterranean pelagic species went through a reduction of optimal habitat availability over the past decades. The few species that showed positive trends in optimal habitat availability did not expand largely and hence were unlikely to compensate for the loss of key functional roles at the group level. Habitat loss concentrated in the western and central basins. Similarly, fishing pressure was found to be the highest in both basins, thus overlapping with the areas experiencing a higher reduction of optimal habitat. Small and large pelagic fish were the most impacted groups, having a larger proportion of their distribution in highly, cumulative impacted areas. Redistributing fishing pressure and reducing it in highly impacted areas may alleviate the overall cumulative pressure on pelagic stocks, contributing to the necessary shift to sustainable and resilient fisheries that allow ensuring food security and achieving a healthy ecosystem in this “sea under siege”, JO was supported by Universitat de Barcelona through the PREDOCS-UB grant (2021). MC received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N° 869300 (FutureMARES project). FR was supported by the Spanish government through the 'Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence' accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S)

VIII International Symposium on Marine Sciences, 6-8 July 2022, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, España, The Mediterranean Sea is characterized by a strong seasonality impacting species distribution and community dynamics, which may have implications for the structure and functioning of the marine ecosystem. However, there is generally a lack of seasonal data for marine organisms, which results in ecosystem assessments being based on estimates from specific times of the year, not accounting for seasonality. In this study, we investigated changes in ecosystem structure and functioning when using seasonal input data vs annual averages for a marine ecosystem in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. We used data from two oceanographic surveys conducted in winter and summer 2013 in the southern Catalan Sea (Spain). We then used the Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) modelling approach to develop three mass-balanced ecosystem models that represented two contrasting seasons, (winter and summer) and an annual average. We used ecological indicators related to ecosystem structure, functioning traits and energy flow to compare and explore changes derived from these three ecosystem representations, and found variations in ecosystem structure and energy transfer. We discuss the implications that the use of data from a specific time of the year in ecosystem models may have on our understanding of ecosystem ecology. Our results highlight the need to conduct seasonal oceanographic surveys to capture seasonality dynamics when modelling marine coastal areas

This 2021 presentation provides a quick overview of the Ecospace model and its capabilities. Ecospace is the spatial-temporal module of the Ecopath with Ecosim food web modelling approach.

The ICES Working Group on Ecosystem Assessment of Western European Shelf Seas (WGEA-WESS) aims to provide high quality science in support to holistic, adaptive, evidence-based man-agement in the Celtic seas, Bay of Biscay and Iberian coast regions. The group works towards developing integrated ecosystem assessments for both the (i) Celtic Seas and (ii) Bay of Biscay and Iberian Coast which are summarized in the Ecosystem Overviews (EOs) advice products that were recently updated. Integrated Trend Analysis (ITA) were performed for multiple sub-ecoregions and used to develop an understanding of ecosystem responses to pressures at varying spatial scales. Ecosystem models (primarily Ecopath with Ecosim; EwE) were developed and identified for fisheries and spatial management advice. The updated Celtic Seas EO represents a large step forward for EOs, with the inclusion of novel sections on climate change, foodweb and productivity, the first application of the new guidelines for building the conceptual diagram, inclusion of socio-economic indicators, and progress made toward complying with the Transparent Assessment Framework (TAF). We highlight ongoing issues relevant to the development and communication of EO conceptual diagrams. A common methodology using dynamic factor analysis (DFA) was used to perform ITA in a comparable way for seven subregions. This was supported by the design and compilation of the first standardized cross-regional dataset. A comparison of the main trends evidenced among subregions over the period 1993–2020 was conducted and will be published soon. A list of available and developing EWE models for the region was also generated. Here, we re-port on the advances in temporal and spatial ecosystem modelling, such as their capacity to model the impacts of sector activities (e.g. renewables and fisheries) and quantify foodweb indi-cators. We also reflect on model quality assessment with the key run of the Irish sea EwE model. The group highlighted the hurdles and gaps in current models in support of EBM, such as the choice of a relevant functional, spatial, and temporal scales and the impacts of model structure on our capacity to draw comparisons from models of different regions. The group aims to ad-dress these issues in coming years and identify routes for ecosystem model derived information into ICES advice. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion