The community of plant and animal species which make up a marine food web, together with the physical oceanographic environment which defines its geographical limits, is referred to as an ecosystem.
Since all the species in an ecosystem are ultimately interconnected through the food web, anything that disturbs one part of the system can in principle cascade through the interconnecting predator-prey links and affect other parts.
There is growing pressure for managers of both fisheries and the environment to take account of the wider impact of human activity on the communities of animals and plants in the sea which make up marine ecosystems.
Marine Scotland, with the help of Marine Scotland Science colleagues, monitors and conducts research into many aspects of our marine ecosystems in order to enable better management of our resources in the future.
An ecosystem-based approach to fisheries or environmental management may involve adopting measures which minimise the impact on particular species, habitats or communities, such as:
or which try to control effects on the overall species diversity and productivity of the sea.
Understanding possible effects of particular management measures is complex, as the various species of plants and animals in a marine ecosystem are dependent upon, and interact with one another.
The problem is additionally complicated because natural changes in oceanography and climate also have a strong influence on the primary source of food in a marine ecosystem, the plankton communities, as well as having more direct effects on the abundance and productivity of the many plant and animal species which constitute a marine ecosystem.
Monitoring Scottish marine ecosystems, and the natural and man-made changes which they are undergoing, is an increasing challenge.
MSS undertakes a wide range of ecosystem monitoring activities, ranging from simple long-term temperature measurements to complex integrated physical and biological monitoring programmes. Results from our monitoring programmes are frequently updated on our monitoring web site, and published in annual status reports.
Interpreting the results of monitoring programmes, integrating the results of research, and applying the combined knowledge to management questions often relies on simulating the physical environment and biological systems in computer models. MSS also undertakes a range of physical, biological and ecosystem modelling.