Working Group 36: Common Ecosystem Reference Points across PICES Member Countries
Terms of Reference
  1. Outline each country’s mission, goals, and governmental science plans that point to the establishment of reference points across PICES member nations, and identify those that are comparable. (Intersessional / Yr1)
  2. Summarize previous efforts identifying data availability for geographic areas and time periods of particularly strong climate influence and dependence on marine systems within specific North Pacific ecosystems, fish stocks, and fishing communities. This will build upon indicators identified via WG-19, WG-28, S-HD and WG-35 (NPESR-3). Determine a subset (or not) of ecosystems and indicators that will be the focus of WG activities. (Intersessional / Yr 1)
  3. Summarize and select previous methods for determining thresholds (both non-linear and societal limits) in ecosystem indicators. This would include statistical and objective-based approaches (Intersessional / Yr 1)
  4. Determine shapes or functional forms of driver - response relationships from available datasets, and quantify thresholds to identify potential ecosystem reference points. (Yr 2)
  5. Identify ecosystem components that respond earliest to changes in biophysical drivers and could potentially serve as leading indicators of loss of resilience and ecosystem change. (Yr 3)
  6. Develop a “heuristic model” to examine drivers (climate forcing, fishing) and ecosystem response using selected ecosystem reference points for member nations. (Yr 3)
  7. Publish final report.
Products
Annual Meetings

Reports

2020, 2019, 2018, 2017

Session and Workshop Summaries

PICES-2019:
S6, Identifying thresholds and potential leading indicators of ecosystem change: The role of ecosystem indicators in ecosystem-based management
W13, Common ecosystem reference points

PICES-2018:
W5, Identifying common reference points and leading indicators of ecosystem change

PICES-2017:
S3, Below and beyond maximum sustainable yield: Ecosystem reference points

Symposia / Inter-sessional Workshops

W11, Quantifying thresholds in driver-response relationships to identify reference points, 2018, PICES/ICES/IOC/FAO 4th Symposium on Effects of climate change on the world's oceans

PICES Press

Summer 2018, Vol. 26, No. 2
ECCWO-4 Workshop on Quantifying thresholds in driver-response relationships to identify reference points

Journal Paper
Council additionally approved US$2500 for Open Access fees for
Quantifying ecosystem responses to environmental and human pressures in the marine ecosystem off the west coast of Vancouver Island (Jennifer L. Boldt, Elliott L. Hazen, Mary E. Hunsicker, Caihong Fu, R. Ian Perry, Xiujuan Shan).
Ecological Indicators,Vol. 132, 2021
Scientific Report (FINAL PRODUCT)
PICES Sci. Rep. No. 64
Mary E. Hunsicker, Jennifer L. Boldt, Robert Blasiak, Elliott L. Hazen, Vladimir V. Kulik, Jongseong Ryu, Xiujuan Shan, Shion Takemura and Kazumi Wakita (Eds.) 2022
Report of Working Group 36 on Common Ecosystem Reference Points across PICES Member Countries
PICES Members as of January 2022
Dr. Jennifer L. Boldt
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Pacific Biological Station
3190 Hammond Bay Rd.
Nanaimo, BC
Canada V9T 6N7
Jennifer.Boldt@dfo-mpo.gc.ca

Dr. Robert Blasiak
Laboratory of Global Fisheries Science
The University of Tokyo
1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku
Tokyo, Japan 113-8657
robert.blasiak@su.se

Dr. Shion Takemura
Socio-Ecological Systems Division, Fisheries Stock Assessment Center, Fisheries Resources Institute
Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency (FRA)
2-12-4 Fukuura, Kanazawa-ku
Yokohama, Kanagawa
Japan 2368648
shiontakemura@affrc.go.jp

Dr. Kazumi Wakita
School of Marine Science and Technology
Tokai University
3-20-1 Orido, Shimizu-ku
Shizuoka, Japan 424-8610
kazumiw@tokai-u.jp

Dr. Yanbin Gu
Ecological Labs
National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center (NMEMC), MEE
42 Linghe St., Shahekou District
Dalian, Liaoning
PR China 116023
ybgu@nmemc.org.cn

Dr. Xiujuan Shan
WG-36 Co-Chair
Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, CAFS
106 Nanjing Rd., Shinan District
Qingdao, Shandong
PR China 266071
shanxj@ysfri.ac.cn

Prof. Jongseong Ryu
Department of Marine Biotechnology
Anyang University (Ganghwa campus)
602-14, Jungang-no, Bureun-myeon,
Ganghwa-gun, Incheon
R Korea 23038
jsryu90@gmail.com

Dr. Sangchoul Yi
Common Ecosystem Reference Points across PICES Member Countries
Korea Maritime Institute (KMI)
26, Haeyang-ro 301beon-gil, Yeongdo-gu
Busan, R Korea 49111
yi1@kmi.re.kr

Dr. Vladimir V. Kulik
Laboratory for biological resources of the Far-Eastern and Arctic Seas
Pacific branch (TINRO) of the Russian Federal Research Institute Of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO)
4 Shevchenko Alley
Vladivostok, Primorsky Kray
Russia 690091
vladimir.kulik@tinro-center.ru

Dr. Elliott Lee Hazen
Environmental Research Division
Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC), NMFS, NOAA
99 Pacific St., Suite 255A
Monterey, CA
U.S.A. 93940
elliott.hazen@noaa.gov

Dr. Mary Hunsicker
WG-36 Co-Chair
Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC), NMFS, NOAA
Hatfield Marine Science Center
2032 S. OSU Dr.
Newport, OR
U.S.A. 97365
Mary.Hunsicker@noaa.gov