Humboldt Tipping participating at 35th Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) Anniversary gathering in Florida
Alonso del Solar, project member of Humboldt Tipping and working in WP 5, participated in the 35th Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) Anniversary gathering which took place in St. Petersburg, Florida, between the 4-11th of December. The event was hosted by the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.
Alonso presented a poster related to his ongoing work on Humboldt-Tipping. His work focusses on how to deal with ecological and socio-economic impacts caused by El Niño along the Peruvian coast. The effects of these impacts on one hand can be devastating in the tropical north, caused by torrential rains and physical destruction. On the other hand, the can be highly profitable in terms of an increase in Sea Surface temperature in the more temperate South.
He also works on questions related to fisheries and aquaculture activities affecting ecosystem structure, maturity and resilience in coastal bay areas of the Northern Humboldt current System, such as Sechura and Independencia. In both bays, upwelling has led to a very productive multi-species and multi-gear artisanal fishery and to the development of more recent marine aquaculture endeavours, mainly scallops.
Alonso´s study approach includes reconstructing and updating EwE models of both bays, and use ecosystem indices to compare them, to simulate temporal and spatial scenarios, and to explore relevant tipping-point configurations. Furthermore, he will couple EwE models with socio-economic models and fishers network analysis to evaluate management strategies in the context of tipping points.
Even though the data is still underway, he was able to present and discuss the main questions and ideas related to his PhD thesis and to the Humboldt-Tipping Project itself to an interested community of conference attendees and organizers.
