In Pursuit of Ecosystem-Based Management for Narragansett Bay: An Overview of Previous Models and Roadmap for Future Research

Figures & data

Table 1. Current data availability for Narragansett Bay (RI, USA) including model parameter, sampling frequency, data duration, and variables measured.

Model parameter	Institution name	Type of institution	Sampling frequency	Duration	Data type
Marine mammals	Save the Bay	Non-governmental Organization	Annual	1994–2021	Species, Abundance
Birds	RIDEM	Government	Annual	1980–2021	Species, Abundance
Fish	URI	Academic	Weekly, Trawl	1955–2021	Species, Abundance, Biomass, Surface and Bottom Temperature
Fish	RIDEM	Government	Monthly, Trawl	1990–2021	Species, Abundance, Biomass, Water Temperature (surface, bottom)
Fish	RIDEM	Government	Seasonal, Trawl (Spring/Fall)	1979–2021	Species, Abundance, Biomass, Water Temperature (surface)
Fish	RIDEM	Government	June-October, Seine	1988–2021	Species, Abundance, Water Temperature (surface), Weather Conditions, Salinity, Dissolved Oxygen
Crustacean	RIDEM	Government	Summer (June-August), Trap	2006–2021	Species, Abundance
Shellfish	RIDEM	Government	Seasonal (Summer/Fall), Dredge	1992–2021	Species, Abundance
Fisheries Catch—Recreational	RIDEM	Government	Bi-Monthly	1982–2021	Species, Abundance, Biomass, Effort
Fisheries Catch—Commercial	RIDEM	Government	Daily	2004–2021	Species, Biomass, Effort
Fisheries Catch—Commercial	RIDEM	Government	Annually	1950–2004	Species, Biomass
Benthos	EPA	Government	Every 5 years	2006–2021	Species, Biomass
Water Quality	EPA	Government	Every 5 years	2006–2021	P, N, Water Clarity, Chl a, DO
Sediment Quality	EPA	Government	Every 5 years	2006–2021	Sediment Contaminants, Sediment Toxicity
Phytoplankton	URI	Academic	Weekly	1955–2021	Species, Abundance, Water Temperature (surface, bottom), Irradiance, Salinity, DIN, Chl a
Zooplankton	URI	Academic	Weekly	1970–2021	Abundance, Biomass
Nutrients	URI	Academic	Weekly	1976–2021	Water Temperature (surface), Salinity, DIN, PO4, SiO4, TN, TP
Circulation	URI	Academic	Opportunistic^a	1995–2021	Flow velocity
Benthos	URI	Academic	Annually	2000–2021	Species, Abundance, Biomass, Water Temperature (surface)
Water Quality	URI	Academic	Every 15 mins	2000–2021	Water Temperature (surface), Salinity, pH, DO, Chl a
Benthic Metabolism	URI	Academic	Opportunistic^a	1970s–2021	Sediment oxygen demand, N2, DIN, PO4, and SiO4 fluxes
Macroalgae Blooms	URI	Academic	Monthly	2005–2021	Species, Abundance, Biomass

Data collection are conducted by various research groups including: University of Rhode Island (URI), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Coastal Condition Assessment (formerly, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program), Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM), and Save the Bay (a non-governmental organization).

^aOpportunistic sampling frequency means that these measurements are not taken on a regular basis but are instead project-specific and may occur numerous times one year, then not again for a few years.

Figure 1. Box model of different model classes identified for Narragansett Bay (RI, USA), as well as their connections to one another.

Table 2. Narragansett Bay (RI, USA) modeling studies and their details (class, inputs, and outputs), listed in chronological order of each model’s first iteration.

Model class	Model inputs			Model outputs	Reference	Topic
	Physical	Biological	Socioeconomic
Physical	Chemical concentrations			Diffusion rates of various tracer metals	Santschi et al. 1983, 1987	Mobility of radionuclides
	Fresh water input			Total flushing time of the bay	Pilson 1985	Bay-wide freshwater and salinity inputs
	Temperature; Light; pH			Sedimentation and filtration rates of clams	Doering and Oviatt 1986	Sedimentation and bivalve filtration
	Sediment porosity; organic matter content; particle mixing rates of individual organisms			Benthic bioturbation rates	Shull 2001	Sedimentation and bioturbation
	Embayment characteristics			Flushing and residence times	Abdelrhman 2005	Embayment flushing and residence time
	Surface area; Tidal range and phase; Ambient concentration; Annual load; Water depth at start			Biologically-significant exposure to nutrient or chemical loading	Abdelrhman 2007	Embayment residence and exposure time
	ROMS model of hydrodynamics			Spatio-temporal dynamics of salinity	Kremer et al. 2010 Ullman et al. 2019	Predicting advection and dispersion; hydrodynamics
	Various sources of nitrogen inputs			Total Nitrogen loading	Vadeboncoeur, Hamburg, and Pryor 2010	Nutrient loading
	Total N input; Tidal forcing and circulation			Benthic rates of bioturbation (i.e., depth of Oxygen penetration)	Abdelrhman and Cicchetti 2012	Nitrogen loading and bioturbation
	Colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM), Total suspended solid (TSS), and Chl-a pigment concentrations			Irradiance (light attenuation)	Abdelrhman 2016 Abdelrhman 2017	Light attenuation in the water column
	ROMS model of hydrodynamics	Larval behavior		Larval transport and retention	Mcmanus et al. 2020	Quahog larval transport and retention
Hydro-biogeochemical	Mixing/Flushing/Cycling; Irradiance (including light attenuation from self-shading); Temperature; Nutrients (N and P); Salinity	Primary production (including storage of excess nutrients); Zooplankton growth and grazing; Respiration; Decay		Zooplankton, phytoplankton, and/or macroalgae production and dynamics; Predict hypoxia (O2 levels) and simulate responses to nutrient reduction and climate change	Kremer and Nixon 1978 Kremer and Kremer 1982 Nixon, Granger, and Nowicki 1995 Brush et al. 2002 Brawley et al. 2003 Brush and Brawley 2009 Brush and Nixon 2010 Vaudrey 2016 Brush and Nixon 2017	Responses of lower-level trophic groups to physical forcing, nutrient cycling, food-web structure, growth, predation, respiration, decay
	Total suspended solids (TSS); Light	Phytoplankton chlorophyll		Contribution of TSS to declining chlorophyll concentrations	Borkman and Smayda 2016	Wastewater, water transparency, chlorophyll
Hydro-biogeochemical + Food-web	Nutrient upwelling time series and HYCOM model of temperature and salinity	Fish standing biomass (from bottom trawl surveys and stock assessments); Seal and whale abundance; Phytoplankton densities (remote sensing)	Catches (i.e., landings) and effort of 18 fishing fleets (amalgamated by gear and catch) taken from commercial fisheries data.	Biomass of different functional groups, charismatic species, and commercial catch; Ecosystem indicators (e.g., mean trophic levels, biomass as proportion of primary production; proportion overfished); Total catch value	Link et al 2010 Olsen et al. 2016	Full system model of the U.S. Northeast using ATLANTIS
Food-web + Economic Input-Output		Diet matrix; Biomass; Production/biomass; Consumption/biomass; Fisheries removals	County-level economic inputs and outputs for various industries and sectors	Carrying capacity of shellfish aquaculture; Output value and added employment in the aquaculture and other, supporting industries; ecosystem indicators (total biomass, catch, trophic level of catch, total production, consumption, respiration, throughput, PP:SP ratio)	Monaco and Ulanowicz 1997Byron et al. 2011 Byron et al. 2014 Innes-Gold et al. 2020	Modeling the bay food-web and its relation to aquaculture and fisheries using Ecopath with Ecosim
Agent-based		Piscivorous fish biomass	Revenue rates from previous fishing trips; History of fishing locations; Transit time; Lagged total effort; recreational fisher enthusiasm	Spatial distribution of trawl fishing effort; recreational catch of piscivorous fish, piscivorous and planktivorous fish biomass	Holland and Sutinen 1999 Innes-Gold et al. 2021	Commercial and recreational fishery behavior
Ecosystem services	Nutrient loading; Rain; Dissolved Oxygen	Fish abundance; algae blooms	Recreational fishing; Beach visitation / tourism; Agriculture fertilizer use; Wastewater treatment	Exploratory tool for policy makers for understanding environmental, social (recreational), and economic interactions on the system	Fiksel et al. 2014	Comparing management actions (waste treatment, sewage reduction, infrastructure development)

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