Ecospace is a versatile simulation and modeling tool that can be applied to a broad range of research and management questions that require inclusion of a spatially-explicit component. Before deciding to construct a relatively complex spatial-dynamic ecosystem model, one must critically assess whether the complexity of Ecospace is justified to answer the research questions at hand. Simpler tools may exist for applications that do not require explicit or implicit consideration of trophic interactions over time and space. For example, there are many species distribution models capable of predicting past and future spatial patterns of species abundance based solely on oceanographic variables, and there are approaches for simulating spatial harvest policies in single- and multi-species fisheries that do not require modeling complex species interaction processes. Marine spatial planning tools that combine spatial information on basic ecological processes, threats, and socio-economics are also available for conservation planning and optimization (e.g. Marxan with Zones). All these approaches are useful when interactions (trophic and non-trophic) among species are far less important than oceanographic or anthropogenic pressures in determining the spatio-temporal dynamics of species under study.

Yet, Ecospace is one of the few modeling frameworks that can combine species distributions, spatial harvest policies, and spatial planning while considering species interactions throughout complete marine food webs over space and time. Therefore, within a single modeling framework, Ecospace allows accounting for trophic dynamics, seasonality, primary production distributions, ecological niches, habitat suitability, environmental impacts, and species movement related to advection and migration, while also providing a suite of options (notably alternative future scenarios) to evaluate spatial-temporal management of fisheries and other anthropogenic pressures under a context of global change. It can therefore provide comprehensive assessments of ecosystem productivity, cumulative environmental and human impacts, and multi-sector tradeoffs that arise through food-web interactions in scenarios of multiple human activities.

However, the host of capabilities come with an added cost of increased complexity, increased needs for input parameters and validation data with associated uncertainty and data requirements, and computational demands that should be considered carefully prior to choosing Ecospace.

Adaption

The chapter was adapted, with permission, from:

De Mutsert K, Marta Coll, Jeroen Steenbeek, Cameron Ainsworth, Joe Buszowski, David Chagaris, Villy Christensen, Sheila J.J. Heymans, Kristy A. Lewis, Simone Libralato, Greig Oldford, Chiara Piroddi, Giovanni Romagnoni, Natalia Serpetti, Michael Spence, Carl Walters. 2023. Advances in spatial-temporal coastal and marine ecosystem modeling using Ecopath with Ecosim and Ecospace. Treatise on Estuarine and Coastal Science, 2nd Edition. Elsevier.