About the project
The SI “Trophic interactions in the Barents Sea - steps towards an Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (TIBIA)” at IMR is targeted towards the national strategy of redirecting the traditional single species perspective to ecosystem oriented research, assessment and management.
The SI will improve the knowledge base and national competence, theoretically, empirically and methodologically, on quantification of the trophic interactions in marine ecosystems, how they vary at different scales in time and space, and form the basis for biological production and harvest.
The study area is the Barents Sea, an important area with rich fisheries, and where other types of human activities such as oil and gas exploration and ship traffic may increase considerably in the future.
The results from the SI will improve the knowledge base throughout the range from single species to ecosystems and their management, and also feed into the assessments used as a basis for scientific management advice. The results will be used in integrated ecosystem assessments, taking a holistic approach to monitoring and assessment of the state and variability of the Barents Sea ecosystem. Overall, the SI can provide important parts of the basis for answering a range of management related questions in the context of the ecosystem approach to management.