Ecosystem-based fisheries management incorporates information about multiple species and their habitats and interactions into a more comprehensive and accurate system for keeping fisheries sustainable. This requires good comprehensive data and analyses of the interaction between species and environmental factors. This grant will support VIMS Ph.D. student Andre Buchheister working with Robert Latour to analyze extensive fish dietary data collected by the Chesapeake Bay Multispecies Assessment and Monitoring Program since 2002. This analysis will determine the food-web relationships between different fish species and allow examination of the effects of environmental factors such as fishing, weather, and food availability on fish species and their interactions.
Funded by the Virginia Sea Grant Coastal & Marine Science RFP
Project detail: Robert Latour (VIMS) and Andre Buchheister (VIMS). Food web structure in Chesapeake Bay and environmental effects on fish diets in support of ecosystem-based fisheries management.
