Coastal News Today | RI - Scientists Create Models to Simulate Narragansett Bay s Changing Food Web coastalnewstoday.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from coastalnewstoday.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
pose with one of the fish they studied to develop a model of the
Narragansett Bay food web. (Photo courtesy of Maggie Heinichen)
A team of scientists at the University of Rhode Island is creating a series of
computer models of the food web of Narragansett Bay to simulate how the
ecosystem will respond to changes in environmental conditions and human uses.
The models will be used to predict how fish abundance will change as water
temperatures rise, nutrient inputs vary, and fishing pressure fluctuates.
“A model like this allows you to
test things and anticipate changes before they happen in the real ecosystem,”
URI graduate students Annie Innes-Gold and Maggie Heinichen pose with one of the fish they studied to develop a model of the Narragansett Bay food web. (Photo courtesy of Maggie Heinichen)
KINGSTON, R.I. – December 11, 2020 – A team of scientists at the University of Rhode Island is creating a series of computer models of the food web of Narragansett Bay to simulate how the ecosystem will respond to changes in environmental conditions and human uses. The models will be used to predict how fish abundance will change as water temperatures rise, nutrient inputs vary, and fishing pressure fluctuates.
“A model like this allows you to test things and anticipate changes before they happen in the real ecosystem,” said Maggie Heinichen, a graduate student at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography. “You want to be able to prepare for changes that are likely to happen, so the model provides a starting point to ask questions and see what might happen if different actions are taken.�