Modeling of Marine Ecosystems: Experience, Modern Approaches, Directions of Development (Review). Part 2. Population and Trophodynamic Models

Purpose. The paper presents the second part of the publications review devoted to the problems of marine ecosystem modeling. In this part, major attention is paid to modem approaches to the management of marine biological resources which implement the ecosystem principles of modeling and monitoring the spatial-temporal dynamics of water objects. Methods and Results. The review consists of three sections. The first one deals with the models for forecasting dynamics of the exploited populations and for optimizing fishery. The second section considers the trophodynamic models used to study the structure, productivity, and functional role of marine biota interacting with other species and environment at various trophic levels. The trophodynamic models are often applied both for assessing the impact of fishery on marine ecosystems, and for analyzing the influence of the factors directly or indirectly related to climatic variability and anthropogenic activity (eutrophication, salinity, environmental changes). The third section of the review is devoted to a relatively recent direction in marine ecosystem modeling which is based on the geoinformation systems. The onrush of the geo-information technologies permitting to connect the data both of the field observations and simulations with their geolocation had an impact on the achievements in the field of ecological modeling. Conclusions. In the coming years, the role of mathematical modeling in study and management of marine ecosystems will grow. The most important areas of research seem to be as follows: perfection of a model description of primary links in the marine ecosystem food webs (NPZD-models); the flows of matter and energy in the marine food chains; eutrophication and oxygen regime in the sea bays; distribution and transformations of pollutants, and their impact on ecosystems; functioning of marine reserves; the means of taking into account climatic factors in the ecosystem models; and application of space monitoring data for identifying and verifying the ecosystem individual components (chlorophyll, oil slicks, suspensions).