Evaluation of the vulnerability of species in the St. Lawrence System based on simple trait matching rules.
We infer the effects of drivers on species based on matching rules from expert knowledge and the scientific literature:
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Position in the water column – i.e. deep or surface-dwelling species – determines exposure to stressors.
- Acidification, hypoxia and bottom temperature anomalies are widespread in the deep layers of the St. Lawrence
- Surface temperature anomalies and shipping are prevalent in the surface layer
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Mobility determines vulnerability to hypoxia and temperature anomalies. Species with low mobility (score = 1) are assumed to be more affected than species with high mobility (score = .5).
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Ocean acidification affects carbonate-secreting organisms (e.g. mollusks and crustaceans; Kroeker et al. 2013);
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Shipping affects large surface-dwelling species such as marine mammals (Christiansen et al. 2013; Lesage et al. 2017);
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Fisheries affects captured species. Species affected are identified with landing data from the Department of Fisheries and Ocean’s Canada (DFO 2016). Score = 1 for targetted species, score = 0.75 for bycatch species.
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For demersal-destructive fisheries, perhaps add something with mobility for species exposed to fisheries. But perhaps bycatch sort of takes this into consideration already...
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The vulnerability of Zooplankton & Phytoplankton should also be characterized...
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Maybe multiply the vulnerability values for environment and mobility traits, rather than take the max
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For this analysis, we do not include the following stressors:
- Sea level rise. This stressors is not relevant for the species we are assessing because we do not include coastal environments, as data is limited in those habitats.
- Aquaculture. This stressor is very localized in the St. Lawrence and we will not consider it in this analysis.
- Toxic algae. This stressor is hard to predict and does not occur spatially with much certainty or reccurence.
- Invasive species. This stressor is dependent on the type of invaders and the ecological community it invades.