Potential impacts of ocean acidification on the Puget Sound food web from a model study (NCEI Accession 0134852)

This archival package contains output from a study designed to evaluate the impacts of ocean acidification on the food web of Puget Sound, a large estuary in the northwestern USA. An Ecopath with Ecosim model of Puget Sound was forced with scenarios designed to mimic some of the biological consequences of ocean acidification, specifically the decline in the productivity of functional groups that contain mostly calcifiers. Other functional groups in the model were allowed to respond to the scenarios in a dynamic way through indirect effects. Model output was used to calculate percent change in biomass of various model functional groups and in fisheries yield between model runs with and without ocean acidification scenarios. This information yields insight into potential changes in ecosystem services and food web structure that may occur in the Puget Sound as acidification increases.