Data from: Interactive effects of predator and prey harvest on ecological resilience of rocky reefs

A major goal of ecosystem-based fisheries management is to prevent fishery-induced shifts in community states. This requires an understanding of ecological resilience: the ability of an ecosystem to return to the same state following a perturbation, which can strongly depend on species interactions across trophic levels. We use a structured model of a temperate rocky reef to explore how multi-trophic level fisheries impact ecological resilience. Increasing fishing mortality of prey (urchins) has a minor effect on equilibrium biomass of kelp, urchins, and spiny lobster predators, but increases resilience by reducing the range of predator harvest rates at which alternative stable states are possible. Size-structured predation on urchins acts as the feedback maintaining each state. Our results demonstrate that the resilience of ecosystems strongly depends on the interactive effects of predator and prey harvest in multi-trophic level fisheries, which are common in marine ecosystems but are unaccounted for by traditional management.基于生态系统的渔业管理（ecosystem-based fisheries management）的核心目标之一，是避免渔业活动引发的群落状态转变。这一目标的实现有赖于对生态恢复力（ecological resilience）的理解：即生态系统在遭受扰动后回归初始状态的能力，而该能力很大程度上取决于跨营养级的物种相互作用。本研究采用温带岩礁（temperate rocky reef）的结构化模型，探究多营养级渔业活动对生态恢复力的影响。提升猎物海胆（urchins）的捕捞死亡率（fishing mortality），对海带（kelp）、海胆以及棘龙虾捕食者的平衡生物量仅产生微弱影响，但可通过缩小可引发替代稳定态（alternative stable states）的捕食者捕捞率范围，增强生态恢复力。针对海胆的体型结构化捕食（size-structured predation）作为反馈机制，维持着各群落状态的稳定。研究结果表明，生态系统的恢复力在很大程度上取决于多营养级渔业中捕食者与猎物捕捞的交互效应；这类渔业在海洋生态系统（marine ecosystems）中十分常见，但传统管理并未将其纳入考量范畴。