Virtual Ecosystem Scenario Viewer (VES-V) – Software for Visualizing the Results of Ecosystem Modeling Outputs

Successfully managing and recovering marine species requires us to understand the entire ecosystem and the suite of impacts on their survival. NOAA Fisheries is using sophisticated ecosystem modeling tools, coupled with input from stakeholders, to explore the tradeoffs inherent in natural resource management decisions. The models incorporate classic population biology and a range of climate, environmental, ecological and human impacts to the ocean. These models provide essential data for making well informed decisions. The complexity that makes these models so robust limits the ability of most audiences to understand and use the information provided. This new tool aims to show the results of those dynamics in an easy-to-view manner.

The Virtual Ecosystem Scenario Viewer (VES-V) illustrates the responses of virtual marine ecosystems to a range of living marine resource management scenarios. Visualizations help audiences see the application of models in the work of managing marine resources. This tool further helps audiences explore tradeoffs among scenarios in future living marine resource management decisions for our nation’s large marine ecosystems. The main purpose of this tool is to demonstrate how we can better present and visualize marine ecosystems, their marine resources, and their collective responses to a range of pressures.

Although the results provided here have been published and reviewed, they are not intended for tactical management decision-making. Rather, these results are intended to describe in general terms what might happen to an entire system of species across a range of different options, conditions, and scenarios.

As we continue to develop this tool, we solicit your input. For example, if you have ideas on how to make VES-V better, what scenarios we should run, or feedback on how we can better present the dynamics of living marine resources in our shared ecosystems, please let us know. Please direct any comments to: [email protected].