摘要: Models play a central role in Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) as a vehicle for synthesis and integration of physical, ecological, social, and economic data to inform management decisions. One of the chief challenges of EBM is the inherent difficulty of elucidating ecosystem dynamics and establishing threshold levels and reference points for management. This has made using management performance measures particularly challenging. Models are a way to handle these inherent challenges. As such modeling is an essential tool in understanding the dynamics of social-ecological systems, defining targets and limits for management, and testing and predicting the outcome of alternative management actions to meet these challenges. Models can also play a valuable role in education and outreach to stakeholders. Coping with uncertainty is a critical consideration in marine EBM. One form of management that is expressly intended for use when system state is uncertain is adaptive management (Walters, 1986). This form of management relies on feedback control mechanisms that use new information to adjust management settings or approaches. Successful EBM employs this evidence-based approach. Thus tools used in support of EBM must provide either information for setting targets or the ability to explore management constraints cognizant of uncertainty. While supplying such tools and defining forms of EBM that can deliver sounds like a daunting task, experience is showing that there are a wide range of useful EBM approaches