Standardized ecological indicators to assess aquatic food webs: The ECOIND software plug-in for Ecopath with Ecosim models

Ecological indicators are useful tools to analyse and communicate historical changes in ecosystems and plausible future scenarios while evaluating environmental status. Here we introduce a new plug-in to the Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) food web modelling approach, which is widely used to quantitatively describe aquatic ecosystems. The plug-in (ECOIND) calculates standardized ecological indicators. We describe the primary functionality of ECOIND and provide an example of its application in both static and temporal-spatial dynamic modelling, while we highlight several related features including a new taxonomy input database (species traits) and the ability to analyse input uncertainty on output results. ECOIND adds new capabilities to the widely used EwE food web modelling approach and enables broadening its applications into biodiversity and conservation-based frameworks to contribute to integrated ecosystem analyses. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Software and/or data availability Name of software Ecopath with Ecosim Developer Ecopath Research and Development Consortium Contact address Ecopath International Initiative Research Association, Barcelona, Spain Contact phone þ34.685.319.597 Contact email [email protected] Year first available 1991 (ECOIND plug has been released in July 2016, version 6.5.14040.0) Hardware required PC Software required Windows XP service pack 3 or newer, Microsoft.NET Framework 4 Full Profile Availability Public, Open Source (GPLv2), freely available from www.ecopath.org Program language Visual Basic.NET, C# Program size: 16 MB (basic installation) Website: http://www. ecopath.org itut de Ci encies del Mar 49, 08003, Barcelona, Spain.