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A quantitative metric to identify critical elements within seafood supply networks

journal contribution
posted on 2021-07-27, 03:57 authored by Eva E Plagányi, Ingrid Van Putten, Olivier Thébaud, Alistair J Hobday, James Innes, Lilly Lim-Camacho, Ana Norman-López, Rodrigo H Bustamante, Anna Farmery, Aysha Fleming, Stewart Frusher, Bridget Green, Eriko Hoshino, Sarah Jennings, Gretta Pecl, Sean Pascoe, Peggy Schrobback, Linda Thomas
A theoretical basis is required for comparing key features and critical elements in wild fisheries and aquaculture supply chains under a changing climate. Here we develop a new quantitative metric that is analogous to indices used to analyse food-webs and identify key species. The Supply Chain Index (SCI) identifies critical elements as those elements with large throughput rates, as well as greater connectivity. The sum of the scores for a supply chain provides a single metric that roughly captures both the resilience and connectedness of a supply chain. Standardised scores can facilitate cross-comparisons both under current conditions as well as under a changing climate. Identification of key elements along the supply chain may assist in informing adaptation strategies to reduce anticipated future risks posed by climate change. The SCI also provides information on the relative stability of different supply chains based on whether there is a fairly even spread in the individual scores of the top few key elements, compared with a more critical dependence on a few key individual supply chain elements. We use as a case study the Australian southern rock lobster Jasus edwardsii fishery, which is challenged by a number of climate change drivers such as impacts on recruitment and growth due to changes in large-scale and local oceanographic features. The SCI identifies airports, processors and Chinese consumers as the key elements in the lobster supply chain that merit attention to enhance stability and potentially enable growth. We also apply the index to an additional four real-world Australian commercial fishery and two aquaculture industry supply chains to highlight the utility of a systematic method for describing supply chains. Overall, our simple methodological approach to empirically-based supply chain research provides an objective method for comparing the resilience of supply chains and highlighting components that may be critical. © 2014 Plagányi et al.

Funding

Category 3 - Industry and Other Research Income

History

Volume

9

Issue

3

Start Page

1

End Page

15

Number of Pages

15

eISSN

1932-6203

ISSN

1932-6203

Location

United States

Publisher

Public Library of Science

Publisher License

CC BY

Additional Rights

CC BY 4.0

Language

eng

Peer Reviewed

  • Yes

Open Access

  • Yes

Acceptance Date

2014-02-15

External Author Affiliations

University of Tasmania; CSIRO; Queensland University of Technology

Era Eligible

  • Yes

Medium

Electronic-eCollection

Journal

PLoS ONE

Article Number

e91833