The Barents Sea (BS) is a high-latitude shelf ecosystem with important fisheries, high and historically variable harvesting pressure, and ongoing high variability in climatic conditions. To quantify carbon flow pathways and assess if changes in harvesting intensity and climate variability have affected the BS ecosystem, we modeled the ecosystem for the period 1950–2013 using a highly trophically resolved mass-balanced food web model (Ecopath with Ecosim). Ecosim models were fitted to time series of biomasses and catches, and were forced by environmental variables and fisheries mortality. The effects on ecosystem dynamics by the drivers fishing mortality, primary production proxies related to open-water area and capelin-larvae mortality proxy, were evaluated. During the period 1970–1990, the ecosystem was in a phase of overexploitation with low top-predators’ biomasses and some trophic cascade effects and increases in prey stocks. Despite heavy exploitation of some groups, the basic ecosystem structure seems to have been preserved. After 1990, when the harvesting pressure was relaxed, most exploited boreal groups recovered with increased biomass, well-captured by the fitted Ecosim model. These biomass increases were likely driven by an increase in primary production resulting from warming and a decrease in ice-coverage. During the warm period that started about 1995, some unexploited Arctic groups decreased whereas krill and jellyfish groups increased. Only the latter trend was successfully predicted by the Ecosim model. The krill flow pathway was identified as especially important as it supplied both medium and high trophic level compartments, and this pathway became even more important after ca. 2000. The modeling results revealed complex interplay between fishery and variability of lower trophic level groups that differs between the boreal and arctic functional groups and has importance for ecosystem management.

巴伦支海 (BS) 是一个高纬度陆架生态系统，拥有重要的渔业、高且历史上可变的捕捞压力以及气候条件的持续高变率。为了量化碳流动路径并评估收获强度和气候变异的变化是否影响了 BS 生态系统，我们使用高度营养解析的质量平衡食物网模型（Ecopath with Ecosim）对 1950-2013 年期间的生态系统进行了建模。Ecosim 模型适用于生物量和捕获量的时间序列，并受环境变量和渔业死亡率的影响。评估了驱动因素捕捞死亡率、与开放水域相关的初级生产代理和毛鳞鱼幼鱼死亡率代理对生态系统动态的影响。在 1970 年至 1990 年期间，生态系统处于过度开发阶段，顶级捕食者的生物量较低，一些营养级联效应和猎物数量增加。尽管对一些群体进行了大量开发，但基本的生态系统结构似乎得到了保留。1990 年之后，当收获压力放松时，大多数开发的北方群体恢复了增加的生物量，并被拟合的 Ecosim 模型很好地捕获。这些生物量的增加可能是由变暖和冰盖减少导致初级生产增加所致。在 1995 年左右开始的温暖时期，一些未开发的北极种群减少​​，而磷虾和水母种群增加。Ecosim 模型仅成功预测了后一种趋势。磷虾流动途径被认为特别重要，因为它同时提供了中等和高营养级隔间，并且在大约 20 年之后这条途径变得更加重要。2000. 建模结果揭示了渔业与低营养级组变异之间复杂的相互作用，这些低营养级组在北方和北极功能组之间不同，对生态系统管理具有重要意义。