The book presents a collection of large-scale network-modeling studies on coastal systems in Latin America. It includes a novel description of the functioning of coastal complex ecosystems and also predicts how natural and human-made disturbances percolate through the networks. Coastal areas belong to the most populated ecosystems around the globe, and are massively influenced by human impacts such as shipping, mining, fisheries, tourism, pollution and human settlements. Even though many of these activities have facilitated socio-economic development, they have also caused a significant deterioration in natural populations, communities and ecosystems worldwide. Covering coastal marine ecosystems of Latin America such as the NE and SE Pacific, NW Atlantic and Caribbean areas, it discusses the construction of quantitative (Ecopath-Ecosim-Ecospace and Centrality of Node Sets) and semi-quantitative (Loop Analysis) multispecies trophic-network models to describe and assess the impacts of natural and human interventions like pelagic and benthic fishing as well as natural events such as El Niño, and La Niña. The book also features steady state (and/or near moving equilibrium) and dynamical models to support the management of exploited organisms, and applies and quantifies macroscopic indices, based on Ascendency (Ulanowicz) and Local Stability (Levins´ Loop Analysis). Further, it discusses the determination of the Keystone Species Complex Index, which is a holistic extension of the classical concept of Keystone Species (Paine), offering novel strategies for conservation monitoring and management.


Marco Ortiz Dr. rer. nat (PhD) is a Chilean marine biologist, born in Santiago in 1968. He holds a PhD in Quantitative and Qualitative Modeling of Ecological Complex Systems (2001) from the Centre for Marine Tropical Ecology (ZMT) at Bremen University, Germany, and pursued postdoctoral studies under Professor Richard Levins in Boston. USA. He is currently a Professor at Universidad Católica del Norte, Coquimbo, Chile. Dr. Ortiz has published and reviewed several scientific contributions in international journals. He had tutored undergraduate, Master and PhD thesis in Chile and Mexico, and focused his scientific interest on the integration of ecological and social variables within a complex and holistic context. Recently, Dr. Ortiz has developed a method for using the pre-image population analysis in exploited populations. He presents lectures on aquatic ecology, population dynamics, quantitative and qualitative modeling and management of ecological complex systems.

Ferenc Jordán (PhD) is a Hungarian biologist with a MSc in Biology (1996) and PhD in Genetics (1999), both from Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary. He was a Branco Weiss Fellow (at Collegium Budapest, Institute for Advanced Study (Budapest, Hungary); Group Leader at The Microsoft Research - COSBI (2008-2016, Trento, Italy), Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Germany (2016-2017), and has been an Associated Professor at Stazione Zoologica, Napoli, Italy since 2016. He is also a Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (DSc, 2009). The editor of several international scientific journals, he has multidisciplinary interests and is active in an extensive international collaboration network. His publications focus on gaining a better understanding various biological networks (habitat networks, food webs, protein interaction networks, social networks of animals, security-related networks). Recently Dr. Jordán has served as panelist for several grant agencies (e.g. European Research Council, Lithuanian Research Council, Polish National Science Center).