A quantitative metric to identify critical elements within seafood supply networks

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Climate Change Biology
• Supply Chain Management

Background:

• Comparing wild fisheries and aquaculture supply chains under climate change requires a theoretical framework.
• Existing analyses often lack quantitative metrics for supply chain resilience and connectivity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a new quantitative metric, the Supply Chain Index (SCI), for comparing fisheries and aquaculture supply chains.
• To identify critical elements within supply chains to inform adaptation strategies against climate change.

Main Methods:

• Developed a quantitative metric (SCI) analogous to food-web indices.
• Applied the SCI to the Australian southern rock lobster (Jasus edwardsii) fishery as a case study.
• Validated the SCI's utility across four additional Australian fisheries and two aquaculture supply chains.

Main Results:

• The SCI identifies critical supply chain elements based on throughput and connectivity.
• Airports, processors, and Chinese consumers were identified as key elements in the rock lobster supply chain.
• The index revealed varying degrees of dependence on critical elements across different supply chains.

Conclusions:

• The SCI offers an objective method for assessing supply chain resilience and stability.
• Identifying critical elements aids in developing targeted adaptation strategies for climate change.
• The SCI facilitates cross-comparisons of supply chains under current and future climate scenarios.