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Application of Fuzzy Graph Theory to Successional Analysis of a Multispecies Trawl Fishery
Author(s) -
Saila Saul B.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1992)121<0211:aofgtt>2.3.co;2
Subject(s) - ecological succession , fuzzy logic , graph , fuzzy set , graph theory , ecology , computer science , mathematics , biology , theoretical computer science , artificial intelligence , combinatorics
Fuzzy graph theory is applicable to any dynamical system where the values of all state variables are known for at least two points in time. This type of analysis is useful for detecting early trends in successional changes of assemblages of organisms. Seventeen successive years of research vessel trawl survey data from the Gulf of Thailand involving 38 species or species groups were amenable to this form of analysis. The compositional dynamics of the species were examined by using three fuzzy relations to describe succession from the same data set. Although fuzzy graphs resulting from these relations showed that successional trends depended somewhat upon the characteristics of the chosen relation, consistent succession to a relatively few short‐lived opportunistic species occurred. After the initial perturbation, the system was not strongly time‐varying and some prediction was possible from a short data set. This application of methods and algorithms of fuzzy graph theory to analysis of multispecies fishery dynamics suggests that preliminary interpretation of trends in such data can be made with them.