Report of the Study Group on Ecosystem and Multispecies Predictions (SGMPB)

1) explore, in more detail, available and presently formulated medium- to long-term multispecies prediction methodology, including a thorough testing of the 4M software package in this respect;2) develop, apply and validate different types of multispecies prediction models with sufficient, but not over-emphasised complexity, considering environmental processes affecting prey selection and total food intake, growth, maturation and egg production as well as subsequent recruitment success;3) evaluate the stability and suitability of biological reference points considering multispecies interactions, environmental processes and their spatial heterogeneity;4) explore the feasibility of introducing statistically based spatial multispecies frameworks in the Baltic, allowing modelling of migration rates in comparison to observations from tagging experiments.