What are the effects of shoreline work activities on temperate fish productivity?

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has a requirement to build on previous efforts to carry out systematic review to assess the effect of shoreline alternation project on fish productivity.

The objective of this contract is to take this project to completion. This will involve conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis that follows the standards established by the CEE on the effects of shoreline alteration projects on fish productivity, specifically addressing the primary question: Does shoreline alteration activities affect fish abundance, biomass, and diversity in temperate regions, and if so, to what extent?

Secondary questions to be addressed qualitatively in narrative review where possible, but quantitatively addressed with meta-analyses if data allows, may include: To what extent do factors such as ecosystem type, shoreline alteration type, and fish taxa, influence the effect of shoreline alteration activities on fish abundance, biomass, and diversity?

Criteria for assessment of the Statement of Capabilities (Minimum Essential Requirements) Any interested supplier must demonstrate by way of a statement of capabilities that it meets the following requirements:

Contractor must have a minimum of a PhD with a specialization in a relevant biological field (e.g., fisheries ecology and conservation physiology.)

Contractor must be knowledgeable of Fisheries and Oceans Canada Fish and Fish Habitat Protection Program and the application of the Fisheries Act (2019) to achieve program goals.

Familiarity (demonstrated with considerable experience in direct research, teaching and production of primary literature publications) with applied research, including publications related to human-induced changes to fish and fish habitat productivity.

Contractor must be trained (via participation in CEE workshops or via mentoring by a CEE team member) in conducting systematic reviews consistent with the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence (CEE) guidelines.

Contractor must demonstrate specific skills required to conduct a CEE systematic review including the:

(a) review of the relevant search strings (i.e., combinations of search terms using Boolean characters) through scoping exercises to ensure a comprehensive search was completed; (b) review of the set of inclusion criteria for screening articles at Title, Abstract and Full text stages including performing consistency checks and related inter-rater reliability statistics; (c) review and quality control of a database of independent records; (d) use of systematic review management software (e.g., EPPI-reviewer) and management of large databases that enables the transparent reporting of included and excluded articles; (e) study quality appraisal (i.e., assessments of their validity); (f) development and use of data extraction forms that are suited to collect the data needed for both descriptive and quantitative statistical analysis, and evidence synthesis.