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Operationalizing ecosystem\u2010based management demands the ongoing development of indicators and ecological reference points, analogous to biological reference points of single species fisheries management. For such ecosystem\u2010level indicators to be useful in applied contexts, we must appropriately account for uncertainty. Here, we focused on advancing the utility of one specific indicator, relative ascendancy, by incorporating parameter uncertainty. Relative ascendancy quantifies the efficiency of biomass flow through a food web, and efficiency is thought to be inversely related to overall system resilience. We constructed mass balanced food web models of three neighboring regions within the Northeast US continental shelf using the open\u2010source Rpath framework. We incorporated parameter uncertainty into indicator calculations using the Ecosense simplified Bayesian synthesis routine, which allowed us to compare across model ensembles, rather than single parameterizations. Although our regions are adjacent and interconnected, and our models were parameterized using identical data sources, the inclusion of parameter uncertainty revealed meaningful differences in their ascendency properties. Upon further investigation, we linked overall system efficiency to whether its dominant trophic pathways are benthic, pelagic, or both. We present our uncertainty\u2010informed analyses in the hopes it will advance the utility of the relative ascendancy indicator and support ecosystem\u2010based management in the Northeast United States and beyond.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1002\/eap.70303","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]],"date-time":"2026-09-18T06:11:50Z","timestamp":1789711910000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Incorporating uncertainty reveals resilience and efficiency differences between three neighboring marine food webs"],"prefix":"10.1002","volume":"36","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4271-9534","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sarah J.","family":"Weisberg","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences Stony Brook University  Stony Brook New York USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6675-5500","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sean M.","family":"Lucey","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"NOAA Fisheries, Northeast Fisheries Science Center  Woods Hole Massachusetts USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Brandon","family":"Beltz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"IBSS in Support of NOAA Fisheries, Northeast Fisheries Science Center  Woods Hole Massachusetts USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Max","family":"Grezlik","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"IBSS in Support of NOAA Fisheries, Northeast Fisheries Science Center  Woods Hole Massachusetts USA"},{"name":"Department of Fisheries Oceanography, School for Marine Science and Technology University of Massachusetts Dartmouth  New Bedford Massachusetts USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sarah","family":"Gaichas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"NOAA Fisheries, Northeast Fisheries Science Center  Woods Hole Massachusetts USA"},{"name":"Hydra Scientific, LLC  Falmouth Massachusetts USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Michael","family":"Frisk","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences Stony Brook University  Stony Brook New York USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Janet A.","family":"Nye","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences University of North Carolina Chapel Hill  Chapel Hill North Carolina USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_9_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1890\/1540-9295(2006)4[525:MEMFCT]2.0.CO;2"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_3_1","unstructured":"Aydin K. 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