The provisioning of ecosystem services to society is increasingly under pressure from global change. Changing disturbance regimes are of particular concern in this context due to their high potential ...impact on ecosystem structure, function and composition. Resilience‐based stewardship is advocated to address these changes in ecosystem management, but its operational implementation has remained challenging. We review observed and expected changes in disturbance regimes and their potential impacts on provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting ecosystem services, concentrating on temperate and boreal forests. Subsequently, we focus on resilience as a powerful concept to quantify and address these changes and their impacts, and present an approach towards its operational application using established methods from disturbance ecology. We suggest using the range of variability concept – characterizing and bounding the long‐term behaviour of ecosystems – to locate and delineate the basins of attraction of a system. System recovery in relation to its range of variability can be used to measure resilience of ecosystems, allowing inferences on both engineering resilience (recovery rate) and monitoring for regime shifts (directionality of recovery trajectory). It is important to consider the dynamic nature of these properties in ecosystem analysis and management decision‐making, as both disturbance processes and mechanisms of resilience will be subject to changes in the future. Furthermore, because ecosystem services are at the interface between natural and human systems, the social dimension of resilience (social adaptive capacity and range of variability) requires consideration in responding to changing disturbance regimes in forests. Synthesis and applications. Based on examples from temperate and boreal forests we synthesize principles and pathways for fostering resilience to changing disturbance regimes in ecosystem management. We conclude that future work should focus on testing and implementing these pathways in different contexts to make ecosystem services provisioning more robust to changing disturbance regimes and advance our understanding of how to cope with change and uncertainty in ecosystem management.
Ocean Acidification National Research Council; Division on Earth and Life Studies; Ocean Studies Board ...
07/2010
eBook
Open access
The ocean has absorbed a significant portion of all human-made carbon dioxide emissions. This benefits human society by moderating the rate of climate change, but also causes unprecedented changes to ...ocean chemistry. Carbon dioxide taken up by the ocean decreases the pH of the water and leads to a suite of chemical changes collectively known as ocean acidification. The long term consequences of ocean acidification are not known, but are expected to result in changes to many ecosystems and the services they provide to society. Ocean Acidification: A National Strategy to Meet the Challenges of a Changing Ocean reviews the current state of knowledge, explores gaps in understanding, and identifies several key findings.
Like climate change, ocean acidification is a growing global problem that will intensify with continued CO2 emissions and has the potential to change marine ecosystems and affect benefits to society. The federal government has taken positive initial steps by developing a national ocean acidification program, but more information is needed to fully understand and address the threat that ocean acidification may pose to marine ecosystems and the services they provide. In addition, a global observation network of chemical and biological sensors is needed to monitor changes in ocean conditions attributable to acidification.
In recent years, geographic information systems (GIS) and their coastal applications have drawn increasing awareness globally, regionally, and locally. These systems are used to monitor, model, and ...predict coastal zone issues. New technologies, including advances in GIS platforms and techniques, are being adopted and innovatively applied to coastal environments and disasters, coastal resources, coastal social systems, and coastal urban environments using new algorithms, big data processing, and deep learning approaches. This book examines a variety of GIS applications, providing a comprehensive overview of techniques, approaches, and experiences in GIS for coastal zones.
The transdisciplinary research synthesised in this book represents an endeavour by a group of coastal researchers and policy analysts to learn from a cross-comparison of seven international case ...studies on tidal inlet or estuary mouth management situations, located in South Africa, Sri Lanka, California, Suriname, Ireland and the Netherlands. The conceptual framing is provided by a focus on systems knowledge and its development and use within coastal management This book is intended for: Transdisciplinary scholars who are interested in interdisciplinary learning and knowledge exchange, Policy analysts, environmental historians and coastal policy specialists who are interested in the role of science in the evolution of coastal policy and management, Coastal scientists and engineers interested in the dynamics of tidal inlets and estuary mouths, Coastal managers looking to learn about tidal inlet and mouth management practices Educators focussed on interdisciplinary skills or interested in using the case studies in coastal, management and engineering classes or as the basis for problem structuring exercises by policy students, and Students interested in coastal systems management and wanting to broaden their interdisciplinary competence.
This book provides a timely analysis of the role that information-particularly scientific information-plays in the policy-making and decision-making processes in coastal and ocean management. It ...includes contributions from global experts in marine environmental science, marine policy, fisheries, public policy and administration, resource management
In this paper, we reflect on the implications for science, policy and practice of the recently introduced concept of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), with a focus on the European context. First, we ...analyse NBS in relation to similar concepts, and reflect on its relationship to sustainability as an overarching framework. From this, we derive a set of questions to be addressed and propose a general framework for how these might be addressed in NBS projects by funders, researchers, policy-makers and practitioners. We conclude that:(1)NBS need to be developed and discussed in relation to existing concepts to clarify their added value;(2)When considering and implementing NBS, the ‘relabelling’ of related concepts and the misuse of the concept have to be prevented in order to avoid misunderstanding, duplication and unintended consequences;(3)NBS as currently framed by the European Commission provides an opportunity for: a) transdisciplinary research into the design and implementation of solutions based on nature; and b) overcoming a bias towards development alternatives with narrow perspectives that focus on short-term economic gains and effectiveness;(4)The strength of the NBS concept is its integrative, systemic approach which prevents it from becoming just another “green communication tool” that provides justification for a classical model of natural resource exploitation and management measures.
To realise their full potential, NBS must be developed by including the experience of all relevant stakeholders such that ‘solutions’ contribute to achieving all dimensions of sustainability. As NBS are developed, we must also moderate the expectations placed on them since the precedent provided by other initiatives whose aim was to manage nature sustainably demonstrates that we should not expect NBS to be cheap and easy, at least not in the short-term.
•Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) is a new term in environmental research and management.•NBS has connections to other concepts for managing and understanding ecosystems.•Existing experiences provide crucial insights on potential and pitfalls of NBS.•The multiple dimensions of sustainability provide a framework to plan and assess NBS.•NBS holds a potential for both stimulating and preventing economic developments.
► We provide the first complete review of the Adaptive Management (AM) literature. ► We use qualitative and quantitative approaches to gain new insights. ► There is large variation in both ...theoretical and applied definitions of AM. ► Less than 5% of articles claim to enact AM, and fewer claim ‘success’. ► Primary barriers to implementation relate to communication, not poor understanding.
Adaptive Management (AM) is widely considered to be the best available approach for managing biological systems in the presence of uncertainty. But AM has arguably only rarely succeeded in improving biodiversity outcomes. There is therefore an urgent need for reflection regarding how practitioners might overcome key problems hindering greater implementation of AM. In this paper, we present the first structured review of the AM literature that relates to biodiversity and ecosystem management, with the aim of quantifying how rare AM projects actually are. We also investigated whether AM practitioners in terrestrial and aquatic systems described the same problems; the degree of consistency in how the term ‘adaptive management’ was applied; the extent to which AM projects were sustained over time; and whether articles describing AM projects were more highly cited than comparable non-AM articles. We found that despite the large number of articles identified through the ISI web of knowledge (n=1336), only 61 articles (<5%) explicitly claimed to enact AM. These 61 articles cumulatively described 54 separate projects, but only 13 projects were supported by published monitoring data. The extent to which these 13 projects applied key aspects of the AM philosophy – such as referring to an underlying conceptual model, enacting ongoing monitoring, and comparing alternative management actions – varied enormously. Further, most AM projects were of short duration; terrestrial studies discussed biodiversity conservation significantly more frequently than aquatic studies; and empirical studies were no more highly cited than qualitative articles. Our review highlights that excessive use of the term ‘adaptive management’ is rife in the peer-reviewed literature. However, a small but increasing number of projects have been able to effectively apply AM to complex problems. We suggest that attempts to apply AM may be improved by: (1) Better collaboration between scientists and representatives from resource-extracting industries. (2) Better communication of the risks of not doing AM. (3) Ensuring AM projects “pass the test of management relevance”.
Quantifying how climate change drives drought is a priority to inform policy and adaptation planning. We show that the latest Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) simulations project ...coherent regional patterns in meteorological drought for two emissions scenarios to 2100. We find robust projected changes in seasonal drought duration and frequency (robust over >45% of the global land area), despite a lack of agreement across models in projected changes in mean precipitation (24% of the land area). Future drought changes are larger and more consistent in CMIP6 compared to CMIP5. We find regionalized increases and decreases in drought duration and frequency that are driven by changes in both precipitation mean and variability. Conversely, drought intensity increases over most regions but is not simulated well historically by the climate models. The more robust projections of meteorological drought compared to mean precipitation in CMIP6 provides significant new opportunities for water resource planning.
Plain Language Summary
Understanding how climate change affects droughts guides adaptation planning in agriculture, water security, and ecosystem management. Earlier climate projections have highlighted high uncertainty in future drought projections, hindering effective planning. We use the latest projections and find more robust projections of meteorological drought compared to mean precipitation. These more robust projections provide clearer direction for water resource planning and the identification of agricultural and natural ecosystems at risk.
Key Points
Quantifying meteorological droughts using changes in both the mean and variability of precipitation leads to more robust projections
CMIP6 projections show robust changes in the frequency and duration of seasonal meteorological drought over >45% of the global land area
Future drought changes are larger and more consistent in CMIP6 compared to CMIP5
Despite their limited spatial extent, freshwater ecosystems host remarkable biodiversity, including one-third of all vertebrate species. This biodiversity is declining dramatically: Globally, ...wetlands are vanishing three times faster than forests, and freshwater vertebrate populations have fallen more than twice as steeply as terrestrial or marine populations. Threats to freshwater biodiversity are well documented but coordinated action to reverse the decline is lacking. We present an Emergency Recovery Plan to bend the curve of freshwater biodiversity loss. Priority actions include accelerating implementation of environmental flows; improving water quality; protecting and restoring critical habitats; managing the exploitation of freshwater ecosystem resources, especially species and riverine aggregates; preventing and controlling nonnative species invasions; and safeguarding and restoring river connectivity. We recommend adjustments to targets and indicators for the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Sustainable Development Goals and roles for national and international state and nonstate actors.
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