The United Nations General Assembly calls for ecosystem restoration to be a primary intervention strategy used to counter the continued loss of natural habitats worldwide, while supporting human ...health and wellbeing globally. Restoration of coastal marine ecosystems is perceived by many to be expensive and prone to failure, in part explaining its low rates of implementation compared with terrestrial ecosystems. Yet, marine ecosystem restoration is a relatively new field, and we argue that assessments of its potential to answer this call should not rely on typical outcomes, but also to learn from successful outliers. Here, we review successful restoration efforts across a suite of metrics in coastal marine systems to highlight ‘bright spots’. We find that, similar to terrestrial systems, restoration interventions can be effective over large spatial expanses (1,000s–100,000s ha), persist for decades, rapidly expand in size, be cost-effective, and generate social and economic benefits. These bright spots clearly demonstrate restoration of coastal marine systems can be used as a nature-based solution to improve biodiversity and support human health and wellbeing. Examining coastal marine restoration through a historical lens shows that it has developed over a shorter period than restoration in terrestrial systems, partially explaining lower efficiencies. Given these bright spots and the relative immaturity of coastal marine ecosystem restoration, it is likely to advance rapidly over the coming decades and become a common intervention strategy that can reverse marine degradation, contribute to local economies, and improve human wellbeing at a scale relevant to addressing global threats.
Saunders et al. highlight ‘bright spots’ in coastal marine restoration, which show that these nature-based solutions can improve biodiversity and human wellbeing.
Marine protected areas (MPAs) form the cornerstone of marine conservation. Identifying which factors contribute to their success or failure is crucial considering the international conservation ...targets for 2020 and the limited funds generally available for marine conservation. We identified common factors of success and/or failure of MPA effectiveness using peer-reviewed publications and first-hand expert knowledge for 27 case studies around the world. We found that stakeholder engagement was considered as the most important factor affecting MPA success, and equally, its absence, was the most important factor driving failure. Conversely, while some factors were identified as critical for success, their absence was not considered as a driver of failure, and vice versa. This mismatch provided impetus for considering these factors more critically. Bearing in mind that most MPAs have multiple objectives, including non-biological, this highlights the need for the development and adoption of standardized effectiveness metrics, besides biological considerations, to measure factors contributing to the success or failure of MPAs to reach their objectives. Considering our conclusions, we suggest the development of specific protocols for the assessment of stakeholder engagement, the role of leadership, the capacity of enforcement and compliance with MPAs objectives. Moreover, factors defining the success and failure of MPAs should be assessed not only by technical experts and the relevant authorities, but also by other stakeholder groups whose compliance is critical for the successful functioning of an MPA. Combining these factors with appropriate ecological, social, and economic data should then be incorporated into adaptive management to improve MPA
Recent increases in the frequency of Extreme Climate Events (ECEs) such as heatwaves and floods have been attributed to climate change, and could have pronounced ecosystem and evolutionary impacts ...because they provide little opportunity for organisms to acclimate or adapt. Here we synthesize information on a series of ECEs in Australia from 2011-2017 that led to well-documented, abrupt and extensive mortality of key marine habitat-forming organisms – corals, kelps, seagrasses and mangroves – along nearly more than 45% of the continental coastline of Australia. Coral bleaching occurred across much of northern Australia due to marine heatwaves affecting different regions in 2011, 2013, 2016 and 2017, while seagrass was impacted by anomalously high rainfall events in 2011 on both east and west tropical coasts. A marine heatwave off western Australia during the 2011 La Niña extended into temperate and subtropical regions, causing widespread mortality of kelp forests and seagrass communities at their northern distribution limits. Mangrove forests experienced high mortality during the 2016 El Niño across coastal areas of northern and north-western Australia due to severe water stress driven by drought and anomalously low mean sea levels. This series of ECEs reflects a variety of different events – marine heatwaves, intense rainfall from tropical storms, and drought. Their repeated occurrence and wide extent are consistent with projections of increased frequency and intensity of ECEs, and have broad implications elsewhere because similar trends are predicted globally. The unprecedented and widespread nature of these ECE impacts has likely produced substantial ecosystem-wide repercussions. Predictions from ecosystem models suggest that the widespread mortality of habitat-forming taxa will have long-term and in some cases irreversible consequences, especially if they continue to become more frequent or severe. The abrupt ecological changes that are caused by ECEs could have greater long-term impacts than slower warming that leads to gradual reorganisation and possible evolution and adaptation. ECEs are an emerging threat to marine ecosystems, and will require better seasonal prediction and mitigation strategies.
1. Spatial management is used extensively in natural resource management to address sustainability and biodiversity issues, for example through declaration of terrestrial National Parks and marine ...protected areas (MPAs). 2. Spatial management is used also to optimize yields or protect key parts of the life cycle of species that are utilized (hunted, farmed or fished), for example through rotational harvesting. 3. To evaluate the effectiveness of marine spatial closures with conflicting fisheries and conservation objectives, a series of marine fisheries closures are here analysed using an integrative modelling tool known as management strategy evaluation (MSE). 4. This modelling framework combines a food web model of a tropical ecosystem fished by a prawn (shrimp) fishery that emulates the resource being managed, together with the present management system and risk-based tools of fishing the prawn species at maximum economic yield. 5. A series of spatial closures are designed and tested with the aim of investigating trade-offs among biodiversity (MPA), benthic impacts, ecosystem function, key species at risk to fishing, economic and sustainability objectives. 6. Synthesis and applications. This paper illustrates that existing tools often available in actively managed fisheries can be linked together into an effective management strategy evaluation framework. Spatial closures tended to succeed with respect to their specific design objective, but this benefit did not necessarily flow to other broad-scale objectives. This demonstrates that there is no single management tool which satisfies all objectives, and that a suite of management tools is needed.
A theoretical basis is required for comparing key features and critical elements in wild fisheries and aquaculture supply chains under a changing climate. Here we develop a new quantitative metric ...that is analogous to indices used to analyse food-webs and identify key species. The Supply Chain Index (SCI) identifies critical elements as those elements with large throughput rates, as well as greater connectivity. The sum of the scores for a supply chain provides a single metric that roughly captures both the resilience and connectedness of a supply chain. Standardised scores can facilitate cross-comparisons both under current conditions as well as under a changing climate. Identification of key elements along the supply chain may assist in informing adaptation strategies to reduce anticipated future risks posed by climate change. The SCI also provides information on the relative stability of different supply chains based on whether there is a fairly even spread in the individual scores of the top few key elements, compared with a more critical dependence on a few key individual supply chain elements. We use as a case study the Australian southern rock lobster Jasus edwardsii fishery, which is challenged by a number of climate change drivers such as impacts on recruitment and growth due to changes in large-scale and local oceanographic features. The SCI identifies airports, processors and Chinese consumers as the key elements in the lobster supply chain that merit attention to enhance stability and potentially enable growth. We also apply the index to an additional four real-world Australian commercial fishery and two aquaculture industry supply chains to highlight the utility of a systematic method for describing supply chains. Overall, our simple methodological approach to empirically-based supply chain research provides an objective method for comparing the resilience of supply chains and highlighting components that may be critical.
Despite frequent calls for Integrated Management (IM) of coastal and marine activities, there is no consensus on the ‘recipe’ for successful adoption and implementation, and there has been ...insufficient evaluation of successes and failures of IM to date. The primary rationale for IM is to overcome four major deficiencies of sector-based management: a) management of diverse activities by different agencies using different approaches, b) management generally focused on a subset of primarily ecological objectives that do not properly articulate or evaluate social, cultural, economic and institutional objectives, c) no mechanisms to evaluate or advise on trade-offs among objectives of activities in relation to objectives and d) no mechanisms to evaluate the cumulative effects of all managed activities. To help overcome this gap in knowledge, here we draw on our collective experiences working in Australia and Canada to develop and articulate a framework to help guide the practical implementation and evaluation of IM, which we define as: ‘An approach that links (integrates) planning, decision-making and management arrangements across sectors in a unified framework, to enable a more comprehensive view of sustainability and the consideration of cumulative effects and trade-offs.’
We argue that IM will be most easily and effectively achieved by linking and modifying existing sector-based plans in an overarching IM initiative that has nine key features: 1) Recognition of need for IM, 2) A shared vision by stakeholders and decision-makers for IM, 3) Appropriate legal and institutional frameworks for coordinated decision-making, 4) Sufficient and effective processes for stakeholder engagement and participation, 5) A common and comprehensive set of operational objectives, 6) Explicit consideration of trade-offs and cumulative impacts, 7) Flexibility to adapt to changing conditions, 8) Processes for ongoing review and refinement, and 9) Effective resourcing, capacity, leadership and tools. Drawing on these features we then articulate a process for the implementation and evaluation of IM that recognises five phases: i) Preconditions and drivers of change, ii) Intentional design and institutional rearrangement, iii) Enablers and disablers iv) An implemented IM process, and v) Review of IM performance and modification. Combination of the nine features of IM with the five phases in IM development provides a framework for implementation and a lens for evaluation of IM processes. We suggest that this framework provides a guide to the appropriate design of practical IM, which will assist in overcoming the current management deficiencies and improve the sustainability of marine resources in the face of change.
•Sector-based management cannot adequately address trade-offs and cumulative effects.•Integrated planning and management is required for holistic sustainability.•Integrated Management can build on existing management arrangements across sectors in a unified way.•This paper provides a ‘recipe’ or framework for successful implementation of Integrated Management.•Nine key features and five phases of implementation provide a lens for evaluation of Integrated Management.
Comparisons between historical and recent ecological datasets indicate that shallow reef habitats across the central Galapagos Archipelago underwent major transformation at the time of the severe ...1982/1983 El Niño warming event. Heavily grazed reefs with crustose coralline algae (‘urchin barrens’) replaced former macroalgal and coral habitats, resulting in large local and regional declines in biodiversity. Following recent threat assessment workshops, a total of five mammals, six birds, five reptiles, six fishes, one echinoderm, seven corals, six brown algae and nine red algae reported from coastal environments in Galapagos are now recognized as globally threatened. The 2008 International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List includes 43 of these species, while two additional species (Galapagos damsel Azurina eupalama and 24‐rayed sunstar Heliaster solaris) not seen for > 25 years also fulfil IUCN threatened species criteria. Two endemic species (Galapagos stringweed Bifurcaria galapagensis and the damselfish A. eupalama) are now regarded as probably extinct, while an additional six macroalgal species (Dictyota galapagensis, Spatoglossum schmittii, Desmarestia tropica, Phycodrina elegans, Gracilaria skottsbergii and Galaxaura barbata) and the seastar H. solaris are possibly extinct. The removal of large lobster and fish predators by artisanal fishing probably magnified impacts of the 1982/1983 El Niño through a cascade of indirect effects involving population expansion of grazing sea urchins. Marine protected areas with adequate enforcement are predicted to ameliorate but not eliminate ecosystem impacts caused by increasing thermal anomalies associated with El Niño and global climate change.
Modelling marine protected areas: insights and hurdles Fulton, Elizabeth A.; Bax, Nicholas J.; Bustamante, Rodrigo H. ...
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological sciences,
11/2015, Letnik:
370, Številka:
1681
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Models provide useful insights into conservation and resource management issues and solutions. Their use to date has highlighted conditions under which no-take marine protected areas (MPAs) may help ...us to achieve the goals of ecosystem-based management by reducing pressures, and where they might fail to achieve desired goals. For example, static reserve designs are unlikely to achieve desired objectives when applied to mobile species or when compromised by climate-related ecosystem restructuring and range shifts. Modelling tools allow planners to explore a range of options, such as basing MPAs on the presence of dynamic oceanic features, and to evaluate the potential future impacts of alternative interventions compared with 'no-action' counterfactuals, under a range of environmental and development scenarios. The modelling environment allows the analyst to test if indicators and management strategies are robust to uncertainties in how the ecosystem (and the broader human–ecosystem combination) operates, including the direct and indirect ecological effects of protection. Moreover, modelling results can be presented at multiple spatial and temporal scales, and relative to ecological, economic and social objectives. This helps to reveal potential 'surprises', such as regime shifts, trophic cascades and bottlenecks in human responses. Using illustrative examples, this paper briefly covers the history of the use of simulation models for evaluating MPA options, and discusses their utility and limitations for informing protected area management in the marine realm.
Governance has long been identified as a crucial part of solving environmental problems. Effective governance supports and encourages adaptive capacity to maintain or improve the conditions of ...socio-ecological systems. As coastal zones are among the most vulnerable systems to climate change impacts (e.g. sea-level rise), the adaptive capacity of coastal communities to climate change threats will be critical. Human populations will respond both directly and indirectly to these threats and impacts; for instance by adapting resource use and practices (e.g. changing fish targets). In this paper, we apply definitions of resilience, adaptive capacity and vulnerability to the coastal zone socio-ecological system. We focus on organizations and management aspects of governance in coastal Australia. Our approach combines a literature review that highlights key organizational drivers that supports adaptive capacity with interview data from senior resource managers from organizations from across Australia to test the validity of such drivers. The key drivers related to organizational and management issues that are required to build and strengthen the adaptive capacity of Australian coastal communities are: (a) Leadership; (b) Clear responsibilities and flexible organizational framework; (c) Effective integration of knowledge and insights; (d) Learning approach to natural resource management; and (e) Human capacity and coordinated participation in decision-making. Our study showed that natural resource management organizations are clearly concerned about future changes and uncertainties and recognize the need for cooperation and good organizational drivers. However, integration of knowledge and long-term planning to deal with predicted changes in climate is largely lacking; and mismatches between management, organizational and ecosystem boundaries and processes also exist.
•Five key organizational drivers are necessary to build adaptive capacity in Australia.•These drivers facilitate innovation and creativity; essential to respond adaptively.•Mismatches between management, organizational and ecosystem boundaries threat adaptation.
Abstract
Policy- and decision-makers require assessments of status and trends for marine species, habitats, and ecosystems to understand if human activities in the marine environment are sustainable, ...particularly in the face of global change. Central to many assessments are statistical and dynamical models of populations, communities, ecosystems, and their socioeconomic systems and management frameworks. The establishment of a national system that could facilitate the development of such model-based assessments has been identified as a priority for addressing management challenges for Australia’s marine environment. Given that most assessments require cross-scale information, individual models cannot capture all of the spatial, temporal, biological, and socioeconomic scales that are typically needed. Coupling or integrating models across scales and domains can expand the scope for developing comprehensive and internally consistent, system-level assessments, including higher-level feedbacks in social–ecological systems. In this article, we summarize: (i) integrated modelling for marine systems currently being undertaken in Australia, (ii) methods used for integration and comparison of models, and (iii) improvements to facilitate further integration, particularly with respect to standards and specifications. We consider future needs for integrated modelling of marine social–ecological systems in Australia and provide a set of recommendations for priority focus areas in the development of a national approach to integrated modelling. These recommendations draw on—and have broader relevance for—international efforts around integrated modelling to inform decision-making for marine systems.
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