Ecological Network Indicators of Ecosystem Status and Change in the Baltic Sea

Tomczak, Maciej; Heymans, Johanna J.; Yletyinen, Johanna; Niiranen, Susa; Otto, Saskia A.; Blenckner, Thorsten

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0075439

Cited by 71 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…Polovina 1984;Christensen & Pauly, 1992;Christensen & Walters, 2004;Walters and Martell 2004;Walters and Christensen 2007;Walters et al, 1997Walters et al, , 1999Walters et al, , 2000Christensen et al, 2011Christensen et al, , 2014Bevilacqua, Carvalho, Angelini, Steenbeek, & Christensen, In prep. 34 B SEA EwE Polovina 1984;Christensen & Pauly, 1992;Christensen & Walters, 2004;Walters and Martell 2004;Walters and Christensen 2007;Walters et al, 1997Walters et al, , 1999Walters et al, , 2000Tomczak et al, 2012Tomczak et al, , 2013. Polovina 1984;Christensen & Pauly, 1992;Christensen & Walters, 2004;Walters and Martell 2004;Walters and Christensen 2007;Walters et al, 1997Walters et al, , 1999Walters et al, , 2000Plagányi and Butterworth 2004;Mackinson, 2014;Mackinson & Daskalov, 2007;Mackinson, Deas, Beveridge, & Casey, 2009;Heymans, Mackinson, Sumaila, Dyck, & Little, 2011;ICES 2011;Romagnoni et al, 2015;Colléter et al, 2015. T A B L E 2 (Continued)…”

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confidence: 99%

Integrated ecological–economic fisheries models—Evaluation, review and challenges for implementation

et al. 2017

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Marine ecosystems evolve under many interconnected and area-specific pressures. To fulfil society's intensifying and diversifying needs while ensuring ecologically sustainable development, more effective marine spatial planning and broader-scope management of marine resources is necessary. Integrated ecological-economic fisheries models (IEEFMs) of marine systems are needed to evaluate impacts and sustainability of potential management actions and understand, and anticipate ecological, economic and social dynamics at a range of scales from local to national and regional. To make these models most effective, it is important to determine how model characteristics and methods of communicating results influence the model implementation, the nature of the advice that can be provided and the impact on decisions taken by managers. This article presents a global review and comparative evaluation of 35 IEEFMs applied to marine fisheries and marine ecosystem resources to identify the characteristics that determine their usefulness, effectiveness and implementation. The focus is on fully integrated models that allow for feedbacks between ecological and human processes although not all the models reviewed achieve that. Modellers must invest more time to make models user friendly and to participate in management fora where models and model results can be explained and discussed. Such involvement is beneficial to all parties, leading to improvement of models and more effective implementation of advice, but demands substantial resources which must be built into the governance process. It takes time to develop effective processes for using IEEFMs requiring a long-term commitment to integrating multidisciplinary modelling advice into management decision-making. K E Y W O R D Sbio-economic models, comparative model evaluation, fisheries management advice, integrated ecological-economic fisheries models, marine spatial planning and cross-sector management, performance criteria and scales and risks, use and acceptance and implementation and communication and flexibility and complexity | INTRODUCTIONThere is a growing need for tools to evaluate policies and assess tradeoffs in management of marine resources and provision of ecosystem services such as fishing, aquaculture, renewable energy, shipping, conservation and recreation (Cormier, Kannen, Elliott, & Hall, 2015;Degnbol & Wilson, 2008;EU 2014;Langlois, Fréon, Steyer, Delgenés, & Hélias, 2014;White et al., 2012). It is necessary to elaborate and apply common principles and broader, interdisciplinary management evaluation in the use of marine space involving several types of activities and sectors Soma et al., 2013;Stelzenmüller et al., 2013;Sundblad et al., 2014). Policymakers need to know the costs and benefits of conserving ecosystem goods and services to manage them sustainably. Moreover, according to an ecosystembased approach to management, specific pressures, associated uncertainties and risks need to be taken into account (Douvere, 2008;Ehler & Douvere, 2009;Gi...

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Integrated ecological–economic fisheries models—Evaluation, review and challenges for implementation

et al. 2017

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“…They can also be related to resilience (Christensen 1995, Heymans et al 2007, Lobry et al 2008) and they allow the detection of non-linear major changes (i.e. abrupt shifts) at the ecosystem level (Savenkoff et al 2007, Tomczak et al 2013.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reaction of an estuarine food web to disturbance: Lindeman’s perspective

Niquil¹,

Baeta²,

Marques³

et al. 2014

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Currently, a central demand of coastal and marine food web researchers is the search for holistic and functional ecosystem health indicators. Based on concepts directly derived from R. L. Lindeman's work (Lindeman 1942; Ecology 23:399-418), 6 estuarine food web models were analysed to assess the potential impact of multiple disturbances on the trophic state of food webs. The models described a Zostera noltii meadow and a bare sediment site in the Mondego estuary, Portugal, during 3 distinct time periods corresponding to (1) nutrient enrichment, (2) the implementation of mitigation measures, and (3) after a centenary flood. We tested 4 candidate metrics, directly derived from the trophic-dynamic concepts proposed by Lindeman (1942): food chain length, the detritivory/herbivory ratio, trophic efficiency per trophic level and mean trophic efficiency. Based on this case study, none of the metrics are yet ready to be used per se as operational metrics to quantify and interpret the impact of disturbances on the ecosystem's trophic state. Trophic efficiency appeared to be sensitive to external pressures. However, the mean trophic efficiency of the system might not be sufficient to draw conclusions about the trophic efficiency of the ecosystem: trophic efficiency should be observed at the trophic level in order to better understand cascading effects within food webs.

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“…For example, scientists have identified regime shifts in the Central Baltic (see Box 1) by applying PCA to environmental time-series data to determine key periods of ecosystem change, followed by STARS analysis to identify the threshold (Möllmann et al, 2009;Tomczak et al, 2013). Redundancy analysis is a similar approach that can account for non-linear relationships between drivers and ecological responses (Makarenkov and Legendre, 2002;Borcard et al, 2011).…”

Section: Methods and Tools In Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent syntheses show that non-linear responses are common (Burkett et al, 2005;Karr et al, 2015;Hunsicker et al, in press;Kappel et al, in review), and examples from around the world show that incorporating information about threshold behavior into resource management can facilitate improved management outcomes (Kelly et al, 2014). Major advances in threshold science provide new opportunities for practitioners to employ a wide range of methods to examine the dynamics of ecosystems before and after they cross thresholds (Wang et al, 2012;Kéfi et al, 2014), monitor ecosystem indicators that provide early warning of impending change (Samhouri et al, 2009;Tomczak et al, 2013), and uncover the mechanisms and drivers responsible for ecosystem shifts (Scheffer et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Ecological Thresholds to Inform Resource Management: Current Options and Future Possibilities

et al. 2015

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In the face of growing human impacts on ecosystems, scientists and managers recognize the need to better understand thresholds and non-linear dynamics in ecological systems to help set management targets. However, our understanding of the factors that drive threshold dynamics, and when and how rapidly thresholds will be crossed is currently limited in many systems. In spite of these limitations, there are approaches available to practitioners today-including ecosystem monitoring, statistical methods to identify thresholds and indicators, and threshold-based adaptive management-that can be used to help avoid reaching ecological thresholds or restore systems that have crossed them. We briefly review the current state of knowledge and then use real-world examples to demonstrate how resource managers can use available approaches to avoid crossing ecological thresholds. We also highlight new tools and indicators being developed that have the potential to enhance our ability to detect change, predict when a system is approaching an ecological threshold, or restore systems that have already crossed a tipping point.

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Ecological Network Indicators of Ecosystem Status and Change in the Baltic Sea

Cited by 71 publications

References 72 publications

Integrated ecological–economic fisheries models—Evaluation, review and challenges for implementation

Integrated ecological–economic fisheries models—Evaluation, review and challenges for implementation

Reaction of an estuarine food web to disturbance: Lindeman’s perspective

Using Ecological Thresholds to Inform Resource Management: Current Options and Future Possibilities

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