Incorporating ecological functioning into the designation and management of marine protected areas

Frid, Chris; Paramor, Odette; Bremner, Julie

doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-8808-7_7

Cited by 19 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Especially since incorporating a broader knowledge of species traits such as feeding, reproductive, mobility and behavioral ones, a part form the most often used body size, is relevant for understanding and measuring human impacts on benthic communities (e.g. trawling impacts or non-ingenious species invasions) and spatial patterns of benthic functional diversity [65,66]. …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coastal Habitats as Surrogates for Taxonomic, Functional and Trophic Structures of Benthic Faunal Communities

2013

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Due to human impact, there is extensive degradation and loss of marine habitats, which calls for measures that incorporate taxonomic as well as functional and trophic aspects of biodiversity. Since such data is less easily quantifiable in nature, the use of habitats as surrogates or proxies for biodiversity is on the rise in marine conservation and management. However, there is a critical gap in knowledge of whether pre-defined habitat units adequately represent the functional and trophic structure of communities. We also lack comparisons of different measures of community structure in terms of both between- (β) and within-habitat (α) variability when accounting for species densities. Thus, we evaluated a priori defined coastal habitats as surrogates for traditional taxonomic, functional and trophic zoobenthic community structure. We focused on four habitats (bare sand, canopy-forming algae, seagrass above- and belowground), all easily delineated in nature and defined through classification systems. We analyzed uni- and multivariate data on species and trait diversity as well as stable isotope ratios of benthic macrofauna. A good fit between habitat types and taxonomic and functional structure was found, although habitats were more similar functionally. This was attributed to within-habitat heterogeneity so when habitat divisions matched the taxonomic structure, only bare sand was functionally distinct. The pre-defined habitats did not meet the variability of trophic structure, which also proved to differentiate on a smaller spatial scale. The quantification of trophic structure using species density only identified an epi- and an infaunal unit. To summarize the results we present a conceptual model illustrating the match between pre-defined habitat types and the taxonomic, functional and trophic community structure. Our results show the importance of including functional and trophic aspects more comprehensively in marine management and spatial planning.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coastal Habitats as Surrogates for Taxonomic, Functional and Trophic Structures of Benthic Faunal Communities

2013

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“…The traits were deemed to be associated with ecological functions (Frid et al, 2008), and the ecological functions in turn were deemed to (Hussain et al, 2010). For example, ecological processes that contribute to sediment turnover are assumed to underpin organic matter breakdown and nutrient regeneration.…”

Section: Biological Traits and Ecosystem Functioningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is long-term ecological functioning stable: The case of the marine benthos?

Frid

Caswell

2015

Journal of Sea Research

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It is widely acknowledged that human activities are contributing to substantial biodiversity loss and that this threatens ecological processes underpinning human exploitation of 'ecosystem services' (defined by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment as 'the benefits people obtain from ecosystems'). In the present study we consider three 'intermediate ecosystem services' in both contemporary and ancient marine systems and although 'ecosystem services' per se did not exist in the Jurassic our study seeks to consider the future provision of these services and so the term is retained. We consider the temporal patterns in benthic marine ecosystems:(1) spanning four decades at two offshore stations in the North Sea, UK and (2) over millennial scales in Late Jurassic UK palaeocommunities. Biological traits analysis is used to link changes in taxonomic composition to variations in ecological functioning and the potential supply of three 'intermediate' ecosystem services: the ability to provide food to fish and other predators, benthic nutrient regeneration and carbon cycling. We examine whether changes in taxonomic composition drive temporal variation in functioning, whether this variation increases over time and the extent to which species turnover is comparable in contemporary and ancient systems. Taxonomic variability was of a similar magnitude in all three systems and there was evidence for changes in functioning linked to changes in several (key or rivet) taxa. During other periods resilience maintained functioning in the face of taxonomic change. These results suggest that in these benthic systems the Biodiversity-Ecosystem Functioning relationship is idiosyncratic, but a degree of temporal stability in functioning is maintained such that the ecosystem services they underpin would also be stable during decadal and longer-term changes.

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“…nutrient and water dynamics, and carbon balance) has gained consensus (Goldman et al 2008;Naidoo et al 2008). In fact, a growing number of legislative agreements, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, require specific management schemes that address the functioning of ecosystems (Frid et al 2008) to explicitly consider the ecological processes that maintain biodiversity (e.g. Rouget et al 2003) and the ecosystem services these processes provide (Armsworth et al 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(2) Despite the ''inclusive'' nature of conservation biology, conservationists typically do not receive the practical or theoretical training necessary to understand ecosystem processes, particularly those that are strongly related to the geophysical sciences. (3) Insufficient effort, especially for terrestrial ecosystems (in contrast see Frid et al 2008 for marine ecosystems), has been devoted to identifying specific conservation tasks where techniques that study ecosystem functioning are particularly useful and enable a clear connection with managers and decision makers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ecosystem functioning dimension in conservation: insights from remote sensing

et al. 2012

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An important goal of conservation biology is the maintenance of ecosystem processes. Incorporating quantitative measurements of ecosystem functions into conservation practice is important given that it provides not only proxies for biodiversity patterns, but also new tools and criteria for management. In the satellite era, the translation of spectral information into ecosystem functional variables expands and complements the more traditional use of satellite imagery in conservation biology. Remote sensing scientists have generated accurate techniques to quantify ecosystem processes and properties of key importance for conservation planning such as primary production, ecosystem carbon gains, surface temperature, albedo, evapotranspiration, and precipitation use efficiency; however, these techniques are still unfamiliar to conservation biologists. In this article, we identify specific fields where a remotely-sensed characterization of ecosystem functioning may aid conservation science and practice. Such fields include the management and monitoring of species and populations of conservation concern; the assessment of ecosystem representativeness and singularity; the use of protected areas as reference sites to assess global change effects; the implementation of monitoring and warning systems to guide adaptive management; the direct evaluation of supporting ecosystem services; and the planning and monitoring of ecological restorations. The approaches presented here illustrate feasible ways to incorporate the ecosystem functioning dimension into conservation through the use of satellite-derived information.

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Incorporating ecological functioning into the designation and management of marine protected areas

Cited by 19 publications

References 16 publications

Coastal Habitats as Surrogates for Taxonomic, Functional and Trophic Structures of Benthic Faunal Communities

Coastal Habitats as Surrogates for Taxonomic, Functional and Trophic Structures of Benthic Faunal Communities

Is long-term ecological functioning stable: The case of the marine benthos?

The ecosystem functioning dimension in conservation: insights from remote sensing

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